On the Waterfront: Browns Point, Tacoma, Washington (Tac 06)

April 2004 view of Browns Point and cottages below Marine View Drive
(Hasselblad XPan camera, 45mm lens, Fuji Rala film)

Let us continue our quick September 2025 tour of Tacoma's waterfront. After exploring the commercial harbor on an overcast September day, I drove along Marine View Drive (Rte 509) to Browns Point. The bluffs rise steeply up from the road, but some new suburban developments have been carved into the hillside.

(Click any picture to enlarge details.)

Tank Farm vista and Double-brested cormorants, northeast Tacoma
(Kodak Panatomic-X film, 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, yellow filter)

I think I would not opt to live above a tank farm, but they do have a nice view to the west of the harbor and downtown Tacoma.

Trucking company, 1749 Rte 509 (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

Unknown chemical storage, 1749 Rte 509 (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

Chipping machine, 1748 Rte 509

The southern part of Marine View Drive is lines with industry and material handling companies. 

Further north, the bluff rises steeply to the east, but the narrow beach has some cottages and year-round housing. Former pullouts with a view of the bay are now blocked and signed with "No Parking Any Time." I assume this was to keep off the homeless RVs and cars. 

Beach cottage, Marine View Drive

Watch kitties on patrol (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

Hubcap heaven? Or just good stuff?

Cranes at Washington United Terminals from Marine View Drive
(250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, yellow filter)

I took these phots on Kodak Panatomic-X film with my Hasselblad 501CM camera and various lenses. Glazer's Camera in Seattle developed the film. I scanned it with a Minolta Scan Multi medium format film scanner. 

On the Waterfront: Port of Tacoma, Washington (Tac 05)

I like Tacoma more and more. There is so much interesting photographic material there. On an overcast day in September (2025), I drove to the Port of Tacoma with my Hasselblad and Kodak Panatomic-X film (yes, the real Panatomic-X). We will start with two photographs from the Foss Waterway and move east into the more industrial part of the port. 

Foss Waterway

Foss Waterway and East 21st Street Bridge and Tacoma Dome (Rolleiflex 3.5E Xenotar lens)

The Foss Waterway is the channel closest to downtown Tacoma. Because of its proximity to the city, most people only see this waterway, not the ones in the industrial port further east. There is less industrial activity on the Thea Foss now than 20 and 30 years ago, and marinas occupy some of the channel. More photos of the Foss Waterway are in my 2024 article.

Foss Waterway and Murray Morgan Memorial Bridge
(Kodak T400CN film, Leitz 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens, yellow filter) 

Port of Tacoma

Heavy lift cranes, Lower Turning Basin (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

Former boat yard launch rails, view looking northwest to Commencement Bay
(80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens, yellow filter)

Alexander Avenue E at E 11th Street
(250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, yellow filter)

Tank cars, Alexander Avenue E, view northwest
(250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, yellow filter)

Cranes from Lincoln Avenue (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

Landscape Bark Company, Lincoln Avenue (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

Landscape Bark Company, Lincoln Avenue (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

This company crushes and grinds a lot of bark. It was Sunday, so I could set up my tripod on the sidewalk in front of the property.

Standby for more Tacoma waterfront and industrial in the future.

Tech Note

This is my 1960s Carl Zeiss 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar-C lens. It compresses the view, as you see in some of the photographs above. This was one of my most amazing bargains: $87 for a magnificent piece of West German mechanical and optical engineering. This is a 1960s single-coated version with chrome barrel. It uses Bay 50 filters, which are inexpensive now compared to the Bay 60 filters that fit most of the newer Hasselblad lenses. 

Even the shutter on my bargain lens did not need an overhaul. The slowest speeds are probably a bit slow, but it barely affects exposures (i.e., 1 sec. may be 1.5 sec. - so what?). When using this lens, I always mount the camera on a tripod. With Panatomic-X film, the exposures are in the 1/4 or 1/2 sec. range.  

From the Archives: Good Stuff in Pass Manchac, Louisiana, 1997

Ai Statement 2026:

None of the photographs you will ever see here on Urban Decay are generated by or modified by Artificial Intelligence (Ai). They are the genuine image recorded somewhere on earth at some time. I clean lint and scratches manually on some film pictures using the heal tool in Photoshop CS5 and CS6, but the rest of the photographs are as recorded on film. Occasional digital photos are from cameras old enough to not have any embedded Ai software.. 

Dear Readers, you can trust that what you see is real (or was if the site has been demolished).

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Pass Manchac

Pass Manchac is the waterway (pass) between Lakes Ponchartrain and Mauripas in southern Louisiana. Many drivers zip over the pass on Interstate 55 without paying much attention. But locals in the know pull off into the little community of Manchac to eat at the famous Middendorf's restaurant. It has been in business since 1934, surviving hurricanes, floods, the Great Depression, and the interstate highway system. 

The rest of the unincorporated community consists of some interesting little stores and swamp tour companies.

Middendorf's serves the best fried flounder (whole fish with head) I have eaten anywhere. It oozes over the boundaries of a dinner plate. The catfish is also remarkably good.

Reno's Seafood: fresh shrimp, crabs, crawfish, and beer. I wish I had tried the boudin.

Local sign-making at its best. I miss south Louisiana. It is culturally and gastronomically so interesting.

I took most of these photographs in 1997 on Kodachrome 25 film with my Leica M3 camera and the 35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-RF lens. This was the spectacular 8-element model, which is now a coveted collectors item. The RF means this version was equipped with goggles to adjust the view in the viewfinder of the Leica M3 camera. Leica also sold a version without the goggles for their M2 and M4 cameras, which had a different viewfinder. 

I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner.

Leica M3 camera with 35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-RF lens

On the Waterfront: Harbor Days in Olympia (Oly 24)

Dear Readers, Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2026 is prosperous and healthy, and thank you for reading along.

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Olympia really likes its waterfront! Harbor Days is a three-day festival of boats, food, children's' activities, sunshine, and antique tugboat races. A good time is had by all. Here are some pictures from the 2024 festival.

Percival Landing, Olympia (Tri-X 400 film, Rolleiflex 3.5E camera)

WWII era tug Commanche (the large vessel)

The Comanche is a sturdy old World War II navy tug, launched in 1943. I want onboard before the start of Harbor Days and spent an hour listening to two former crewmen relate stories. She is owned by the Comanche 202 Foundation in Tacoma. I do not know how far around Puget Sound she travels. This old-timer needs a lot of maintenance and overhauling. When young, she was powerful enough to tow aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean.

Where is the concert? (Fuji X-E1 digital file)

Lego artists of budding marine engineers

The commercial part of the Port of Olympia offered short tours for the public. Normally, the Port is a restricted area, so a guided tour promised to be very interesting. It was! The Port of Olympia's most common cargo now is lumber. Huge logs come into town on 18-wheeler trucks. They are sorted and labeled at the port and then loaded onto freighters. Most go to Japan and Korea. Every log has a label indicating its quality. Rarely, a cattle freighter takes cows to Vietnam. 

Machine for unloading logs from trucks

Serious forklift

Shuttlewagon - runs on rails and pavement

I took these photographs with a Rolleiflex 3.5E camera with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens (5-element version) on Kodak Tri-X 400 film. I scanned the negatives with a Minolta Scan Multi film scanner operated by Silverfast software on a Windows 7 computer. I cleaned chemical blobs and dust with Photoshop CS6.