Seattle: 1900-1920 -From Boomtown, Through Urban Turbulence ...

Seattle at the Turn of the CenturyAs though by design, small local railroads complemented this waterbornecommerce with the hinterland. Coal, carried by rail to Seattle from the Green River,Newcastle, and Issaquah coalfields, constituted the city’s second largest export before theturn of the century. Coal bunkers of the Oregon Improvement Company and the NorthernPacific snaked into Elliott Bay via Railroad Avenue. The coal was then shipped mainly toCalifornia.Gold discoveries in Alaska simply stimulated the city’s merchants to expandexisting operations. According to John Rosene, head of the Northwest CommercialCompany in Alaska, Seattle interests controlled ninety percent of the ships involved inthe Alaska trade after 1905. By 1912 salmon would displace gold as the foundation of theAlaska trade. Canned salmon from Alaska and from Puget Sound, raw silk from Japan, andlumber from Sound mills provided the Great Northern with commodities that were boundfor midwestern and eastern markets. The GN already had plenty of freight to supply Asiaand Alaska: heavy machinery, hardware, cotton, grain, general merchandise, and cannerysupplies chief among them.When extending his railroad to Seattle, Hill had trade with Asia foremost in mind.Between 1895 and 1896, commerce with Japan had doubled. It then tripled the next year.Between 1895 and 1900, the city’s waterborne commerce had expanded eightfold. Theyear 1901 saw the Asian trade double as both the Nippon Yushen Kaisha Line (whichhad been handling GN cargo since 1896) and Hamburg’s Kosmos Line expanded serviceand the China Mutual Line entered the market. In 1905 Hill contributed the “two largestcargo carriers afloat,” the SS Minnesota and SS Dakota, which carried cargo to and fromYokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Manila (trade with Manila stemmed from U.S.seizure of the Philippines from Spain in 1898). Other lines were steadily added to portoperations in Seattle. By 1920 about thirty shipping companies sailed regularly from ElliottBay.In 1908 the pioneerColman family extendedits formerly modest dockto 705 feet and topped itwith a landmark tower intime for the “MosquitoFleet” buzz of 1909. Itwas the year of thecity’s Alaska YukonPacific Exposition andElliott Bay was crowdedwith excursions. In thisportrait of the youngwharf a full flotilla ofsteamers lines its northslip. On the outsideCourtesy, Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. #5011-17is the City of Everettreminding us with abanner to “Stop Over in Everett.” One of the larger steamers on the Sound, the Indianapolis, is on the right. Itserved the route between Seattle and Tacoma, the busiest on Puget Sound. In the booming spirit of 1909 the “Cityof Destiny” on Commencement Bay promised with signs of many sizes posted on sites along the busy east shoreof Puget Sound, “You’ll Like Tacoma.”