Topic: Infrastructure
Starting in the late 1880s and continuing for decades, the delta where the Puyallup River meets Commencement Bay was dredged and filled to serve the needs of shipping and industry. In 1908 the Milwauk...
The Montlake Bridge spanning the Montlake Cut in Seattle was completed in 1925, the last-built and easternmost of four double-leaf bascule bridges that carry vehicle and pedestrian traffic across the ...
The Montlake Cut, between the Montlake and University District neighborhoods in Seattle, connects Lake Washington and Lake Union as part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. When it was completed in 191...
When Mud Mountain Dam was completed in 1948, it was the highest rock- and earth-filled dam in the world. The dam was built to prevent massive flooding in South King County and North Pierce County, whi...
Municipal ownership or close regulation of essential utilities and urban services was a central tenet of the Progressive Movement from the late 1800s through much of the twentieth century. Beginning w...
Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Hood Canal was a vital ammunition depot from late in World War II to the end of the Vietnam War, and the segregation area was one of its key components. The Bangor depot wa...
The Northern Pacific Railroad played a pivotal role in the development of railroads in Seattle and in the Puget Sound region. The company's decision to locate its Western terminus in Tacoma rather tha...
The Northwest Power Pool is an organization of the region's major electrical utilities, tying together Northwest electrical systems for increased efficiency and reliability. In 1942, the federal gover...
In September 1953, Meter Reader Pat Maloney described one of his experiences recording Seattle City Light customers' electricity useage.
Seattle City Light's Boundary Dam on the Pend Orielle River, in Northeastern Washington near the Idaho border, today (2003) supplies half the hydroelectric power for Seattle (a quarter of Seattle's po...
The substation designed and built by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) near Pomeroy helped expand the spread of electricity to the far-flung residents of Garfield County in Southeast Washingto...
The Port of Longview is located in Cowlitz County on the Columbia River, 66 miles from the Pacific Ocean in southwest Washington state. It is the first full-service port with strategic intermodal con...
The creation of the Port of Seattle on September 5, 1911, was the culmination of a long struggle for control of Seattle's waterfront and harbor, a struggle whose roots stretched all the way back to th...
The Port of Tacoma is a public municipal corporation governed by five elected Port Commissioners. Pierce County voters created the Port in 1918 after the 1911 state legislature authorized publicly own...
The Port of Tacoma is a publicly owned and managed port district established by Pierce County voters in 1918. Today it is a leading container port, serving as a "Pacific Gateway" for trade between Asi...
Washington has 75 public port districts, more than any other state. Each is an independent government body, run by commissioners elected by local voters. They operate major marine terminals and small ...
Washington's public port districts play a critical role in the state's economy by stimulating business development and job creation that private companies cannot or do not undertake on their own. Run ...
The Puyallup Avenue Bridge that crosses the Puyallup River and links Tacoma to the small city of Fife to its east was opened in 1927 as one of the last Washington segments of the famous Pacific Highwa...
The history of railroading in Seattle closely parallels the city's development and early hopes for its future. Like communication networks today, railroading in the nineteenth century represented more...
The history of railroad stations in Seattle reflects comprehensive changes in the overall architectural character of the city. Railroad development closely paralleled Seattle's urban development. It i...
This is a reminiscence of trains and the railroad in Seattle during the 1920s and 1930s, and during World War II. It is by Warren Wing (1918-2011), historian, author of To Seattle by Trolley (1988), a...
Sandy A. Moss, a diesel engineer, was born in Topeka, Kansas, and was brought by his parents to Seattle in June 1900. As a black child growing up in Seattle during the early years of the twentieth cen...
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or Sea-Tac as it commonly called, was developed as a direct response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Military needs limited civilian a...
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport experienced dramatic growth between 1950 and 1970 as a result of new aircraft technologies, the increasing popularity and affordability of air travel, and the Puge...