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Now & Then By Paul Dorpat

A United Front

BARELY HIDDEN below the intersection of 34th Street and Fremont Avenue, at the north end of the Fremont Bridge, rests an iron cross of intersecting rails appropriately called the Grand Union. We see here the most western part of this steel matrix on June 29, 1923, at 6:30 in the morning. This is No. 10 in a series of 30 photographs that record the steps of replacing the plank paving around the rails with bricks.

The artful work of laying the original Grand Union was guided by plans drawn in 1916 by Seattle Electric Co. It was timed of necessity with the building of Fremont's bascule bridge that opened in 1917. Although this Fremont route was the major trolley feed to the North End, the elaborate rail crossing at 34th would not have been needed except that it was also the way for trolleys to reach the Fremont Car Barn a few blocks west. This landmark layout survives below the veneer of blacktop that was first applied during World War II after locals complained about the slippery bricks on Fremont Avenue.

Times readers in the "groove" or romance of rails have an opportunity this Thursday, July 27, to join a Fremont Historical Society-sponsored, guided and illustrated walking tour of a streetcar line that once passed through this junction. The tour begins promptly at 7 p.m. at the south side of the Fremont Car Barn (at North 34th and Phinney Avenue) and winds up at North 45th Street and Woodland Park Avenue North an estimated 1 ˝ hours later. It will be a good exercise for body and soul.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle. He can be reached at paul@dorpat.com.