The Wide View in Seattle (Hasselblad XPan 02)

Beer Bust, 14th Street, Seattle

Seattle is a beautiful city nestled between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, with stunning views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascades to the east. The city is hilly because of the glacial drumlins, remnants of the glaciers that covered this area during the ice age. 

In the late-1800s, Seattle was a bustling supply station for the Alaska gold miners. The famous (infamous) seamstresses, of which there were thousands, served the clothing and "other" needs of the miners and sailors. Seattle grew into a major timber, ship-building, and shipping city.

The economy grew, and during much of the 20th century, Seattle was a Boeing city, making many of the commercial aircraft used throughout the world. But in 1971, trouble came to Seattle. The US Senate and House of Representatives voted to cancel any further development of Boeing's supersonic transport, originally intended to be a competitor to the European Concorde. Boeing fired thousands of engineers and technicians. The city sank into depression. People joked how the last person out could turn off the lights. I recall that the downtown in the 1970s had the seedy look of an old American city, with tired buildings, dirt, and closed shops.  

When I returned to Seattle for a short assignment in 2004, the economy had turned around. Was this the same city? Seattle had become a tech Mecca, with Microsoft and numerous other computer and electronics firms in Bellevue, just across Lake Washington from the city. Traffic was snarled and dense, all day long. Glass office buildings filled downtown. Housing was expensive even on 2004 standards (and a purchase then would be considered an astonishing investment when you look at today's housing prices). New money parked their Ferraris and Porsche at their lakeside cottages. 

Here are a few photographs of Seattle that I took in 2004 with a Hasselblad XPan panoramic camera, using its 45mm lens. In the previous article, I described the remarkable XPan. Click any picture to see more detail.

Where did all those office towers come from? View south towards downtown Seattle. I-5 is on the left.

South Lake Union district with Space needle in the center

The 184 m-tall Space Needle is an icon for the city.  It was built for the Century 21 Exposition and has remained Seattle's most popular tourist attraction ever since. Elvis even made love (sang) to Joan O'Brien in the needle-top restaurant in "It Happened at the World's Fair" (1963). The movie was a real stinker, but the 1962 views of the Exposition are very interesting. 

The area in the foreground is south of Lake Union. During most of the 20th century, it was known for warehouses, industry, and manufacturing. Now it is trendy, with loft apartments, coffee shops, and condos. Why do I always miss these trends and fail to buy a warehouse or two?

Queen Anne Hill and Lake Union in 2004

If you are really rich (or lucky), you can live on Queen Anne Hill and see Puget Sound to the west, Seattle and the distant Mount Rainier to the south, and Lake Union to the east. It is a bit crowded, and house lots are squashed together, but there is a nice sense of community, with local stores and restaurants. In the early 1900s, a funicular streetcar ascended Queen Anne Avenue. In the photograph above, the snow-capped Olympic Mountains are in the far left of the scene.

Queen Anne Avenue without the funicular (2021 digital file)

Kerry Park, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle (2021 digital file)

Of course you would like to live on Queen Anne Hill if you had this view.

Lake Union, Seattle

Lake Union is a freshwater lake within the city of Seattle. In the mid-20th century, it was rimmed by industrial companies, shipyards, NOAA's ocean survey fleet, and some residences. Today it is a technology hub and trendy center for restaurants and clubs. On a warm afternoon, you will see kayakers, seaplanes, bicyclists, sail boats, and ducks - all having a good time. 

This ends our short look at Seattle. Make time to visit the Pacific Northwest, walk around Seattle, take photographs, eat fish, and drink craft beer.

Some day, I will scan my 1970s negatives of Seattle. Standby.

Railroad Town: Skykomish, Washington

Undated photograph, approx. 1920s, from Skykomishwa.gov

Skykomish, a historic railroad town, is on the first flat terrain west of Stevens Pass in the North Cascades in Washington State. The town had a raucous railroad and mining history. From Skykomishwa.gov:

Skykomish, known affectionately by railway employees, rail fans and it's citizens as "Sky" got its start in life from the Great Northern Railway. In 1889, James J. Hill (the Empire Builder) decided to extend his railroad from Montana all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Hill hired John F. Stevens, famed as the builder of the Panama Canal and his work with the China-Trans Siberian Railroad, to determine the exact route of the railroad.

After discovering Maria’s Pass in Montana Mr. Stevens continued west to Spokane and the Columbia River. Crossing the Cascade Mountain Range they settled on building the railway through the pass that now bears his name.

John Maloney was hired to help survey and design the railroad and was advised to develop a homestead seventeen miles east of Steven’s Pass, in an area called the “flat spot”.

