As congestion has increased but budgets to deal with the problem have not, many communities have tried to turn off land onto waterways for transportation and quality of life solutions.
Rather than start from scratch, these places might look to the Pacific Northwest and Southern British Columbia for guidance and inspiration.
An elaborate ferry system has long existed both locally – and between areas within the region. The State of Washington, in particular, is home to a number of public and private ferry systems, most notably the state-run Washington State Ferries.
Due to Washington's geography which features large, deep bodies of water with many peninsulas and islands, ferries are a convenient means of connecting communities in the region.
The Puget Sound mosquito fleet was the term to describe a multitude of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers over the years. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock. The historical period defining the beginning and end of the mosquito fleet is ambiguous, but the peak of activity occurred between the First and Second World Wars. Most were operated by private companies until later acquisitions by governments, beginning with the state's takeover of the Keller Ferry on the Columbia River in 1930.
These days, Washington State Ferries, owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), serves communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands. It is the largest fleet of passenger and automobile ferries in the United States and the third largest in the world.
In addition, many private ferries exist to serve residents of islands throughout Puget Sound and beyond into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. For example:
High-speed catamarans, geared to tourists, run from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia, and are operated by Victoria Clipper; Black Ball Transport operates the M/V Coho auto/passenger ferry between Port Angeles and Victoria; The M/V Charlie Wells crosses Case Inlet from the Key Peninsula (south of Vaughn, Washington) to Herron Island, a privately owned and operated island; Hat Express operates Thursday to Sunday between the Everett Marina and Gedney (Hat) Island Marina.
Passenger-only services include King County Water Taxi and Downtown Seattle from Downtown Seattle to Vashon Island and West Seattle; Kitsap Transit operates passenger-only ferries between Port Orchard and Bremerton, and Annapolis and Bremerton. It also operates Kitsap Fast Ferries from Seattle to Bremerton, Kingston, and Southworth; The small Jetty Island Ferry runs the short distance between the Everett Marina and the man made, unpopulated Jetty Island in the summer months for tourists; The Lady of the Lake ferry runs year-round from Chelan to Stehekin on Lake Chelan; Drayton Harbor Maritime operates MV Plover between Blaine and Semiahmoo Resort during summer months.
The Washington State Ferries (WSF), that operates a fleet of 21 vessels serving 9 routes and 20 destinations, carries goods, tourists, and people traveling to their jobs. Ferries are the single largest tourist attraction in Washington State.
The Washington State Ferries is the world’s third largest ferry system, measured by vehicles carried (11 million annually) or passengers carried (22 million annually), Washington State Ferries is the world’s #1 most-used ferry system.
A 1965 plan tried to replace our ferry system with a bridge system. It didn’t take.
Most interestingly, and significantly, most Washington State Ferry routes are legally part of the state highway system. If you don’t believe it, check Google maps! https://realestategals.com/washington-state-ferries/.
The ferries of the Pacific Northwest have never been treated as a marginal part of the local culture, as has been too often the case elsewhere. Rather, it is integral to the way of life.
There are lessons to be learned. Places that have traditionally turned their back to the water may find quality of life community solutions coming via the water and the boats that ply routes along the water.
Image: Wikipedia
The “ Distant & Exotic” Sounding Local Road along the Waterfront
It had such an exotic ring to it- the Alaskan Way. One could perceive it being the start of a long trek like than Pan American Highway or the Trans-Canada.
Fact was that the Alaskan Way was limited in duration in both space and time.
The Alaskan Way Viaduct was originally built to carry a section of U.S. Route 99, the main north–south highway in Washington and along the U.S. West Coast. The double-decked freeway ran north–south along the city's waterfront for 2.2 miles (3.5 km), east of Alaskan Way and Elliott Bay, and traveled between the West Seattle Freeway in SoDo and the Battery Street Tunnel in Belltown.
The highway previously used downtown streets, but rising automobile congestion in the 1920s sparked proposals for a limited-access bypass of Seattle. An elevated roadway, placed along the waterfront's Railroad Avenue (later renamed Alaskan Way), was recommended by several city engineers in the latter part of the decade. Plans for an elevated highway gained public support in the late 1930s and was approved for construction in 1947 using funds from the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944.
Construction on the viaduct began in February 1950 and was completed in stages between 1953 and 1959.
But over time, the viaduct came to be viewed as a barrier between downtown and the city's waterfront, with proposals to replace it as early as the 1960s. Questions of the structure's seismic vulnerability were raised after several earthquakes damaged similar freeways in other cities, including some with the same design as the viaduct. During the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the Alaskan Way Viaduct suffered minor damage but later inspections found it to be vulnerable to total collapse in the event of another major earthquake, necessitating its replacement.
