You can’t talk about the history of any city without talking about the importance of transportation. It’s no different in Seattle, specifically in their history of the railroads. In 1873, Seattle was set to be the terminus for the North Pacific Railroads transcontinental railroad. “Arthur Denny…read a telegram from Northern Pacific Railroad executives…announcing the railroad's decision on where to locate the terminus.” (MacIntosh and Wilma 1999) The railroad ended up picking Tacoma instead. Seattleites were understandably outraged as that would be a major loss of economic potential. Seattle set out to make their own railway, called Seattle and Walla-Walla Railroad. As one can guess it was a railroad with the idea of reaching from Seattle to Walla-Walla. It only made it to modern day Newcastle which is between Bellevue and Renton and was home to an abundance of coal. Which was a cheap and essential form of fuel for industry and transportation for the time. The line stretched to Elliott Bay. The trip from the coal mines in Newcastle to the Elliott bay ports only took a few hours. With the access to ports they were able to ship it to San Francisco who had no reserves of their own to supply the demand in their large city. (Williams 71) This rail line helped Seattle become a power house on the west coast. Railroads at the time were bought and sold often so it can be tricky to tell exactly where each one ended up in the end. Seattle and Walla-Walla Railroad were swallowed by the North Pacific Railroad in 1880. Bad blood can be forgiven when money is involved.

In 1885, Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman with a handful of investors formed yet another railroad. The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway. It finally breached the Cascade Mountains, connecting Eastern and Western Washington. This rail line also passed right along the waterfront. Some of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern railroad inactive tracks still exist today along Alaskan Way. This block has part of the line directly in front of the Marriott Hotel. This rail line opened Seattle's commerce across the state.

It wouldn't be until 1893 that Seattle would finally achieve its goal of a transcontinental railroad. Thanks largely to Thomas Burke and his association with the Great Northern Railroad president James J. Hill. The Great Northern Railroad stretches from St. Paul Minnesota to Seattle Washington. This also helped grow the economy; bringing more people and trade to the city. (Rochester 1999)

By the 1900’s the waterfront was a booming industry thanks in large to the railroads. “By 1905, the trestle system that supported the train tracks on Railroad Avenue was so well integrated that it looked like a road on land.” (Williams 88) The ground underneath however was not filled in so there were lots of instances of people falling through the makeshift ground. The city used to fill the underneath part with garbage, waste and random scraps, so it’s safe to say that the under part of railroad avenue was not a good place to fall into. It won’t be until the mid-1930’s until that health and environmental issue will be taken care of. The seawall section in the Post-1930’s has more information about that undertaking.

It’s important to understand how the railroads came to be because it sheds light on how this form of transportation shaped Seattle. It grew their economy, shed light on the idea of how the people of the time viewed ecological issues, and showed how industry is shaped by transportation. And this block just happened to be right in the middle of the boom.