Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-10-12
DOCKS GREAT NORTHERN WILL
BUILD AT SEATTLE.
Concreat SeawaIi to BE Built. and
After Completion Will BE Filled
With Earth--Improvem Will
Cost q Million Dollars--WOrk to
Begin Soon.

Seattle, Oct. 10-The Great Northern
railroad viii shortly begin the expend-
iture of 81 200, 900 in improvements at
Smith cove. a new wharf and ware
house are to be built and the freight
wharf now in use at the cove is to be
practically rebuilt. This work will
probably be commenced about the first
of the year, and the improvements will
require about a year and half to com.
plete
A solid concrete wall is to be built
about the dock now in use. and a sec
ond and larger dock with the same kind
of retaining wall will be added. Both
docks are to be placed on solid ground
when this work is completed, and each
will have the capacity sufficient to hold
the cargo of one of the big liners soon
to be placed on the seattle Oriental
run by the Great Northern Steamship
Company.
1t is probable the first work under
taken at Smiths cove will be the build
ing of the concrete seawall about the
dock now in place there. This concrete
seawall will be built from hardpan up
ward to height of sixty feet. At low
water 25 feet of the seawall will be
shown above the surface of the bay. AT
the bottom the wall will have thick.
will be four or five feet in width. This
concrete seawall is to extend entirely
around the wharf.
To Use Both Docks.
The new wharf will lie directly south
of the present dock. 1t will give about
eighty feet of room in the slip, so that
the monster steamships of the Great
Northern can be loaded from both
wharves at the same time. The plans
of the company are to unload the in
coming liners at one dock and as soon
as one Of the matches is clear the work
of loading will be commenced form the
second dock. The docks will be long
enough to permit the stevedores to
work at all tie matches at the same
time. Lines of rail will be laid on
both sides of the warehouses, so that
it will be possible for the company tc
load directly from the cars to the boats
Heavy machinery can be lifted by
cranes from the cars to the steamships
or with lighter shipments longshore
men can truck from the cars to the
hosting machinery.
The plans of the Great Northern fol
the new work are made for the pur
pose of reducing the days that incom
ing steamers must lie at the dock t(
the smallest number possible. 1t il
intended to provide every facility fol
quick dispatch, and though the bi.
liners now nearing completion will car
ry 700 carloads of freight, they will b'
loaded and unloaded with as little los
of time as now attends the handling o
the smaller boats OF the Oriental line.
Will Be Solid Ground.
After the concrete seawalls are il
place under the two docks the railroad
company intends to fill in the land TN
derneath. This will give the Grea
Northern the only wharves resting
upon solid foundation on the Coast
No piling will be necessary, as the sea
wall VII support the outer edges of The
whaiVes.
The new dock will be practically o
the same size as the one now at TIT
cove. 1t Will he | 600 feet long ant
| SO ieet wide. The warehouse will be
500 feet long and 20 teet wide and tive
stories in height.