The state and city governments considered several options, including a rebuilt elevated structure, a surface boulevard, and cut-and-cover tunnel, but could not compromise on a final choice. A deep-bored tunnel was selected in 2009 and the southern section of the viaduct was demolished in 2011 and replaced with a six-lane, single-deck freeway that travels through the SoDo industrial area. Excavation of the downtown bored tunnel by the tunnel boring machine "Bertha" began in 2013 and was completed in 2017 after two years of delays. The viaduct was closed permanently on January 11, 2019, and the new tunnel opened three weeks later on February 4. Demolition of the viaduct began weeks later, and was complete by late 2019.
Interestingly, there was ad is an Alaska Highway -
The Alaska Highway (French: Route de l'Alaska; also known as the Alaskan Highway, Alaska-Canadian Highway, or ALCAN Highway) was constructed during World War II to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942, it was about 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) long, but in 2012, it was only 2,232 km (1,387 mi). This is due to the realignments of the highway over the years, which has rerouted and straightened many sections. The highway opened to the public in 1948.Once legendary for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is now paved over its entire length.[2] Its component highways are British Columbia Highway 97, Yukon Highway 1, and Alaska Route 2.
An informal system of historic mileposts developed over the years to denote major stopping points. Delta Junction, at the end of the highway, makes reference to its location at "Historic Milepost 1422".[2] It is at this point that the Alaska Highway meets the Richardson Highway, which continues 155 km (96 mi) to the city of Fairbanks. This is often regarded, though unofficially, as the northwestern portion of the Alaska Highway, with Fairbanks at Historic Milepost 1520.[2] Mileposts on this stretch of highway are measured from the port of Valdez on Prince William Sound, rather than the Alaska Highway.
The Alaska Highway is popularly (but unofficially) considered part of the Pan-American Highway, which extends south (despite its discontinuity in Panama) to Argentina.
The concept of an overland route from one tip of the Americas to the other was originally proposed as a railroad. In 1884 the U.S. Congress passed a law with a plan to build an inter-American rail system.[5] This was discussed at the First Pan-American Conference in 1889; however, construction never started. It was abandoned in concept after the independence of Panama in 1903, when work on the canal began.
The concept of building a highway, rather than a railroad, emerged at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923, after the automobile and other vehicles had begun to replace railroads for both passenger and goods transportation. The first conference regarding construction of the highway occurred on October 5, 1925.
Finally, on July 29, 1937, in the latter years of the Great Depression, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Canada, and the United States signed the Convention on the Pan-American Highway, whereby they agreed to achieve speedy construction, by all adequate means. Thirteen years later, in 1950, Mexico became the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the highway.
No single route in the United States (except in Alaska) has been designated, much less marked, as the U.S. portion of the Pan-American Highway. However, I-25 is labeled as the Pan-American freeway in states such as New Mexico and Colorado.
That Pan-American Highway was routed through the states – but it is not clear whether it actually was intended to go through Seattle.
In 1966, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration designated the entire Interstate Highway System as part of the Pan-American Highway System, but this has not been expressed in any of the official interstate signage. Of the many freeways that make up this very comprehensive system, several are notable because of their mainly north–south orientation and their links to the main Mexican route and its spurs, as well as to key routes in Canada that link to the Alaska Highway.
One such route included the I-5 Route 99 combination that ran through Seattle
The city has demolished the old Alaskan Way Viaduct, that elevated freeway that separated the water from downtown Seattle and cast a shadow over the once-bustling area. Parking lots have been replaced by more green space, bike paths, and an easy way to get from Pike Place Market to the waterfront’s other classic attractions like the aquarium, Ferris wheel, and countless T-shirt shops.
There is a legacy for it all – mostly as a monument to grand, even if misguided, thinking. Its exotic name harkens back to when folks dreamed big. Realities, though, often felt short, Though the imagery spoke to a road through the frontier, in fact the Alaskan Way would not stretch much beyond the Seattle waterfront that it severed by its very presence.,
Ultimately, it became a symbol of a lot of what was wrong with American urban planning – similar to the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco (along the waterfront and ultimately demolished), it symbolized the elevation of car culture over that over people and the cities they inhabited.
Image: HistoryLink.org
The Legend of Ivers & Acres of Clams
A simple, full and accurate description of Ivar Haglund is inadequate on its face.
