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Topic: Infrastructure

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Mud Mountain Dam

When Mud Mountain Dam was completed in 1948, it was the highest rock- and earth-filled dam in the world. The dam was built to prevent massive flooding in South King County and North Pierce County, whi...

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Municipal Ownership Movement

Municipal ownership or close regulation of essential utilities and urban services was a central tenet of the Progressive Movement from the late 1800s through much of the twentieth century. Beginning w...

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Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor Segregation Area

Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Hood Canal was a vital ammunition depot from late in World War II to the end of the Vietnam War, and the segregation area was one of its key components. The Bangor depot wa...

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Northern Pacific Railroad and Seattle Development

The Northern Pacific Railroad played a pivotal role in the development of railroads in Seattle and in the Puget Sound region. The company's decision to locate its Western terminus in Tacoma rather tha...

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Northwest Power Pool

The Northwest Power Pool is an organization of the region's major electrical utilities, tying together Northwest electrical systems for increased efficiency and reliability. In 1942, the federal gover...

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Pat Maloney describes the perils of reading meters for Seattle City Light in the 1950s

In September 1953, Meter Reader Pat Maloney described one of his experiences recording Seattle City Light customers' electricity useage.

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Pend Oreille River (Boundary Dam) Hydroelectric Project

Seattle City Light's Boundary Dam on the Pend Orielle River, in Northeastern Washington near the Idaho border, today (2003) supplies half the hydroelectric power for Seattle (a quarter of Seattle's po...

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Pomeroy Substation (Garfield County)

The substation designed and built by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) near Pomeroy helped expand the spread of electricity to the far-flung residents of Garfield County in Southeast Washingto...

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Port of Longview

The Port of Longview is located in Cowlitz County on the Columbia River, 66 miles from the Pacific Ocean in southwest Washington state. It is the first full-service port with strategic intermodal con...

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Port of Seattle, Founding of

The creation of the Port of Seattle on September 5, 1911, was the culmination of a long struggle for control of Seattle's waterfront and harbor, a struggle whose roots stretched all the way back to th...

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Port of Tacoma -- Thumbnail History, Part 1

The Port of Tacoma is a public municipal corporation governed by five elected Port Commissioners. Pierce County voters created the Port in 1918 after the 1911 state legislature authorized publicly own...

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Port of Tacoma -- Thumbnail History, Part 2

The Port of Tacoma is a publicly owned and managed port district established by Pierce County voters in 1918. Today it is a leading container port, serving as a "Pacific Gateway" for trade between Asi...

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Public Port Districts in Washington: Origins

Washington has 75 public port districts, more than any other state. Each is an independent government body, run by commissioners elected by local voters. They operate major marine terminals and small ...

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Public Port Districts: Promoting Economic Development

Washington's public port districts play a critical role in the state's economy by stimulating business development and job creation that private companies cannot or do not undertake on their own. Run ...

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Puyallup Avenue Bridge

The Puyallup Avenue Bridge that crosses the Puyallup River and links Tacoma to the small city of Fife to its east was opened in 1927 as one of the last Washington segments of the famous Pacific Highwa...

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Railroad Development in the Seattle/Puget Sound Region, 1872-1906

The history of railroading in Seattle closely parallels the city's development and early hopes for its future. Like communication networks today, railroading in the nineteenth century represented more...

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Romance of Seattle Railroads: a Reminiscence by Warren Wing

This is a reminiscence of trains and the railroad in Seattle during the 1920s and 1930s, and during World War II. It is by Warren Wing (1918-2011), historian, author of To Seattle by Trolley (1988), a...

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Sandy Moss's Account of the Dearborn Regrade

Sandy A. Moss, a diesel engineer, was born in Topeka, Kansas, and was brought by his parents to Seattle in June 1900. As a black child growing up in Seattle during the early years of the twentieth cen...

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Sea-Tac International Airport (Part 1)

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or Sea-Tac as it commonly called, was developed as a direct response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Military needs limited civilian a...

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Sea-Tac International Airport: Part 2 -- From Props to Jets (1950-1970)

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport experienced dramatic growth between 1950 and 1970 as a result of new aircraft technologies, the increasing popularity and affordability of air travel, and the Puge...

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Sea-Tac International Airport: Part 3 -- Boeing Bust to Deregulation (1970s)

The Port of Seattle built Seattle-Tacoma International Airport during World War II to relieve pressure on existing airports such as Seattle's Boeing Field. Following the war, Sea-Tac quickly establish...

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Sea-Tac International Airport: Part 4 -- Ascent and Dissent (1980-2008)

Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International Airport and its owner, the Port of Seattle, faced major challenges during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Foremost, their own successful investmen...

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Sea-Tac International Airport: Third Runway Project

The development of a third "dependent" runway at Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) International Airport, the state's largest airport, was one of the largest and most sensitive public works projects in regiona...

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Seattle Center Monorail -- History Worth Saving

The following letter, written by Glenn Barney to the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board on March 17, 2003, is in the public domain files of the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board. In the letter Barn...

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