Later, during the construction of the railroad in 1892, the soon to be town, was called “Maloney's Siding”. The depot was a boxcar sidetracked for this purpose. After completion of the railroad in 1893 a post office was established and the town became known as “Skykomish”. The town was platted in 1899 and it was incorporated on June 5, 1909. Mr. Maloney built a store to supply the needs of railroad men.

The town contained a roundhouse, shops, coal yard, and switching equipment. In 1927, the Great Northern started to use electric locomotives to pull the trains through the Stevens Pass tunnel. At first, I was perplexed why the railroad switched to electric. Maintaining electric pylons and overhead lines in the hahsh winter climate must have been a maintenance challenge. Then I read that the issue was ventilation and smoke in the tunnel. Railroad companies had learned that the fumes from coal locomotives could be deadly in tunnels, especially if the train was forced to stop. Eventually, ventilation was installed in the Stevens Pass tunnel and today, diesel locomotives provide the traction for goods trains. There are no electric pylons now.

Skykomish is quiet nowadays. Route 2 bypasses the town to the north across the South Fork of the Skykomish River. Most travelers rush past the turnoff. This the same US 2 that will take you to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and then, via another segment, to New Hampshire and Maine. I do not remember stopping in Skykomish in the 1970s when I lived in Washington.

 BNSF trains thunder through town, but the shops and depot are gone.

A young couple owns the historic Skykomish Hotel on East Railroad Avenue (click the link to read the long sordid history). The lady runs the Sky River Coffee shop, and the gent is repairing and overhauling the building with intent of opening vacation rentals. The hotel was formerly on the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation "Most Endangered Places" list.  

Many of the historic buildings in town have burned. This is the architectural fate in so many older towns throughout the country.

The 1922-vintage Cascadia Inn Cafe & Lounge is open for business. Railroad view and train noises.

This was our short tour of Skykomish. Stop the next time your drive though the north Cascades on US 2 and grab a coffee at the Sky River.

The photographs are from a Fuji X-E1 digital camera.

Food Overload: Farmer's Market, Olympia, Washington

Oh oh, no urban decay this time, just a quick view of real food at the Farmer's Market in Olympia, Washington. Long-term readers know I can't resist exploring markets. The one in Olympia is full of locally-sourced and fresh fruits and vegetables. Enjoy and salivate.

The fruits and berries are just superb, but you know this already.

The legumes and root vegetables are just as good and tasty as the fruits. I wonder if these excellent produce items partly account for the better health of Northwest residents (and lesser volume) compared to those of the US South? Or is it the other way around? Northwesterners demand better produce, and farmers supply it. 

Want a variety of peppers of different heat indices? Go for it.

Fruit preserves, hand-crafted soaps? Plenty to select.

You are expected to behave in a civilized manner here. It is a pity that at least a third of the population in USA now needs rules of common etiquette like this. 

After your shopping basket is groaning under the weight of fruits and veggies, stop at Batdorf & Bronson for a supreme espresso. Highway 61 Coffeehouse in Vicksburg sources its coffee from this company.

I have photographed other farmer's markets before. They are so much fun. Click a link to see:

• Asan Chowk, Kathmandu, Nepal
• Central Market, Athens, Greece
• Vrahati, Greece
• Arusha, Tanzania
• Galeria Alameda, Cali, Colombia
• Egyptian Market, Istanbul, Turkey
• Reading Terminal, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Realto Market, Venice, Italy
• Wan Chai, Hong Kong
• Thiri Mingalar, Rangoon, Burma
• Bo Kyoke, Rangoon, Burma

The Olympia scenes are digital files from a Fuji X-E1 digital camera.

On the Delta: the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Washington

When you visit Olympia, Washington, a great day's outing is to walk in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. 

"Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge is located where the freshwater of the Nisqually River meets the saltwater of south Puget Sound, creating the Nisqually River Delta. The delta is a biologically-rich and diverse area that supports a variety of habitats including the estuary, freshwater wetlands and riparian woodlands. It is considered the last unspoiled major estuary in Puget Sound. The Nisqually Delta has been designated as a National Natural Landmark because of its national significance as one of the best examples of this kind of coastal salt marsh system remaining in the North Pacific.

Nisqually Refuge is famous for the more than 275 migratory bird species that use the refuge for migration, wintering, or breeding. The refuge provides rearing and migration habitat for steelhead trout and several salmon species, and habitat for a variety of threatened and endangered species. The Black River Unit, southwest of Olympia, provides high quality habitat for Coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, migratory birds, and a diversity of other species." (from the US Fish and Wildlife Service).

