The Seattle-Shore Line Deadlock
A standoff between the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Oregon Improvement Company leaves the vital Shore Line trackage idle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The papers published in this city have contained articles from which it would be inferred that the blame for not operating the Puget Sound shore line road should rest with the Oregon Improvement Company, and not with the Northern Pacific. This is not the case. Any attempt to convey such an impression is an attempt to blind the people of Seattle to the true position which their city occupies. The failure to operate the road is due entirely to the Northern Pacific, and is but another exemplification of the malignant hostility which that company has so long borne toward Seattle. Throughout the negotiations for the reopening of the Shore Line, the Oregon Improvement Company has expressed a willingness to make all possible concessions, but has steadfastly supported the interests of Seattle. The sudden closing of the road was due to the fear of the Northern Pacific that shipments of hops from the valleys south of here would be diverted to Seattle. Since that time, the same policy of unfair discrimination has kept the road dead.
“The failure to operate the road is due entirely to the Northern Pacific, and is but another exemplification of the malignant hostility which that company has so long borne toward Seattle.”
This 1885 editorial captures Seattle's early, desperate struggle for rail connectivity, illustrating the city's long-standing reliance on—and vulnerability to—transcontinental monopolies that dictated regional economic growth.
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