Rising Tides and Tailwinds: The Story of the Port of Seattle

A century ago, Seattle was held hostage by its own waterfront. Competing railroad companies built a chaotic sprawl of rail lines, docks, and warehouses along the shoreline of Elliott Bay, creating conditions so bad that visionary civic planner Virgil Bogue called the harbor side "a blot on the city and a menace to the lives of its people." After years of bickering and lawsuits, the 1911 Port District Act was passed, making the Port of Seattle the first public port formed under legislation. ...