The first European settlers came to the area in the 1830s. By the late 1830s, the economy began to shift from fur trading to farming and sheep-grazing. During the late-19th century, settlers throughout the Puget Sound area built dikes and drained river deltas. The soil in the former tidal marshland was rich and fertile, making excellent flat farmland. But as a consequence, estuarine habitats were lost, including much of the Nisqually River estuary.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is slowly removing some of the old dikes and allowing natural tidal flow to return to the creeks and channels. The photograph above, taken at low tide, shows pilings in one of the channels, possibly remains of weirs.

In 1904, a farmer, Alson Brown, and his wife bought 2,350 acres in the Nisqually delta. He built dikes and converted the fertile land to crop production and to chicken, hog, and cattle farming. After World War I, Brown went bankrupt, but subsequent owners raised the dikes and built the tall twin barns in 1932. This was during the Depression - how did they raise the funds?

The barns were damaged in the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake and have been closed since then. They are secured and in reasonably good condition, so the Fish and Wildlife Service has maintained them to some extent. On a sunny clear day, they are a nice photographic topic.

Let's briefly look at Olympia. 

 This is downtown Olympia from the west.

The state capitol was begun in 1890 but construction languished because of funding issues. The building was finally completed in 1928, during the easy-money years of the Roaring Twenties. At a height of 287 feet, the dome is said to be the fifth tallest masonry dome on earth, meaning a dome held up by its stone bearing walls without reinforcement.The US capitol in Washington is higher, at 302 ft, but it has a steel framework. The 2001 earthquake caused serious damage and required a $118 million renovation and internal reinforcement.

Trivia item: The Capitol has the largest collection of Tiffany lights in the world, some 438 units. Go see them. The chandelier above the rotunda weighs 10,000 lb and is suspended 50 feet above the floor. Serious lamp.

Washington State is a wonderful place to live if you like organic vegetables and fruits and locally-sourced ingredients (like Italy, Spain, or other civilized places with a real food culture). Apples and pears are local specialties. This photograph is from the farmers' market in downtown Olympia.

Camera notes: the square frames are from a Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera, with raw files processed in PhotoNinja software. A polarizing filter helped darken the sky on this amazingly clear and sunny February day. The long wide panoramic frames are from a Hasselblad XPan film camera (which was manufactured by Fuji). The XPan had a film opening of 72x24mm, or twice the width of a standard 35mm camera frame. A friend took me flying over the area in a cloth airplane of the type where you can swing open the window.

The Puget Sound Coast: Everett, Washington

Everett is an industrial city on east-central Puget Sound, about 40 km north of Seattle and 90 km south of Bellingham. Everett was first permanently inhabited by European descendants in 1861, when a Dennis Brigham built a cabin on the shore of Port Gardner Bay. Other settlers followed, and the city was platted in 1890 when the Everett Land Company was incorporated. By the end of 1892, Everett had a population of several thousand, and its four major businesses consisted of a nail works, a shipyard, a smelter, and a pulp and paper mill (O’Donnell and O’Donnell 2010). Everett was officially incorporated on May 4, 1893, the year when the Great Northern Railway reached town. The Port of Everett was established in 1918. It thrived during the 20th century, especially as a shipping point for wood and paper products. Today, it includes both deep-water commercial docks along with an extensive marina and Naval Station Everett, a homeport for a nuclear aircraft carrier task group.

1912 photograph of Everett waterfront (from NOAA archives).

Lumber has always played a major role in Everett’s commerce, as shown in a 1912 historical photograph. The photograph, from NOAA archives, has a label: "The Weyerhaeuser Lumber Mill, on the Waterfront at Everett". In: "Puget Sound and Western Washington Cities-Towns Scenery", by Robert A. Reid, Robert A. Reid Publisher, Seattle, 1912. P. 92.” This and the other waterfront mills were built on landfill west of the city and west of the railroad right-of-way. Gardner Bay was filled in stages early in the 20th century.

The lumber and paper industry experienced a major downturn in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of changing economics and more strict environmental rules (Riddle 2011). As a result, Everett’s waterfront is less heavily concentrated with heavy industry and now has a more diverse mixture of industry, international shipping, recreational boating, and the U.S. Navy.

1946 aerial photograph of Naval Station Puget Sound Everett Homeport (courtesy U.S. Navy)

Naval Station Everett, 2005 (courtesy U.S. Navy)

The U.S. Navy previously had a presence in Everett during World Wars I and II. During World War II, Naval Station Puget Sound Everett Homeport was located in the same basin as the present Naval Station Everett. The 1946 photograph above shows an aircraft carrier moored at a dock approximately at the present Pier Delta, and submarines are moored in the lower left.

