History of Seattle

Padre, hubs and I went on an Underground Tour of Seattle. There wasn't a ton to see but the guides were funny, it got us out of the rain for a bit, and we learned the history of Seattle.
SO here is my mini recap of the facts and such I found intersting.

Seattle was built but the sewage and tide was an issue and it resulted in a muddy, smelly, gross city
They finally got toilets- crappers (that was the name of the guy in Englad that made them) but when the tide came in and people flushed the toilet water flew 2-8 feet in the air ICK!

So then there was a fire that burned down a lot of the city so they had a chance to rebuild. They came up with a plan to raise the street level up to change the tide and bury all the debrise. Everyone liked this plan except it would take years to complete and the shopowners needed to reopen as soon as possible. So the city said they could reopen but their shops had to be made of brick or stone and they had to be at least 2 stories high. They are going to raise the road around them!

Then the city put retaining walls from 8-35 feet high around each block and the shops stayed open.
My favorite part of this story is that in order to cross the street people had to climb ladders and run across the busy street before they got hit and then climb down the ladder on the other side every time they crossed the street. So now imagine a woman in a hoop skirt with children and all the stuff she needs for a day- haha o wow!

So then they raised the street and started to infill the blocks which resulted in underground tunnels that still connected and still had entrances to the shops. They continued to use these underground passages as well as the upper levels.

In order to be able to see below in the tunnels they put in "skylights" of glass into the sidewalk. From above they just look like a decorative sidewalk but below they provide all the light- even though the day we were there was cloudy.

They continued to use the tunnels until a plague and they shut them down because they were harbouring disease. So then they became a black market. And finally they became a tour which supports historic preservation of the area.

Another funny story they told was that they took a census at one point to see the jobs people had so they could decide how to tax them. When they got it back they found out that they had a bunch of
seamstresses. They didn't know they had a garmet district and when they went to investigate they found out instead, since they were a city of mostly men/sailors, that they were indeed ladies of the night. And since Seattle was corrupt instead of getting rid of them they taxed them a bunch of money and it made up most of the money used for the city's remodel!


So that was our tour! We had a good time and it was fun to walk around in. Apparently some cheesy horror movies have been filmed down here and some of the props were left which just added to the fun.

Hope you enjoyed my paraphrase of Seattle's history  :)