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Boating Celebration
May 6 is this year's Opening Day of boating season, a long-standing Seattle tradition during which hundreds of boats make their way through the Montlake Cut to the cheers and cap-waving of thousands of spectators along the shores. Some of those vessels might eventually make their way down the Lake Washington Ship Canal to Puget Sound, not unlike the first ships that traveled the canal more than a century ago.
In 1854, Thomas Mercer first floated the idea of a ship canal at a pioneer picnic, where he proposed naming the lake in front of them as Lake Union, in the hope that it would one day connect the fresh waters of Lake Washington with Puget Sound and the ocean beyond. In 1860, Harvey Pike started to dig a ditch between Lake Washington's Union Bay and Lake Union's Portage Bay, but soon gave up. In the 1880s, work crews – hired by a group of investors that included David Denny and Thomas Burke – widened, deepened, and completed the passage.
In the 1890s, the U.S. Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers endorsed a canal that would allow the passage of ships, but false starts, squabbles, and even an attempt to cut a separate canal farther south through Beacon Hill delayed the project for years. In 1906 a new Corps district commander, Hiram M. Chittenden, took charge and proposed a pair of concrete locks near Ballard, but no lock at Montlake. This meant that the water level of Lake Washington would drop to that of Lake Union when the two were joined. Construction of the canal began in 1909, and Chittenden secured federal funds in 1910. The work took several years – including mishaps – and soon after the locks were completed in 1916, the final cut was made at Montlake. Over the next three months the level of Lake Washington fell by almost nine feet.
Within years after it opened, the ship canal spurred marine development on Lake Union and effectively transformed Lake Washington into a fresh-water port. Besides being an integral part of Seattle infrastructure, the Ballard Locks also became one of the city's most popular tourist destinations, complete with seven acres of gardens, created by Army Corps of Engineers botanist Carl S. English, Jr. In 1956 the locks were named after Hiram Chittenden.
Historic Preservation
May is Historic Preservation Month, and this week HistoryLink looks at some of the National Historic Landmarks that have been designated in Washington. We begin with the state's first NHL, Chinook Point – where Captain Robert Gray first saw the Columbia River – which was designated in 1961, along with American and English Camps on San Juan Island. In 1964 the Marmes Rockshelter was named a landmark, but it was later submerged in the backwaters of Lower Monumental Dam on the Snake River.
Buildings that are national landmarks include Seattle's Panama Hotel, the Georgetown Steam Plant, Paradise Inn at Mount Rainier National Park, the B Reactor at Hanford, and the Fort Nisqually Granary, now at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. Structural groupings include Fort Worden, Port Gamble, Port Townsend, the Bonneville Dam Historic District, Seattle's Pioneer Building, and the pergola and totem pole in Pioneer Square.
Washington maritime history is represented by the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, which was designated in 1992. Vessels on the landmark list include the Virginia V, the lightship Swiftsure, and the fireboat Duwamish. In all, Washington has 24 sites designated as National Historic Landmarks as well as 1,632 buildings, structures, objects, and districts on the National Register of Historic Places. We're very proud of that.
