Part 16 (1/2)
[Sidenote: Railroad lines.]
Her growth will be rapidly accelerated by the extension of her railroads. Besides her coal roads, she will soon be practically the connecting point of certainly two, and perhaps three, transcontinental railroad lines. She now has railroad connection with the Northern Pacific, and will shortly be connected with the Canadian Pacific by the West Coast road. But the road that will do most for Seattle, indeed, the road which of itself would make a city at its Sound terminus, is the Seattle, Lake Sh.o.r.e and Eastern Railroad. This will be true if the road never crosses the limits of Was.h.i.+ngton Territory; but no doubt it will ultimately cross the continent, or at least have close transcontinental connections.
When these roads are thus extended, they will bring vast quant.i.ties of lumber, and of mineral and agricultural products, and carry in exchange foreign and domestic products for the supply of the rural and mining population, to say nothing of the great Eastern trade. Her coastwise and foreign trade have already been discussed.
[Sidenote: The chief s.h.i.+p-building centre.]
Puget Sound must also become the chief s.h.i.+p-building centre of the continent, and the possession by Seattle of the great fresh-water lakes so close to the Sound, and the fact that here will be the point where the Bessemer pig-iron and its products will be manufactured, will give this point advantage over all others on the Sound. Seattle will build s.h.i.+ps for England, New England, South America, Asia, and the Islands of the Ocean; and just here will first be seen the dawning of the new day which will come to our American merchant marine, of late so depressed.
And the Government itself must sooner or later establish on Lake Was.h.i.+ngton a navy-yard where s.h.i.+ps can be built of the best material at minimum cost; and where her s.h.i.+ps out of commission can lie landlocked, secure from the teredo and the corroding effects of sea-water, and can at once get rid of their barnacles.
[Sidenote: Seattle better located than San Francisco.]
Seattle can have no rival on the Pacific Coast except San Francisco, which has the only good harbor and entrance outside of Puget Sound, but which has no coal, nor iron, nor timber, and whose back-country does not equal the Snoqualmie valley of East Was.h.i.+ngton for agricultural and mineral capabilities.
THE TERMINAL PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE, LAKE Sh.o.r.e AND EASTERN RAILROAD.
[Sidenote: Unrivalled terminal property.]
The city and suburban property which the railroad has secured is singularly valuable, and will afford every facility for city and foreign business. It is correctly described in the doc.u.ments of the company. No future road can acquire such facilities. They approach a monopoly of great value.
SUBURBAN INTERESTS.
[Sidenote: But two entrances by land.]
[Sidenote: Superiority of the northern suburbs.]
There can be practically but two railroad entrances to Seattle, one from the south, and the other from the north, owing to the bluff ground on which the city is built, with Puget Sound in front and Lake Was.h.i.+ngton in the rear. The roads from the existing coal mines and from the Northern Pacific enter from the south; the Lake Sh.o.r.e road enters from the north. Suburban improvements will no doubt be extended both north and south. But it seemed to me that for residences and amus.e.m.e.nts the northern end has the advantage, as the high lands are more convenient to the railroad, and command fine views of those beautiful lakes on the east, and of the Sound on the west. Here will be the pleasant drives, the place for sailing, rowing and swimming; for open-air games, picnics, etc. On the east side of Lake Was.h.i.+ngton will be vegetable and fruit gardens and dairies, whose products will reach the city by this railroad; to all of which have been added the powerful influence of the Moss Bay operations.
The logging business begins in sight of the city, and a number of logging camps were already in operation along the first twenty miles of the railroad. After the loggers, follow the farmers. Already a surprising number of people have established homes in this direction.
[Sidenote: Factories of the future.]
[Sidenote: s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l.]
Near the Sound and a little distance from the city will be great saw-mills, grain elevators, canneries, and, in time, fish-oil and fertilizer mills, tanneries, smelting furnaces, sulphuric acid and other chemical works. And here will be the s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l connecting the lakes with the Sound, and the s.h.i.+pyards of the future.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A TRAIN-LOAD OF LOGS ON THE SEATTLE, LAKE Sh.o.r.e AND EASTERN RAILWAY.]
TIMBER.
[Sidenote: Superiority of the timber on the Seattle, Lake Sh.o.r.e and Eastern Railway.]
The great lumber interest will have a larger and richer field on the Seattle, Lake Sh.o.r.e and Eastern Railroad than on any other through line in Was.h.i.+ngton Territory. On the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad the timber is abundant, but too small for the mill, except in a very few spots. The other roads show but little left close by, and the trees never had the size of those of Snoqualmie Valley. The West Coast road, which will be tributary to the Lake Sh.o.r.e Railroad, will pa.s.s through good forests; but, according to my information, the forests on the line of the Lake Sh.o.r.e road are the very best in Was.h.i.+ngton Territory.
The forest of mill timber beginning in sight of Seattle, continues with some intermissions to the top of the Cascade Mountains. It increases in size and quant.i.ty to a point far up on the mountain side, and the trees continue of good size all the way to the top. Crossing the Cascade Mountains, on the east side the trees are quite numerous, but smaller than on the west side, though some of them can be sawed. Continuing eastward, the trees get fewer and smaller, and change from fir to ordinary yellow and bull pine. In the plateau country of the Great Bend there are only scattered groups of stunted trees to be seen, and, excepting a few skirts along the bluffs of the Columbia, no forests of mill timber are to be met with until after pa.s.sing the Idaho line.
[Sidenote: The forests described.]