In the 1946 photograph, the land on the upper left is Jetty Island. It consists of sand dredged from the harbor, which is brought down from the Cascades mountains by the Snohomish River. The large bulge of sand on the outer side of the jetty is the result of World-War II dredging of the naval base. The southern part of Jetty Island is narrower today. In the 2005 photograph, the sand from the south has moved north because of wave transport, and only the remnant of the 1890s jetty is visible.

Jetty Island began as a wood jetty constructed in the late 1800s. The original purpose was to enclose Everett’s waterfront and, by channeling Snohomish River water into the restricted basin, create a fresh-water port. Originally, the basin would have requires locks or gates. The benefit of the fresh-water basin was to rid wood-hulled sailing vessels of the naval shipworm (Teredo navalis). The fresh-water port never came to fruition, but the jetty sheltered Gardner Bay from wave action, and over time, sand dredged from the Bay was placed on the outward (west) side of the jetty, creating an island. At present, much of the sand dredged from the Port of Everett by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is placed on the island. The island is a valuable recreation resource in summer (a swimming beach) and a small sheltered bay is a habitat for juvenile salmon, waterfowl, and bald eagles.

Priest Point

Drive across the mouth of the Snohomish River on the I-5 or Rte 529 causeways, and you reach the Tulalip (pronounced Tuh’-lay-lup) Reservation. Proceed west and then south, and you get to Priest Point. Originally, this was a sand spit formed by sand transported from the glacial till bluffs in an eastward direction. The spit curved to the north and re-attached to the mainland. The small cottages on the spit have a classic beach look and could be in New England or Maryland. The Everett newspaper reported on a controversy regarding property leases. Many of the cottages are on land with 100-year leases. The Tribe has been unwilling to renew some of the leases, so people whose families owned some of the cottages for decades were forced to vacate. This also applies to other areas on the reservation, where expensive vacation homes (vacation McMansions?) were built on the bluffs overlooking Puget Sound.

Digital elevation model (DEM) of central Puget Sound physiography, with steep bluffs and deep-water channels (developed at University of Washington, courtesy of Washington Department of Ecology). Note the broad delta of the Snohomish River east of Everett.

Ebey Island, Snohomish River delta

Ebey Island, Snohomish River delta

Drive up the Snohomish to the flat alluvial valley east of Everett, and you reach farms and pastures. Most of this area was drained with the help of dikes over 100 years ago. Part of the area is the Snoqualmie Wildlife Area Ebey Island Unit.  The forested portion was logged in the 1890’s and has become reforested naturally into one of the few remaining sitka spruce swamps.

BNSF railroad, photograph taken at Howarth Park.  The Port of Everett is in the distance.

South of Everett, the coast consists of glacial till bluffs, extending as far as Seattle. The waters' edge has only limited access because the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad revetment hugs the shore.

In 1891, the Great Northern Railroad completed its line along the shore of Puget Sound between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. South of Everett, the rail bed was built on the upper beach at the base of the bluffs. Along much of the 53-km stretch between Seattle and Everett, a rock revetment was built to protect the tracks from storm waves. Much of the excellent stonework was performed by Chinese laborers, working under harsh and dangerous conditions (Huang 2006).

Howarth Park path to the railroad pedestrian overpass (November 2013).

BNSF railroad revetment (seawall) at Howarth Park

One of the few public beach access points is at Howarth Park, where a steel pedestrian bridge crosses the tracks. As you can see from the algae line, at high tide, the water is about 1 m up the revetment and the beach is totally underwater. Before the armoring provided by the railroad revetment, the bluffs would have supplied sediment to the beaches. Wave action would have moved beach sediment to the northeast. But this geomorphic process is now essentially stopped.

Former mass-wasting scarp, Howarth Park.

Retreat of coastal bluffs is a complex process driven by wave-induced toe erosion and hilltop mass-wasting. Wave erosion is episodic, driven by combinations of unusually severe storms and high tides or (or possibly during temporarily elevated sea levels during El Niño cycles) (Shipman 2004). Mass-wasting is typically triggered by heavy rainfall, elevated groundwater levels, and freeze-thaw cycles (which are usually a minor factor in Puget Sound). In some areas, animals (goats), trees, and man-made manipulation contribute to slope failures. In Puget Sound, bluff erosion typically occurs in pulses, where a bluff is stable for years or decades and then experiences a major landslide as a result of a major rain event or storm during high tide. Retreat rates vary greatly spatially, but typical rates for Puget Sound beaches are around 2.5 cm/year. The relatively low retreat rate may partly account for the narrow beaches in the Puget region. Bluff retreat rates vary greatly around the country. As an example of a high rate, glacial till bluff retreat on Lake Erie in western Pennsylvania during the 20^th century averaged 1 m/year (Morang, Mohr, and Forgette 2011).

