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Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
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6/25/2026
Getting Around
July 1 seems to be a popular day for bridge openings. On that day in 1891, Seattle's Latona Bridge connected Eastlake with the University District, but was replaced on July 1, 1919, by the University Bridge (shown above), which is still in use today. On July 1, 1940, the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened for traffic, and on July 1, 1958, the second Columbia River Interstate Bridge opened between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver.
And those aren’t the only bridge anniversaries this week. Spokane's steel second Monroe Street Bridge was completed on June 27, 1892, but it didn't last long and was replaced by a concrete crossing less than 20 years later. Seattle's Montlake Bridge opened on June 27, 1925, and the city's South Park Bridge notes two anniversaries. On June 30, 2010, it ended its career after carrying traffic for more than 80 years. The neighborhood mourned its loss, but celebrated four years later when a new bridge opened in its place on June 29, 2014.
While we're on the subject of transportation, we end by noting the dedication of the Sunset Highway through Snoqualmie Pass on July 1, 1915. This highway – the precursor for what is now Interstate 90 – followed the route of an old wagon road built between Seattle and Ellensburg in 1867, which in turn followed a trail that Native Americans had used for centuries. Three days after this new roadway opened, another dedication took place at Blaine for the Pacific Highway, which would eventually run all the way between Canada and Mexico.
On Common Ground
This week in 1909, Seattle stood center stage in a dramatic push by Washington women toward achieving the vote as the city played host to the 41st annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Washington suffrage proponents including Emma Smith Devoe and May Arkwright Hutton welcomed the arrival of the Suffrage Special, a Northern Pacific train that had traveled cross-country carrying more than 250 leading national and international suffragists. The train stopped in Spokane and Tacoma before reaching King Street Station in Seattle on June 29.
The next day, as prominent Seattle women welcomed national suffragists to their fair city, the Washington Equal Suffrage Association began the convention in downtown Seattle. The sparks flew during these proceedings, igniting a blaze of embarrassing publicity. Over the next week, the women welcomed Washington male voters, courted college-aged suffragists, and attended a July 4 meeting at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.
On June 25, 1901, former Seattle police chief William Meredith – who had just lost his job due to accusations of corruption made by theater owner John Considine – attempted to kill Considine in Pioneer Square, but instead was himself gunned down inside the G. O. Guy drugstore. Although the press portrayed Considine as the assailant, he was found not guilty of murder and went on to become a noted and respected member of Seattle society.
On June 29, 1906, officials and residents of San Juan County gathered to celebrate the cornerstone laying for a new county courthouse in Friday Harbor. The building still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In other San Juan Island history, this week marks an anniversary of the San Juan Community Theatre, which held its first performance on June 30, 1989.
After World War I, the UW rowing crews began using a converted seaplane hangar as their shell house, which also housed Dick and George Pocock's workshop. Dick Pocock left in 1922 to build shells on the East Coast, but George remained at UW – after quitting his job at Boeing – where he devoted the rest of his life to boatbuilding. On June 28, 1923, a Pocock shell propelled by UW's varsity crew won the school's first national championship, defeating Navy in the Poughkeepsie Regatta.
On June 26, 1950, the hydroplane Slo-Mo-Shun IV shattered the world speed record on water. The boat was so popular with local fans that when children's TV host Stan Boreson held a naming contest for his lethargic Bassett Hound, "No-Mo-Shun" was chosen as the clear winner.
Seattle's first civil rights sit-in was held on July 1, 1963, when 35 young African Americans occupied Mayor Gordon Clinton's lobby to protest the make-up of the city's new Human Rights Commission. Although President Lyndon Johnson signed the sweeping Civil Rights Act one year later, racial unrest continued to boil over, as evidenced by the July 1, 1968, riots in the Central Area that stemmed from a sit-in held earlier that year.
Communities that celebrate anniversaries this week include Snohomish, which incorporated on June 26, 1890; Mount Vernon, which incorporated on June 27, 1890; Sultan, which incorporated on June 28, 1905; and Westport, which incorporated on June 26, 1914.
Fifty years ago this week, on June 26, 1976, Oliver's, the cocktail lounge in Seattle's Mayflower Park Hotel, opened as the first "daylight bar" in Seattle and perhaps the state.
"Here I was at the end of America – no more land – and now there was nowhere to go but back."
― Jack Kerouac