The likes of Wikipedia will describe him as” a Seattle folk singer, restaurateur and the founder of Ivar's”. But that is not even the start of it.
Perhaps a better starting point is a writing that described him as “Local legend” and “Falstian figure of fun (and clams)”.
Hagland was a legend for decades along the waterfront, on the airwaves and beyond. Though gone since 2005, his presence continues to be felt in ways large and small. He is an integral part of the local psyche.
Ivar Haglund opened Seattle's first aquarium in 1938 and his first "Acres of Clams" restaurant in 1946. He was an expert on Northwest folk music and could sing more than 200 songs from memory. During the early 1930s, he worked hard at developing his image as a Western folk singer and also became an expert and champion of Northwest folk music. His radio career was launched by luck in 1940, when Ivar answered an emergency call from interviewer Morrie Alhadeff to fill in for a guest who had canceled. Ivar went on the air and sang some of the shanties he had written and ascribed to the appropriate tanks in his aquarium. He soon became a regular featured singer on KJR, KIRO and later on the J.P. Patches show on KOMO-TV.
His story is one about ingenuity, creativity and hear. Its beginnings come from Ivar selling fish ‘n chips on Seattle's waterfront in 1938
But, Haglund was about much more than the food.
He was an expert on Northwest folk music and could sing more than 200 songs from memory. During the early 1930s, he worked hard at developing his image as a Western folk singer and also became an expert and champion of Northwest folk music. His radio career was launched by luck in 1940, when Ivar answered an emergency call from interviewer Morrie Alhadeff to fill in for a guest who had canceled. Ivar went on the air and sang some of the shanties he had written and ascribed to the appropriate tanks in his aquarium. He soon became a regular featured singer on KJR, KIRO and later on the J.P. Patches show on KOMO-TV.
So while Ivar is best remembered for his food, he is also highly regarded for his music – especially “Acres of Clams”, a song in the folk tradition with its own history.
And he is also remembered for his historical sense of humor, marketing genius, community work, and business sense.
More: http://folkmusicblog.com/the-songs-of-ivar-haglund
Also: A great article about a visit back to Seattle and a visit back in time through Ivar’s.
https://www.eater.com/2019/6/5/18642684/ivars-seafood-seattle-history
https://www.amazon.com/Ivar-Life-Times-Haglund/dp/0962125806
Image: Ivar’s
Little Known about Washington
Washington is known by most for its rain. It rains in the Pacific Northwest, and it rains a lot.
The reason gloomy weather is so common boils down to prevailing weather patterns and the unique terrain that makes this part of the world so gorgeous. This stretch of land between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, usually finds itself directly under the track of the jet stream. The jet stream is a fast-moving river of air that encircles the Northern Hemisphere right around the latitude of the U.S.-Canadian border.
The rain that does fall in Seattle and Portland, though, falls over a longer period of time. Between 1981 and 2010, both cities saw a little more than 150 days with measurable precipitation per year, compared to about 122 rainy days in New York City and just 115 in Mobile. This accounts for the Northwest’s reputation as the gloomiest part of the country—but makes for spectacularly green landscapes when the skies clear out.
At the same time, to the surprise of many there is another climatic extreme to be found in Washington elsewhere in the state.
In fact, Washington has several deserts, including the Yakima Valley, Eastern Washington Desert, and Columbia River Plateau. The terrain becomes desert east of the Cascade Mountains, and temperatures can exceed 100°F in these regions. Eastern Washington is a dry region with some desert environments, and receives little rainfall due to the Cascade Mountains' rain shadow. It also has hotter summers and colder winters than the western half of the state.
Image: Expedia
The Northwest’s Now Forgotten Sports Franchise
It was a short stay. Less than one year. Their story has become all too familiar in the business of sports – local fans being victimized by ambitious, greedy and tone deaf owners. All that remains are the stories, the memories and the hurt.
The Seattle Pilots were an American League team based in Seattle during the 1969 Major League Baseball season. During their single-season existence, the Pilots played their home games at Sick's Stadium and were a member of the West Division of Major League Baseball's American League. On April 1, 1970, the franchise moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and became the Milwaukee Brewers.
If time heals all wounds, not enough of it has passed to satisfy Seattle and its fans. As one article described it “The scars from 1970 might not be fresh, but the stitches are still showing”.
But before bridging that past to the present, let’s go back to the beginning.
