Semple and his canal I put in the basics here but there probably should be more about complex financing technical difficulties accusations of corruption especially about how much city water was used for sluicing and about how using the legislation he himself had pushed through he may well have focused more on filling marketable tidelands than on actually building a canal Perhaps the attempted canal deserves an article of its own I m not sure There is already a bit more on this at Regrading in Seattle Cutting through Beacon Hill Talk