Who Owns the Water's Edge?

The land below high-water mark is held under public waters and a public highway, and cannot be the object of exclusive private appropriation, only by lease by law. The man who owns the land adjoining a highway by water has the right to build a wharf and extend it for his convenience so long as he does not interfere with the public right of passage. But if any person were to build or place any obstruction in front of his premises without competent authority, it would be a public and private nuisance. If alluvial formations occur or the waters recede, the new formation ceases to be tide land and becomes an accretion, a portion of the upland, and the fee and title of the upland attach. We find persons in the city of Seattle engaged in driving piles and erecting structures into the deep, navigable waters of the bay beyond low tide for their own personal use and benefit, and the city council are attempting to dedicate streets and alleys over and across the deep navigable waters of the bay without authority, for the purpose of cutting off the right of access of the bank owners to the sea, that the nuisance builders may get control and monopolize the water front.