Seattle had long been a hotbed for minor league baseball and was home to the Seattle Rainiers, one of the pillars of the Pacific Coast League (PCL). At the time, Seattle was the third-biggest metropolitan area on the West Coast. The then-Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) briefly considered a move to Seattle in 1964 but opted to stay in the city. In 1967, Charles Finley looked to move his Kansas City Athletics to Seattle, but ended up moving the Athletics to Oakland, California instead. There was no real competition from other professional teams at the time in the city. While Seattle had landed the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in 1967, the NBA was not as popular as baseball was at the time. The NFL would come to the city in 1976 with the addition of the expansion Seahawks, followed by the NHL in 2021 with the addition of the expansion Kraken.
Originally, Seattle was supposed to enter the league in 1971 but pressure from Missouri moved up the timetable.
The Kansas City A’s were leaving town for Oakland (Ironically the A’s are now leaving Oakland for “greener pastures” in Las Vegas). Officials in Kansas City were irate and would not accept the prospect of Kansas City having to wait three years for baseball to return there. The American League would not allow only one new team to enter the league, as the resulting odd number of teams would unbalance the schedule. That meant that Kansas City and Seattle had to be admitted together. The US Senator from Missouri got involve (Simington), and he danged the threat of removing Major League Baseball’s Anti-Trust exemption if the expansion was not moved up. So in came Kansas City and Seattle as expansion teams in 1969 to make up for the departure of the A’s to California.
The Seattle franchise chose its name: they’d be the Seattle Pilots. The same was inspired by Seattle’s long association with the airplane industry -- the Boeing Airplane Company had been founded in Seattle in 1916 and was booming in the jet age of the 1960s -- and because team owner Dewey Soriano was a part-time harbor pilot.
Dewey Soriano had played minor league ball and had been the president of the Pacific Coast League. Despite his baseball pedigree and his love for the game, his Pilots club was a profoundly undercapitalized operation. He ran the team along with his brother Max, who also had worked for the PCL. In order to add some liquidity and major league expertise to the operation they hired William Daley, the former owner of the Cleveland Indians, to help run the team and, more importantly, to put up a 47% financial stake in the team.
Today they say that the Pilots were probably doomed from the start. As a condition of getting the expansion franchise, the city had to agree to build a domed stadium within three years -- and a bond to that effect passed -- but the Pilots would begin play in old Sick’s Stadium, which had been the home to the PCL’s Seattle Rainers. The place held only 11,000 fans and could only be expanded by 6,000 more before the inaugural Pilots season began. Just before the inaugural Pilots season began the team’s general manager Marvin Milkes traded away the best player who ever had a claim to being a Pilot: Lou Piniella. Piniella would go on to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award for the Royals.
The Pilots began play on April 8, 1969 and beat the California Angels 4-3. Their home opener was April 11, and the Pilots won again, shutting out the Chicago White Sox, 7-0. The high point of the team’s entire existence had already been reached. Soriano and Daley quickly realized they had no way of making money given how inadequate Sick’s Stadium was for major league baseball, so they jacked up ticket and concession prices. That backfired, and attendance dropped quickly. The actual stadium facilities were terrible too. Players would take showers at their hotels or their homes after games due to low water pressure. If attendance reached 10,000 or more the toilets wouldn’t flush.
Most of what folks remember from the 1969 season, of course, comes courtesy of Jim Bouton’s essential “Ball Four.” That book gave baseball fans a look at a side of baseball that was previously unseen by anyone but the deepest insiders. In it Bouton wrote about the pranks, dirty jokes, and drunken womanizing rampant among baseball players, with special emphasis on the doings of Mickey Mantle and his former Yankees teammates. He talked about drug use — most notably the use of amphetamine or “greenies” — of players. He talked about fights between teammates and players and fights with management. He afforded particular detail on his disagreements with Pilots manager Joe Schultz and pitching coach Sal Maglie, casting both of them in less-than-glowing, but invariably humorous terms. He also talked about cheating in the game such as ball-scuffing and sign-stealing.
And multiple members of the 1969 Seattle Pilots were immortalized via Bouton’s portrayal of their eccentricities and foibles.
As the season wore on, the city and the team owners were openly feuding about where and when the new domed ballpark would be built. The Sorianos and Daley were losing money hand over fist due, in large part, to their mismanagement, but publicly they blamed the city. Late in the season Daley said in a press conference that “Seattle has one more year to prove itself.” That didn’t go over well at all, and attendance dropped even further. On October 2, 1969 the Pilots played their final games on a rainy evening before 5,473. The few there that night witnessed the Pilots lose 3-1 to the Oakland A’s. The Pilots finished the campaign 64-98.
