The Alki–Manchester ferry was a ferry route in Washington State that from 1925 to 1936 ran between

Alki Point Alki Point (, ) is a neighborhood in western Seattle, Washington. It is a point jutting into Puget Sound, the westernmost landform in the city's West Seattle district. Alki is the peninsular neighborhood on Alki Point. Alki was the original se ...

and

Manchester, Washington Manchester is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. The population was 5,714 at the 2020 census. Manchester is located on the Puget Sound approximately 10 miles from downtown S ...

, across

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

History

Ferry service on the Alki Beach–Manchester route was inaugurated on April 12, 1925, by Crosby Direct Line Ferry Co.Kline and Bayless, ''Ferryboats-A Legend on Puget Sound'', at pages 134, 135, 211, and 374.Demoro, ''Evergreen Fleet'', at page 126 and 129. The Crosby Line intended to mount a challenge to the then dominant ferry companies on Puget Sound, which were the

Puget Sound Navigation Company The Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSNC) was founded by Charles E. Peabody in 1898. Today the company operates an international passenger and vehicle ferry service between Port Angeles, Washington, United States and Victoria, British Columbia, Ca ...

(PSN) and Kitsap County Transportation Co. (KCTC). The Crosby line procured a ferry route certificate from the state of Washington, built a dock at each terminus, and placed the new wooden-hulled double-ended motor ferry ''Crosline'' ( long, 466 tons) on the route. The dock on the Alki end was roughly at the west end of today's Alki Beach Park.The pier can be seen in two 1929 aerial photographs of Alki in The cited photos are:
Aerial looking straight down at Alki

Aerial from over Puget Sound
A rate war ensued between the Crosby Line on one side, and PSN and KCTC on the other. The Alki–Manchester route was the shortest distance across the Sound, and this gave a competitive advantage to the Crosby Line, which forced sharp cuts in the rates of PSN and KCTC.

Termination of service

The rate war ended in early 1926, when PSN bought the Crosby line. PSN continued the route until 1935 when the Alki dock washed out. Service on the route to Manchester was then shifted to

Colman Dock Colman Dock, also called Pier 52, is the primary ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, United States. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal, now used by the Washington State Ferries system, is still called "Colman Dock ...

as the Seattle starting point of the route. In May 1934, during the strike of the Ferryboatmen's union, the Alki–Manchester route was one of only three that maintained a regular schedule.

Notes

References

* Demoro, Harre, ''The Evergreen Fleet – A Pictorial History of Washington State Ferries'', Golden West Books, San Marino CA (1971) * Kline, Mary S., and Bayless, G.A., ''Ferryboats – A Legend on Puget Sound'', Bayless Books, Seattle, WA 1983 * Newell, Gordon R. ed., ''H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest'', Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1966 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alki-Manchester Ferry Ferry routes in western Washington (state) Transportation in King County, Washington History of King County, Washington Transportation in Kitsap County, Washington History of Kitsap County, Washington Anacortes, Washington