Dirt! Corruption! Sewers! Scandal!
These are the words used to sell Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour in Seattle, Washington. Sidewalks beneath sidewalks. A city on a city, sort of …
Here’s the story:
Though this iconic Washington city is known today as the site of the Space Needle and home of the Seahawks, Seattle had a rough start. It was built on a mud flat. The sewer system had to be built on seven-foot stilts, and needless to say, the daily high tide was also a period of incredible sewage blockage and backup. The rain was so intense there were giant chuck holes in the roads — a child even drowned in one — and the city was frequently underwater.
In 1889, a devastating fire destroyed a good portion of the city, which was a mixed blessing. No one likes a city-wide fire, but it did give Seattle the chance to rebuild the city properly, which it did by filling in the land and lifting it up to a more livable distance above sea level. Many businesses couldn’t wait until the city was rebuilt, however, so they reopened their stores in their original locations while the city raised the roads with retaining walls. When the roads were done, Seattle’s sidewalks were added at road level, thus burying a whole layer of the city underground, which was abandoned altogether in 1907 when rats and disease became rampant. Which takes us to …
