[Sidenote: Commercial and manufacturing advantages.]
[Sidenote: Good climate.]
Concerning this city of 15,000 to 16,000 inhabitants, I need not repeat
what has been so well said in the reports of Governor Squire, and of
United States officers who have examined and reported to the Government
with regard to this location--notably, Gen. Isaac I. Stephens, Gen.
George B. McClellan, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, and others; also by the
Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Its location, its harbor, its people, its
commerce and manufactures, its solid and rapid growth, and its local
relation to all the great natural resources of the Territory, give to
Seattle advantages which cannot be equaled by any other port on the
Sound. Its climate, as to temperature, both in winter and summer, is
remarkable. It is pleasantly cool in summer, and in winter rarely
severe. Its only drawback is an excess of moisture for perhaps four
months of the winter season. But this is preferable to the violent
storms and deep snows and extreme cold to which the Eastern plains and
the upper Mississippi country are subject, and which sometimes attack
New York and the New England States. On Puget Sound there are no
blizzards nor cyclones, and rarely so much as an inch of snow. The
medical testimonies give a very favorable hill of health.
The industries of city and country are prosecuted with less interruption
from weather than in any of the States east of the Rocky Mountains. The
annual rainfall is not greater, not so great, indeed, as in some parts
of the Atlantic seaboard. It is not so well distributed among the months
as it is eastward; but outdoor work rarely stops on Puget Sound.
[Sidenote: Good population.]
[Sidenote: High civilization.]
The population of Seattle struck me as exceedingly good. Her controlling
classes are men of character, intelligence and substance. The appearance
of the stores, the streets, the offices, and factories, would do credit
to an old city. Water, electric lights, street railways, good fire
companies, well organized police, handsome residences, churches,
schools--all attest the progress of her civilization. Her wharves and
railroad depots are crowded with business. The special pride of the city
seems to be her schools, public and private. Her large and handsome
school buildings seem purposely to have been placed in the most
prominent positions. Her public school system is well organized and
supported. The University of the Territory is located here, and in full
operation. These things, considered together, augur most favorably for
the future of this young city.
[Sidenote: Railroad lines.]
Her growth will be rapidly accelerated by the extension of her
railroads. Besides her coal roads, she will soon be practically the
connecting point of certainly two, and perhaps three, transcontinental
railroad lines. She now has railroad connection with the Northern
Pacific, and will shortly be connected with the Canadian Pacific by the
West Coast road. But the road that will do most for Seattle, indeed, the
road which of itself would make a city at its Sound terminus, is the
Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad. This will be true if the road
never crosses the limits of Washington Territory; but no doubt it will
ultimately cross the continent, or at least have close transcontinental
connections.
When these roads are thus extended, they will bring vast quantities of
lumber, and of mineral and agricultural products, and carry in exchange
foreign and domestic products for the supply of the rural and mining
population, to say nothing of the great Eastern trade. Her coastwise and
foreign trade have already been discussed.
[Sidenote: The chief ship-building centre.]
Puget Sound must also become the chief ship-building centre of the
continent, and the possession by Seattle of the great fresh-water lakes
so close to the Sound, and the fact that here will be the point where
the Bessemer pig-iron and its products will be manufactured, will give
this point advantage over all others on the Sound. Seattle will build
ships for England, New England, South America, Asia, and the Islands of
the Ocean; and just here will first be seen the dawning of the new day
which will come to our American merchant marine, of late so depressed.
And the Government itself must sooner or later establish on Lake
Washington a navy-yard where ships can be built of the best material at
minimum cost; and where her ships out of commission can lie landlocked,
secure from the teredo and the corroding effects of sea-water, and can
at once get rid of their barnacles.
[Sidenote: Seattle better located than San Francisco.]
Seattle can have no rival on the Pacific Coast except San Francisco,
which has the only good harbor and entrance outside of Puget Sound, but
which has no coal, nor iron, nor timber, and whose back-country does
not equal the Snoqualmie valley of East Washington for agricultural and
mineral capabilities.