The Sorianos and Daley looked to sell the team that offseason and, at first, a local businessman named Fred Danz, offering $10 million for the Pilots, seemed like a good candidate. A bank called a $4 million note the Sorianos and Daley owed, however, and Danz backed out. Another local group formed a non-profit corporation and made an offer, but the American League owners rejected it, thinking that letting a non-profit into the ownership ranks would be bad for their franchise values. Throughout this entire time a 35-year-old used car dealer from Milwaukee named Bud Selig was expressing interest in buying the Pilots. Selig was looking to get back into the baseball business four years after the Braves, of which he had been a minority owner, left for Atlanta, but Washington political figures tried to block Selig as they didn’t want the Pilots to leave Seattle.
When spring training began in February 1970, the Seattle Pilots were still the Seattle Pilots. The American League, realizing how untenable the situation was, finally agreed to approve the sale of the team to Selig, but the State of Washington got an injunction halting the sale. The Sorianos and Daley immediately filed for bankruptcy and a hearing was quickly held.
General Manager Milkes testified at the hearing that there was not enough money to pay the coaches, players, and office staff. Per league rules, if he couldn’t make payroll, the players would all be declared free agents and the team would cease to exist. As the hearing took place, The team’s equipment was sitting in trucks in Utah, with the drivers awaiting word on whether to drive to Seattle or Milwaukee. On April 1, 1970, six days before Opening Day 1970 -- the bankruptcy judge removed the injunction and cleared the way for the Pilots to move to Milwaukee. The truck drivers headed east and the Pilots immediately became the Milwaukee Brewers. The move came so close to Opening Day that the Brewers had to use Pilots uniforms with the new name hastily applied
There remained considerable acrimony after the Pilots left town. The City of Seattle was still legally on the hook to build a stadium -- and construction actually began -- but they had no team for it, so they sued the American League in an effort to recoup costs. The matter dragged on for several years but, eventually, the case was settled when the AL agreed to give Seattle another expansion team. This one, the Mariners, would begin play in the Kingdome in 1977. They’d end up lasting.
Today the Mariners are popular, playing in their ball park, a hybrid with an adjustable roof, a long cry from Sick’s Stadium. They have had some good clubs, and have flirted with a championship that remains elusive. They have had some great players, the likes of Griffey, Martinez, A-Rod, Randy Johnson, manager Lou Piniella and more. They have built quite a history and a loyal following. But if you take the time to ask the ever dwindling number old timers who can remember, they will tell you that it is nice to have the Mariners around (They have been there since 1977), but it remains the Pilots who are a first love, and, a bittersweet one at that.
More: https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/today-in-baseball-history-the-seattle-pilots-get-their-name
Image: Wikipedia
The Road to Bing Crosby’s Home Town
Bing Crosby was a child of the Pacific Northwest. Though born in Tacoma, he moved to Spokane at age 6 and called it home.
Almost half a century after his passing, Bing is remembered in his hometown at the The Bing Crosby House Museum. Located on the campus of Gonzaga University, the Bing Crosby Museum houses the largest collection of Bing memorabilia on the planet.
A lot of good stuff, and best of all it is free.
More, see this PBS feature: https://www.pbs.org/video/bing-crosby-house-museum-6hwth5/
Image: PBS
Media Imagery of Seattle from a Forgotten Example, circa 1968-1970
In the 1990’s , the movie Sleepless in Seattle provided a big boost to the visibility of the area. So too was the TV sitcom Frasier during that decade.
The same thing happened to a certain degree when a short-lived TV program made Seattle famous, if even for just a short time. Today both the program and the song are mostly forgotten
The program was called Here Come The Brides. It ran from September 25, 1968 to April 30, 1970 on ABC. It was loosely based on Asa Mercer's efforts in the 1860s to import marriageable women (the Mercer Girls) from the East Coast cities of the United States to Seattle, where there was a shortage. The show was inspired by the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Its theme song made Seattle famous for a bit. That theme song "Seattle" was composed by Hugo Montenegro with lyrics by Jack Keller and Ernie Sheldon. Both Perry Como and Bobby Sherman recorded slightly different variations of the song. Como's version, recorded for his album of the same name, scored a minor hit, reaching No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Sherman's version, although receiving some airplay, was never released as a single.
But once the song was a success, it was integrated into the program, and then ended up as an anthem of sorts for teenagers, especially fans of the then star Bobby Sherman.
Bobby Sherman is no longer a star – a teenage favorite as those teenagers are now Seniors. The program is long gone. But thanks to modern technology the songs are still accessible:
