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Holding Sway

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LAWTON GOWEY Then: Seattle’s “other monorail” was on a trestle that ran along the waterfront above Whatcom Avenue (East Marginal Way) from Washington Street to the Riverside neighborhood at the end of the Spokane Street Bridge. Built for about $300,000, it was salvaged in 1930 for $8,000. PAUL DORPAT Now: Surface rail lines have replaced the rickety Whatcom Avenue Elevated, which was most notable for its scary sway.

THE MODERN squabbling over monorails and other rapid-transit fixes is prefigured by the politics that built the wooden trestle shown here. Three mayors — Gill, Hanson, Fitzgerald — suffered from it, and the Whatcom Avenue Elevated ran for just 10 years.

After the U.S. entered World War I in 1917 and Seattle's shipyards began getting big orders, the Emergency Fleet Corp. let Mayor Hi Gill understand that Seattle had better figure out its woeful transportation problems or it would get no more munitions money. Gill agreed to this "Whatcom Avenue Elevated" (Whatcom was later renamed East Marginal Way) to speed the workers to the yards south of Pioneer Square.

The problem was that when the line opened on Sept. 4, 1919, the armistice was nearly 10 months past and the shipyards were ghost yards. Seattle was then burdened with another responsibility — the vastly overpriced trolley system that the city purchased from its private owners. The sellers had gotten Gill's successor, the gregarious Ole Hanson, to pay $15 million for a system worth $5 million. Hanson held on for a year, then resigned and left town. His successor, C.B. Fitzgerald, proposed a subway system and was soon voted away.

The swaying trestle's most notable contribution was its thrilling ride. In his book "Digressions of a Native Son," Emmett Watson recalled that you got to First Avenue from West Seattle by thumb or streetcars. "They clanked and swayed over an incredible old wooden trestle, high above Spokane Street, weaving and shaking until you had to close your eyes to keep from getting a headache." Watson was wrong about its being old, but it was thrilling, especially in the 90-degree turn from Spokane Street onto East Marginal Way.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.