In the photograph above, taken at Howarth Park, a former slide scarp is in the process of re-vegetating. The trees have grown straight, indicating that the slope has been stable for some years.

Although construction of revetments and bulkheads may effectively protect upland areas and infrastructure from wave attack, it does not fully prevent mass-wasting due to rain events. The railroad regularly needed to clear off debris from landslides over the last century. We assume most of the material was disposed on the beach, therefore at least partly restoring sediment supply. In addition, a revetment did not prevent continued retreat of the beach itself, with the result of a gradual narrowing of the remnant upper beach and loss of upper intertidal habitats (Shipman 2008; 2010).  Another effect of structures is to alter natural patterns of drainage to the beach because streams and runoff are concentrated in culverts and under bridges. The ecological effects of armoring may be especially profound because of the loss of nutrients to the coastal zone and loss of habitat associated with beaches

Mukilteo Point, view west, circa. 1910.  The Superior Shingle Co. mill was in the foreground and the Crown Lumber Mill in the background. (Photograph no. 200.201.036, courtesy of the Mukilteo Historical Society). 

BNSF Railroad revetment from Mukilteo Point (south of the ferry landing).

Another beach access is at Mukilteo Point, where the ferry boat crosses to Whidbey Island. The 1910 photograph demonstrates how active the lumber industry was in this area. Looking south, the railroad revetment continues south with a remnant of gravel beach in the foreground.

Snohomish County has proposed placing sand dredged from Everett harbor on the beaches along the BNSF revetment. Numerous logistic and regulatory problems would have to be overcome. Also, medium-coarse sand is not the native beach material on these beaches, which normally include a high percentage of gravel derived from the till bluffs. We do not know how a sand beach would respond over time. Unlike open ocean coasts, Puget Sound does not have swell waves to rebuild beaches when storm waves move sand offshore. Also, most beaches have a low-tide terrace, which abruptly drops off into deep water. Sand moved beyond the edge of the terrace would be lost from the littoral system. Prototype tests will be needed to assess whether beach nourishment using harbor sand is viable in this area. Potential beach placements will also have to be adapted to future sea level rise scenarios.

As you can see, man-made modification of the natural environment can have profound effects, often lingering for centuries.

For a much more comprehensive view of Puget Sound beaches and estuaries, see Hugh Shipman's blog, Gravel Beach. Department of Ecology has a web page on their Puget Sound Initiative. I thank my friends Hugh Shipman and Ashley Frey for their companionship and their help interpreting coastal morphology.

References

Huang, A (ed.). 2006.  Silent Spikes, Chinese Laborers and the Construction of North American Railroads. Translated by Zhang Juguo.  China Intercontinental Press, Beijing, China, 177 p.

Morang, A., Mohr, M.C., and Forgette, C.M.  2011.  Longshore sediment movement and supply along the United States shoreline of Lake Erie.  Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 619-635.

O’Donnell, L., and O’Donnell. J. 2010.  The Evolution of a Vibrant Everett Waterfront, A Story of Sawdust, Salmon & Speedboats.  Port of Everett, Everett, WA. (available online: http://www.portofeverett.com/docs/nmr_introduction.pdf , accessed October 28, 2013).

Riddle, M. 2011.  Port of Everett Commissioners approve the sale of land to the U.S. Navy for an aircraft carrier base on May 5, 1987.  HistoryLink.org Essay 9889 (available online, http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9889 , accessed November 1, 2013).

Shipman, H. 2004. Coastal Bluffs and Sea Cliffs on Puget Sound, Washington, In: Hampton, M.A., and Griggs, G.B. (eds.), Formation, Evolution, and Stability of Coastal Cliffs— Status and Trends, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1693, 81-94.

Shipman, H., 2008, A geomorphic classification of Puget Sound nearshore landforms. Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership Report 2008-01. Washington Sea Grant Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 37 p. (available online, http://www.pugetsoundnearshore.org/technical_papers/geomorphic_classification.pdf, accessed November 18, 2013)

Shipman, H.  2010.  The geomorphic setting of Puget Sound: Implications for shoreline erosion and the impacts of erosion control structures, In: Shipman, H., Dethier, M.N., Gelfenbaum, G., Fresh, K.L., and Dinicola, R.S. (eds.), Puget Sound Shorelines and the Impacts of Armoring—Proceedings of a State of the Science Workshop, May 2009. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5254, pp 19-34 (available online, http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5254/pdf/sir20105254_chap2.pdf, accessed November 18, 2013).