Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Seattle, WA - Underground and Aboveground Part 3

Denny Regrade

Next we headed over to the REI flagship store where Gary hoped to buy a hiking shirt. If you have ever been to Seattle you know that it is quite hilly. If you look at a regular map, the streets are all straight, the corners are all at 90 degrees and it leads you to believe that the ground is level and flat. Don’t believe it for a second. Those streets go straight up the hills and down the hills on the other side only to go up again. Very much like a roller coaster. In fact one hill in Seattle is called ‘First Hill’ which implies that there is a second hill and maybe even a third hill. Actually, First Hill is sometimes called ‘Profanity Hill’ because the lawyers who had offices at the bottom had to walk up it to get to the first King County Courthouse. We don’t have to do step-work here, we just walk up the streets.

However, we found a section of town that is pretty flat - or, at least, the hills are much more gradual and not as high. It is the Denny Regrade. Now, I read a series of mystery books by J. A. Jance about a detective in Seattle. He mentions Denny Regrade and I never really knew what it was because I kept getting engrossed in the plot and forgetting to look it up. NOW I know what it was. Back between 1903 and 1911, the Denny hill of Seattle was ‘regraded’ from a huge bluff into a gentle slope.

Firstly, the Denny’s were some of the first white inhabitants of the area and this was their claim. The Denny hill, 62 acres of land north of what was a growing bustling city, was a steep, precipitous, imposing bluff, much too difficult for development and which stymied any growth north of the city. In some cases, the hill rose 190’, much too difficult for horses to climb and thus too difficult for the growth envisioned for Seattle. Finally, city engineer R. H. Thomson convinced most property owners in the area that their property values would soar if the land was much more level. Most bought into his schemes and the blasting began. Beginning in 1903 and again in 1910, Denny Hill was whittled away with continuous blasts of water. 20,000,000 gallons of water a day were pumped in from nearby Union Lake to the top of the hills with enough force to move heavy boulders. Water was also pumped at the bottom to wash away the dirt.

Of course, some refused to go and the city blasted all the land around them, carving out their lots and leaving 100’ high ‘spite’ hills dotting the area. In this case, the dirt was blasted out all around the homes where the owner hadn’t agreed and they then had to shore their homes up. Try stepping out that front door. Eventually, these homeowners ‘caved’ in to the city and their land was regraded also.
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Much of the land blasted away was carted away to fill in tide flats a ways away, the rest was kept on site to use for fill. The march of progress could easily climb up this slope. Yet, the predicted business development never took place. There are businesses in the area but not the towering skyscrapers that Thomson imagined might fill the space. Actually some argue that the regrade inhibited development since there were no more hills for the rich to build on for the views out over the Puget Sound.

And, thus the Denny Regrade of Seattle. We walked through it since it was between where we were and where we were and where we were headed, the flagship REI store. And what a store. 2 stories, with a 3 story climbing rock in the front, a waterfall with a surrounding rain forest in the back
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and a dirt bike trail around the building for trying out your new dirt bike. But no Small shirt for Big Gar. Oh well.

We walked back through the city to pick up the bus which was the express to Bellevue. We stopped at Pike Market on the way back - empty now with all the merchants gone home and the tourists at dinner.
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We liked the signs on the bathrooms here too.
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Heading Home

We have been amazed at how cheap the bus fares are into Seattle. Obviously, they are trying to promote bus use and, boy, are they ever succeeding. The buses are full in the morning and evening when we use them. We have also seen lots of people lining the streets during the day waiting to get on their bus. I can’t remember what the rate for ‘regular’ people is but we seniors can get into town from Bellevue for $.75. that’s 75 cents each. Gary and I can go into town and back out again for $3.00. Parking in the city is also very expensive. 2 hours max and $8.00 for this 2 hours. Maybe tourist areas like Pike Place are less but we have also seen early bird specials of $14.00 for a day’s parking. Low bus fares, high parking rates - and buses are popular.

Today we had a bus driver who welcomed us aboard his bus. Nice personal touch.

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