Lake Washington Ship Canal

The Lake Washington Ship Canal, which runs through the city of Seattle, connects the fresh water body of Lake Washington with the salt water inland sea of Puget Sound. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks accommodate the approximately difference in water level between Lake Washington and the sound. The canal runs east–west and connects Union Bay, the Montlake Cut, Portage Bay, Lake Union, the Fremont Cut, Salmon Bay, and Shilshole Bay, which is part of the sound.

History

The ship canal project began in 1911 and was officially completed in 1934. Prior to construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, otherwise known as the Salmon Bay Waterway, water used to exit Lake Washington via the Black River which flowed from the south end of Lake Washington into the Duwamish River.

As early as 1854, there was discussion of building a navigable connection between Lake Washington and Puget Sound for the purpose of transporting logs, milled lumber, and fishing vessels. Thirteen years later, the United States Navy endorsed a canal project, which included a plan for building a naval shipyard on Lake Washington. In 1891 the US Army Corps of Engineers started planning the project. Some preliminary work was begun in 1906, and work began in earnest five years later. The delays in canal planning and construction resulted in the U.S. Navy building the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, which is located across the Sound from Seattle.

Early efforts

For centuries, people had been dragging boats between the lakes, giving names like "carry a canoe" ''sxWátSadweehL'' to the crossing points. In 1854 Seattle pioneer Thomas Mercer proposed canals connecting Lake Union and Lake Washington to Puget Sound in a speech at the first Independence Day celebration of the Seattle area's first permanent white settlement, shortly after its founding. Mercer gave the lakes the names they are presently called, over the original Lushootseed names used by the Duwamish, ''tenas Chuck'' or ''XáXu7cHoo'' ("small great-amount-of-water") for Lake Union and ''hyas Chuck'' or ''Xacuabš'' ("great-amount-of-water") for Lake Washington. Lake Union was chosen to suggest the future canals merging the waters, and Lake Washington for George Washington.

In 1860 local landowner Harvey L. Pike tried to dig a ditch by himself with pick and shovel at Montlake to transport logs between Portage Bay and Union Bay, in the hopes of increasing the value of his property along the route. Giving up on digging the first Portage Canal himself, in 1871 he joined Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman in incorporating the Lake Washington Canal Company, deeding his land to the company. Instead of finishing the canal, the company instead built a tramway to carry coal brought by barge across Lake Washington. In 1883, David Denny and Burke hired a crew of Chinese laborers to complete the canal at Montlake, creating a channel that included a lock, capable of floating logs down from Lake Washington to Lake Union.

The Army Corps of Engineers investigated Puget Sound for military defense purposes and chose Lake Washington as the best location for a Naval base, due to the security of the waters, proximity to supplies of fresh water, coal and timber, and the less corrosive effect on wooden ship hulls of a fresh water port. A report by Lieutenant Thomas H. Hardy of October 13, 1871, forwarded to Congress by Army General Barton S. Alexander of the Board of Engineers of the Pacific Coast said the coal fields of Seattle Coal and Transportation Company, two miles east of Lake Sammamish, supplied 1,500 tons per month of steam ship grade coal, and potentially twice this amount. The route directly across the narrowest part of Seattle, that is, Semple's Canal from Leschi straight across to present-day Harbor Island, was rejected in this report because of the 200 to 300 foot height of the hills that would have to be cut through. The route via the Black and Duwamish River

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