Connecting the Lakes: Seattle's 1886 Tunnel Project
A new industrial contract promises to link Lake Union and Lake Washington, forever altering the local landscape to facilitate the region's burgeoning timber industry.
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.
Some time since F. H. Osgood, on behalf of the Washington Improvement Company, advertised for bids for driving a tunnel through the spit between Lake Union and Washington, and building a flume therein. In response to this advertisement, fourteen bids were received from various parties which were opened on January 26th and taken under consideration. Yesterday, Mr. Osgood notified Messrs. Simpson, Jordan & Murphy that the contract had been awarded to them on their bid. The work will consist of about 400 feet of open cut, a portion of which will be sixteen feet wide at the bottom; driving a tunnel seven feet wide and seven feet high a distance of eleven hundred feet; putting in a flume, necessary gates, and a bulkhead. All timbers cut to the dimensions required are ready to be put in place. The flume will be furnished to the contractor by the company at the landing. The bids for the work ranged from $5,300 to $12,000. The bid of the firm to whom the contract has been awarded ranges between $5,800 and $6,000. The work of driving the tunnel will commence shortly. The primary object of putting this tunnel between the lakes is to enable lumbermen along Sqaak Hill, the Renton and the Washington to run their logs to mill, but the company expects, in the future, to construct a big wide canal between the two lakes. This can be easily done, as the water of Lake Washington is four feet above Lake Union, and but a fraction of a mile distant.
“The primary object of putting this tunnel between the lakes is to enable lumbermen... to run their logs to mill, but the company expects, in the future, to construct a big wide canal between the two lakes.”
The project described was part of the early industrial transformation of the Montlake Cut area. While log flumes have long since vanished, the idea of engineering a canal between Lake Union and Lake Washington remains a central feature of Seattle's geography, albeit significantly expanded into the modern ship canal that connects these water bodies to the Puget Sound.
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