Seattle Breaks Ground on the Canal That Would Reshape Its Harbor
After more than fifty years of proposals, a former governor turns the first spadeful of earth on a waterway meant to join Lake Washington to Puget Sound.
SEATTLE, Nov. 1.—When former Governor John H. McGraw turned the first shovelful of earth at the portage between Lakes Union and Washington, near the south entrance to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, actual work on the ship canal that will make Lake Washington a part of the harbor of Seattle was started.
Construction has begun on the Lake Washington government canal, a project that means a great deal to Seattle and ocean shipping. The last session of the state legislature gave an appropriation of $250,000 from the surplus of the sale of the Lake Washington shore lands for the construction of a temporary canal.
The turning of the first shovelful of earth marks the passage of more than a half century since the waterway was first recommended to the United States government by Gen. George B. McClellan, who urged that Congress make an appropriation for the canal in order that the United States might secure the greatest strategic haven in the world for its war vessels. At that time there was no city of Seattle.
The project is of national importance, as it is part of the program embraced in the system of rivers and harbors improvements fostered by Congress. The federal government will bear a portion of the expense. The event was celebrated with suitable ceremonies.
“The turning of the first shovelful of earth in the construction of the canal marks the passage of more than a half century since the waterway was first recommended to the United States government.”
The Montlake Cut and the Lake Washington Ship Canal are now fixed features of Seattle's map, but this 1909 ceremony shows how long the project had waited and how it was financed—partly by converting public shorelands into cash. The same questions about public land, federal money, and who benefits from big infrastructure still shape civic fights.
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