A 28-Mile Dream Road Between Seattle and Tacoma

Bucoda, Jan. 10, 1895. To the Editor: The residents and property owners along the high land between Seattle and Tacoma, and between the White River valley and the Sound, are very enthusiastic over and anxious to aid in the inter-urban boulevard enterprise, a direct highway from Seattle to Tacoma, chartered and constructed by the state. A road starting from South Park and running direct to a point half a mile southeast of Stone's landing, passing through Sunnydale and Des Moines, and thence direct to the Eleventh Street bridge at Tacoma, would reduce the driving distance between the two cities to less than twenty-eight miles, while at present the distance via the best roads that exist is about fifty miles through the river valleys, where the roads are in bad condition during the larger part of the year. Such an improvement would not only be a permanent benefit to a large portion of the people of the state, but would be an immediate relief to the unemployed. While it is true that some canyons must be crossed, yet it is also a fact that the right-of-way will furnish the timber for all the bridges, and a portable sawmill will do the rest. The ground along the proposed route is well adapted for road bed purposes, it being all highland, excepting about two miles across the Puyallup reservation, well drained, and much of it natural cement, requiring no macadamizing. Petitions to the legislature asking for a charter and an appropriation should be universally signed in both cities, and the country will heartily supplement the movement. The building of this highway, 100 feet wide and of first-class construction, would develop better country than most people imagine exists in this region, and make the markets accessible without the aid of boats and pack horses. It would build homes where now is only wildwood. It would bring settlers to improve and make valuable the land that now lies in an unproductive state in the hands of speculators. It would increase the value of the real estate and bring in personal property, so that the tax therefrom would soon repay the cost of construction and be a paying investment to the state. It would induce an electric road to connect the two cities, and thus add to the taxable property of the state. It would not only be a highway for business, but also a driveway for pleasure, the only one in Western Washington of any length, and encourage the keeping of speed horses—more taxable property. It would make a first-class track for bicycles, and encourage that cheap, rapid, healthful and independent mode of transit. It would build an inter-urban string of towns all along the way, which would be the vital cord that would join the two metropolitan brothers, and make them in fact the Twin Cities of Puget Sound. W. F. Oliver.