The earlier view was taken about 1912 by longtime Seattle trolley conductor James A. Turner. At the time, Turner lived on a houseboat in the waterway below, before the Ballard locks were completed. For this unique view, the rugged Turner climbed Phinney Ridge to look back at Salmon Bay. In the foreground, the ridge is a wild confusion of shrubs and small trees. Just above the bushes is the very urban rooftop of the old Ross School, now Ross Park at Third Avenue Northwest and West 43rd Street. Above the school in the center of the scene are the two bridges that connected Ballard with Interbay. The closer one was for wagons, the other for the Great Northern Railroad. The contemporary bascule bridge replaced these swing bridges in 1917.

In my search for the right prospect to repeat this historical scene I ran across ridge residents Brian Ivaldi and Tony Murphy. Both identified the home at bottom left as their neighborhood's old survivor. Ivaldi and Murphy are counted among the Friends of Fremont Peak Park, a citizen effort to turn 19,000 square feet of the ridge (only a half block to the right of these scenes) into a view park. The Friends plan to give the million-dollar site to the Seattle Parks Department later this month.

This week's rare historical view was shared by an old friend, Michael Fairley. Next Sunday, he will be one of the dealers in old photos and other ephemera participating in the Fourth Annual Great Seattle Photographic Image Show and Sale at the Best Western Bellevue Inn. For more information, call 206-587-0187 or 206-364-9997 (evenings).