On the Waterfront - the Thea Foss Waterway, Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma and the Foss Waterway (from the United States Environmental Protection Agency)

 Port of Tacoma from Standard and Chevron Roadmap, ca. 1947 (from History Link Essay 5150)

The Thea Foss Waterway, formerly the City Waterway, is an inlet that extends south from Commencement Bay. It separates downtown Tacoma (on the west) from the Port of Tacoma. The waterway is partly man-made.* In 1902, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredged an existing inlet to a width of 500 ft and extended it south, making it suitable for wheat freighters. The waterway is now named after Thea Foss, who founded the Foss Maritime Company on the inlet in 1889.

The Port of Tacoma had a long industrial and shipping history. As summarized by the Environmental Protection Agency:

Site History, Contamination and Remediation

The Thea Foss Waterway is the westernmost of five waterways that make up Commencement Bay’s industrial waterfront, and is located next to downtown Tacoma. Starting in the late 1800s, the area supported shipbuilding, oil refining, chemical manufacturing and other industries, as well as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Northern Pacific owned much of Commencement Bay’s south shore, and created the Thea Foss Waterway by damming one arm of the Puyallup River.

Over time, industrial activities contributed to the contamination of soil, groundwater and bay sediment with heavy metals, phthalates, petroleum-based products, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and pesticides. Stormwater also contributed to sediment contamination; much of Tacoma’s urban drainage pours into the Thea Foss Waterway.

In the early 1980s, Ecology identified sediment contamination in Commencement Bay and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studied the area. In 1983, EPA added the Commencement Bay Near Shore/Tide Flats site to the Superfund program’s National Priorities List (NPL); it was one of the program’s first sites. Encompassing 10 to 12 square miles of shallow water and land, and involving over a million cubic yards of contaminated sediments, it was also one of the program’s first mega-sites. The Thea Foss Waterway contains three of the enormous site’s eight contaminated sediment problem areas, which make up one of its four project areas.

During my previous life at the University of Washington, Tacoma was still a heavy industry city. When the wind blew from the south, "Aroma of Tacoma" reached all the way to the U District in Seattle. Yum.

The City of Tacoma coordinated with Tribes and bought abandoned properties along the shore, partly funded clean-up, and rebuilt shore protection. I never worked professionally on any marine sediments in Tacoma and know very little about this monumental clean-up effort. To a casual visitor today, the waterfront is quite inviting. But there is still industry and railroad infrastructure, so just my type of photographic subject matter. This time, we will look at the waterway and some of the adjacent area. (Click any picture to expand it and see details.)

Foss Waterway looking south towards the 11th Street bridge from the Foss Waterway Seaport (Tri-X film, Fuji GW690II camera with 90mm lens)

11th Street bridge view north from the Public Esplanade (T400CN film, Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter)

The 11th Street bridge, also known as the Murray Morgan Bridge, opened in 1913. In 2013, the City of Tacoma revitalized and restored this historic crossing of the Foss Waterway. 

Repair sheds, photograph looking east from 1199 Dock Street (T400CN film, Leica IIIC)

East 21st Street Bridge from Dock Street Extension (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera)

The handsome cable-stayed bridge opened in January of 1997. It dominates the skyline over the Foss Waterway. 

Downtown Tacoma and the south end of the Foss Waterway

East D Street, view north from East 11th Street overpass (Tri-X 400 film)

East 11 Street overpass

Holding on for the ride, East D Street

I set up my tripod and a locomotive trundled along down the middle of the street. I like interesting  places like this. 

Steel warehouses, East F Street (Tri-X film Guji GW690II camera)

Dear Readers, you know where this is going. I often ask this question. What to do after a day of wandering around the harbor and taking photographs?

Salmon BLT sandwich at Fish Peddler

Why, it is obvious. Drop in at Fish Peddler right on the Foss Waterway for a salmon bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Wash it down with a local IPA. I really like Tacoma...... 

The black and white photographs are from Kodak Panatomic-X or Tri-X film. I used my Texas Leica, the Fuji GW690II rangefinder camera. Its 90mm ƒ/3.5 5-element lens is superb, easily the equal of the Zeiss lenses for the Hasselblad camera. And this Fuji has a larger negative, resulting in an amazing amount of image data on each frame.  

Footnote

* This is another example of how many coastal features that we now see in the USA are partly man-made or were greatly modified by construction or alteration of the local and upland environment (such as dams on rivers). Many parts of our coasts are not "natural," especially near coastal inlets and urban areas. Even remote shores have changed because of dams on rivers trapping sediment.