Seattle Raises Half a Million in Hard Times for a Harbor and Canal Dream
A New York paper marvels that Seattle has secured a $500,000 subsidy for waterfront improvements and a canal linking Puget Sound with Lake Washington — most of the capital coming from St. Louis.
Seattle has again come to the front in the procession of enterprise and progress by raising, in these hard times, a subsidy of $500,000 for a great water-front improvement in its harbor, and for the construction of a canal connecting Puget Sound with adjacent Lake Washington. This great enterprise is to cost several million dollars, and most of the capital will be furnished by St. Louis. The Seattle spirit, which has been so active, has been wonderfully impressive in these latter days of business depression, and has achieved a notable victory by securing a great ship canal which will boom the city everywhere.
“The Seattle spirit, which has been so active, has been wonderfully impressive in these latter days of business depression.”
The Lake Washington Ship Canal would not be completed until 1917, but this 1895 booster item captures Seattle’s long habit of betting on huge infrastructure during downturns. The same civic impulse now shapes debates over light rail, waterfront parks and the ship canal’s future.
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