The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-06-12
REBUILDING
OF SEATTLE

which this vigorous and progressive
city is being overhauled and rebuilt,
breaks all world records for municipal
ingenuity and enterprise. In order to
overcome the disadvantage of the
steep hills upon which Seattle is built
a determined attack has been made
upon them, and no such wholesale
moving of dirt has ever occurred be-
fore in merely improving a city's topo-
sraphy. For nine years this work has
been pushed necessarily day and night,
rain or shine. Nothing has been allow
ed to stand in the way of the grand
scheme of improvement and veritable
wonders have been accomplished
The actual number of miles of streets
affected by the regrade work, giving
partial changes, is I'll miles. Eleven
miles of streets have been altogether
remade. The change in the average
street grade fer these 211 miles has
been a reduction of from fifteen per
cent 20 five per cent. The enhance
ment of the sale value of property re-
sulting from this work has been an in
crease of 400 per cent in the business
districts, and of 1000 per cent in the
residential districts. At the time of
regarding the principal streets of the
city, their width has been increased
from 66 feet to either "a or 80 feet, as
the district elected. AS a result 275
blocks of buildings have either been
moved back nine or twelve feet, or, II
an alley in the rear prevented their
removal, they were cut off in front
to permit the widening. During the
time that these regrades have been
carried on in the hill portion of the
city, dredgers have been retaining
the tide flats, and up to the present
time sixty city blocks have been re-
claimed by these fills. There will
eventually be reclaimed in this man
ner 300 city blocks.
The task of razing it's hills is to
Seattle what the Culebra Cut is to
the Panama Canal. and the operations
IL vogue here are very similar to those
used in the work on the great isthmian
waterway. Steam shovels, hydraulics,
dynamite, picks and shovels, are the
instruments of disintegration. Rail-
ways, fumes, and wheelbarrows are
the mediums Of transportation. The
Oh SOIllS OIL lIlc
cannot but impress itself upon the
observer. Where, only year ago, he
would gaze up the ascent of tower
ing hill, he now finds himself peering
over a railing into a monster pit At
times an impenetrable pail of smoke
obscures the view of the work beneath
Then the smoky curtain is rent and
through the rift one catches transitory
glimpses of the big steam shovel eat
ing its way into the hill the n.y.
draulics sending clouds of dirt and
spray into the air, the miniature
trains putting back and forth, and the
ant-like figures of men at work, When
the vision is unobstructed the onlooker
sees towering banks crumbling before
the onslaught of water and shovel.
The greatest factors in the work of
disintegration are the steam shovel
and the hydraulic. The major portion
of the work is accomplished by the |
latter process, which breaks up the |
hills and removes the debris by means
OF fumes, while the steam shovel fol-
lows in its wake and methodically es-
tablishes the desired level. The geolo-
gists tell US that in the course of
centuries the gentle rainfall will reduce
10 an insignificant bump on the map
The proudest mountain that ever
reared it's head above the clouds.
then, the erosive powers of a
solid stream of water capable of dent
ng in the side of a marine boiler.
This is the hydraulic in action. Hardly
he right sort of hose for the gardener
% use in sprinkling the lawn, for less
han three minutes application would
zee the foundation of the family domi-
lille uprooted and the furniture buried
lnder the pile of shingles that was
,nce a roof
Work on the excavations is con-
inuous. Day and night, men and
machinery wage unceasing war on the
ills. The day is divided into two I,
hits of twelve hours each. Twenty :
wa men. receiving wages ranging !,
rom So to Sc per day, according to the
allure of their task comprise shift
which goes to work at seven in the
lorning and is relieved twelve hours
lter. The trains that haul away the
irt are never relieved and are given
xtreme care by special mechanics. II .
| estimated that each hydraulic re-
loves on an average 1000 wagon-loads .
? dirt every twenty-four hours. Not u
the magnitude of the u u
'ork and the great risks the workmen :
re taking, few accidents have occur .
ID. Only two have been fatal. One U
was struck in the abdomen o
y the nozzle of big hydraulic and
killed. At another time a "
uge chunk of Ignite coal fell away IL
ON one of the cliffs and crushed o.
orkman to death. II
The number of cubic yards of earth p
moved during the first eight years II
; this regrade work in Seattle was a.
$50. 900, at a cost of s3,16S, 900. The la
mount of work now in actual progress &C
'vers 100000 cubic yards, at q cost al
s2,194.00o. The amount of work eli
ithorized by resolution, but only as ne
{ partly authorized to be done by
urt proceedings, embraces 1900, 900 SC
lbic yards, which it is expected viii at
st about s3.000,O00 for removal W
therefore,, the total yardage ACTUALLY b.
for in the whole regra.iu W
heme amounts to 16.460.0OO cubic Is
lrds, and the total contract price is
So, ooe J
That portion of the city where the
ie-fiats are being reclaimed presents
altogether different appearance
-Onting the observer are long rows of