Labor and Seattle’s Environment

The 1910s were a time of environmental, economic, and cultural disruption in Seattle that directly affected labor in the city. When the city’s population ballooned from 3,553 in 1880 to 237,194 in 1910, engineers, politicians, and city planners began projects to remake Seattle into a city that could support its rapid expansion as well as industrial growth. Engineering projects meant to improve the lives of all Seattleites oftentimes resulted in the displacement of working-class peoples, communities of color, and immigrants. Laborers straightened out waterways, filled in tide flats, and flattened tall hills in order to make a Seattle that was more efficient, clean, and useful. However, these lofty goals were never met as the environment could not be entirely controlled. Seattle’s regrading projects targeted the city’s poorest neighborhoods, displacing working-class and immigrant families, and leaving parts of the city unlivable. Unfinished projects resulted in new, unstable landscapes that magnified social divisions and urban conflict in Seattle in the era of the Seattle General Strike.

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Reproduction photograph of the exterior of a tide flat dwelling, 1915.
Comptroller/Clerk File photographs. Record Series 1802-01, Clerk File 291779, Item 77206. Seattle Municipal Archives.
Reproduction photograph of the interior of a tide flat dwelling, 1915.
Comptroller/Clerk File photographs. Record Series 1802-01, Clerk File 291779, Item 77207. Seattle Municipal Archives.
Photograph of Indigenous peoples on tide flats, approximately 1890-1905.
Early Photographers collection. PH Coll 0334, Box 9/Soule 2. University of Washington Libraries Special Collect

Indigenous peoples continued to use their lands and waterways as Seattle grew. The group pictured here in front of a temporary encampment are likely Dxʷdəwʔabš (Duwamish). The Dxʷdəwʔabš and other Coast Salish peoples have been living in Seattle and the surrounding area since time immemorial.

A 1915 report by the Bureau of Indian Affairs recorded between one to three thousand “landless and homeless” Indigenous peoples living near Puget Sound. Many found work as seasonal laborers or sold goods such as shellfish, fish, and baskets to settlers.

Reproduction photograph of Denny Hill regrade, approximately 1910.
Seattle Subject Files. PH Coll 1296. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

Workers removed nearly 5.5 million cubic yards of dirt into Elliott Bay during the Denny Hill regrade, leaving flatter land that was developed into real estate parcels.

Reproduction photograph of hydraulic regrading project, approximately 1903-1911.
Seattle Subject Files. PH Coll 1296. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

Workers use hydraulic cannons to remove earth. These hydro cannons left their mark with barren hillsides that became prone to mudslides in the subsequent years.

Photograph of Lake Washington Ship Canal under construction, 1916.
James P. Lee photographs. PH Coll 0294, Box 2/8. University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

The Lake Washington Ship Canal connected Lake Washington to Puget Sound and was part of a larger project to increase access to the Port of Seattle.