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| Title | Alaskan Way looking southwest from Pier 5, Seattle, 1934 |
| Photographer | Staff Photographer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| Date | 1934 |
| Caption | In the early 1930s, Seattle' Railroad Avenue was a treacherous waterfront thoroughfare perched above the tides on rotting pilings. The roadway was key to Seattle commerce because it connected wharves, warehouses and railroads. As the road deteriorated, it was harder and harder to move goods in the port. Competition between trains, trucks and automobiles could sometimes be fierce. A concrete sea wall, built in 1911-1916 protected the central business district from Washington to Madison Streets. In 1934, work began on the northern stretch of sea wall, between Madison and Broad Streets. Between 1934 and 1936, the newly-protected waterfront was filled in and paved as Alaskan Way.
This image shows a stretch of Railroad Avenue before it was rebuilt into Alaskan Way. The Arlington Dock, at the far right, is at the foot of University Street. |
| Notes | Signs on buildings in image read: Pier [5].
Northern Pacific.
Shepard Line, Intercoastal Service.
Arlington Dock Co.
Northland Transportation Co.
[Pier 4].
Signs on trucks in image include: Swift's Premium Ham and Bacon.
Eyres Transfer & Warehouse Co.
Horluck's fine ice cream.
Handwritten on negative: Trucks headed for docks to unload.
Handwritten on sleeve: SEATTLE, STREETS, Alaskan Way.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): August 16, 1934.
Caption information source: Paul Dorpat and Genevieve McCoy, Building Washington: A History of Washington State Public Works; Polk's Seattle City Directory, 1934. |
| Subjects | Marine terminals--Washington (State)--Seattle; Piers & wharves--Washington (State)--Seattle; Waterfronts--Washington (State)--Seattle; Vehicles--Washington (State)--Seattle; Shipping--Washington (State)--Seattle; Utility poles--Washington (State)--Seattle; Street railroad tracks--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Places | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital Collection | Museum of History & Industry Photograph Collection |
| Image Number | 1986.5.12201.1 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or to inquire about permissions contact photos@mohai.org or phone us at 206-324-1126. Please refer to the Image Number and provide a brief description of the photograph. |
| Credit Line | Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle; All Rights Reserved |
| Repository | Museum of History & Industry, Seattle (MOHAI) |
| Repository Collection | Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection |
| Type | Image |
| Physical Description | 1 nitrate negative: b&w; 4 x 5 in. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original negative as a 3000 pixel TIFF image in 8-bit grayscale, resized to 640 pixels in the longest dimension and compressed into JPEG format using Photoshop 6.0 and its JPEG quality measurement 3. |
