Seattle

An early toilet

Dick and Char joined us for our quick tour of Seattle. We took the rail line into town from south of the airport. The Underground Tour of Seattle gave us the early history of the town. We had a great guide, who told entertaining stories as we explored Pioneer Square above and below ground. Founded near the shore line the early city had wooden buildings, wooden sidewalks and used sawdust from the sawmill to fill in the holes. The town used to have their outhouses near the beach. The sewage would move up and down the bay as the tide changed. This was unsanitary for the city and they knew something must be done. Toilets had recently been invented in England, but they needed a sewage system to attach to. The town built a sewer system using wood pipes. But the pipes were too close to sea level and were affected by the tides, sometimes exploding sewage up the toilet.

The ladders to access ground floors

In 1889, a fire destroyed 33 blocks of Seattle. The city decided that downtown buildings would be rebuilt with brick, not wood, each building must be at least 3 stories high, because the were going to raise the street level one floor and raise the sewer system to avoid exploding toilets. Each buildings' first floor would become the basement. For 4 years, people had to go up and down ladders to get from street level to business level until the sidewalks could also be raised. Underneath the sidewalks is Seattle's Underground. It used to be used as marketplaces, then as storage. We found lots of junk including parts of an Otis elevator. The underground tour was mostly learning about Seattle's history from 1850 to 1900, but made much more interesting by walking underneath the sidewalks.

We then headed along 1^st street to Pike's Market, a street market common in most countries, but rare in the US, selling everything from flowers to fish. 

Space Needle

Then we took the monorail to Seattle Center home of the Seattle World's Fair and the symbol of Seattle: the Space Needle. We took in the Chihuly Glass Museum. He has a unique style of art and this museum has a large selection of his pieces. Just as interesting were some of the short films on some of his projects across the World.

Chihuly - Ikeban Float