The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-10
rnE NORTH PACIFIC MErRoPoLIs.


Il San Francisco Paper Foresees Puget
Sounds GFeatness.
San Francisco Alta.
More than q quarter of century ago
clear-headed men who had looked the
country over prophesied that one or more
great cities were destined to spring up on
Puget sound. The shores of the Sound
were then covered by a primeval forest,
there were few inhabitants, there was
absolute lack of rail communication
with the outside world. It was long
look ahead, but events within the past few
years have justified the prediction. In
the next ten years the Sound country is
destined to undergo . great transforms
ton. That q large commercial city is
going to be built somewhere there is now
apparent, but the exact location is yet
unsettled; that is, common consent has not
fixed upon the place. Will it be Tacoma,
Seattle, Fairhaven, or some point as yet
considered unimportant? During the last
decade, which embraces practically the
entire railroad era Of the state, Washing
ton has increased in population from 49,
116 in 1880 to 349, 500 in 1880. And it must
be remembered that the great bulk Of this
increase came in the last five years Of
that period. Tacoma has grown from
a village of 1,09S inhabitants to thriv-
ing. well-built city of 1888 inhabitants.
Seattle sprang i'll ten years from popula-
ton of 1858 to a busting, pushing city,
with cable and electric street car lines. of
1914 inhabitants. She has grown more
in decade that Portland, Me-, has in $50
years. She has direct rail communication,
and so has Tacoma for that mat
the East by three transcontinental
lines, and will soon be connected
by fourth. The Union Pacific, Northern
Pacific and Canadian Pacific all center in
there, and within a year the Great North
ern will be steaming into the city limits.
1t is true that the Northern PACING s nomi-
nal terminus is at Tacoma, while the Ca
madam Pacihc'S nominal terminus is at
Vancouver, b. c., and the Union Pa
chic comes up from Portland, Ore. Never
theless, all these lines run into Seattle and
make it a competing point. The same can
be said of Tacoma. Fairhaven has sprung
from clearing few years ago to city
of some 1000 inhabitants. It will soon
have all the rail connections that Tacoma
and Seattle now have. 1t has q mag
nificent lumber, coal and farming region
around it, and deep-water anchorage for all
the ships in the world at its very DOORS
To the south stretches the Sound, with its
bays. Ravens and deep-water channels, to
the northwest lies the Gulf of Georgia,
while straight to the west is the Strait of
Fuca and the Pacific ocean. Seattle and
Tacoma have the start in population and
capital, but Fairhaven possesses undeni-
able elements of greatness. She has deep
water, safe anchorage and competing rail
communication with the South and
East. Now, which Of these places will
be the metropolis of the North Pacific?
Beyond all question Tacoma, Seattle and
Fairhaven will always be mercantile and
shipping points of considerable impor-
lance, but which of them will take the
primacy and become the great city of the
North? In all probability the next census
will show population in Washington of
nearly if not quite million. The Cana
dian Pacifc's China and Australian steam
ship lines will practically be lines to the
chief port of the Sound, for there will be the
financial, trade and rail competing center.
Whichever place it is will have popula-
ton of 100000 or more in 1900. 1t is not
necessary that this city should rival to the
material injury of San Francisco, but our
city cannot afford to be slack about oppor-
tunities. Here is the natural metropolis
of the entire Pacific coast, and here
it will be unless an extraordinary
policy of supineness be pursued by our
citizens. Properly the metropolis aef the
Sound should be to San FranCisco what
Boston is to New York. If it is more, our
people will be largely to blame. But it is
well to remember that there is young
giant growing in the north country, and
that he is ambitious and energetic. It is
well to encourage him, but it is also we'll
not to let him seize all he aspires to seize.