The Grand Trunk Pacific dock was a shipping pier in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington. The original pier was built in 1910 and was destroyed in a fire in 1914. The pier was then rebuilt and continued in existence until 1964, when it was dismantled. The area where the pier stood is now part of the Seattle terminal of the Washington State Ferry system.

Location

The Grand Trunk Pacific dock was located at the foot of Madison Street.Beaton, Welford, ed. ''Frank Waterhouse & Company's Pacific Ports: A Commercial Geography'' (1917), at pages 27-37.
(accessed 06-09-11). The dock area had previously been used a wharf for the steamship ''Flyer''. The Grand Trunk Pacific dock was located immediately to the north of

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 ...

, with the small U-shaped dock for the West Seattle ferry in between. Immediately to the north of the Grand Trunk dock was used by the Seattle fire department's fireboat ''Duwamish''. The next pier north of the Seattle fire boat dock was the still existing Pier 54, previously known as Pier 3 or the Galbraith dock.

Construction

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway dock stood just north of Colman Dock at the foot of Marion Street. The original dock was built in 1910 as the largest wooden pier on the West Coast. Construction of the dock required 5,000

timber pilings Timber pilings serve as the foundations of many historic structures such as Canning, canneries, Wharf, wharves, and shore buildings. The old pilings present challenging problems during restoration as they age and are destroyed by organisms and dec ...

and 3,700,000

board feet The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a board that is in length, one foot in width, and in thickness, or exactly liters. Board foot can be abbrev ...

of lumber. As built, the dock had a prominent tower on the water end that was high. The upper story of the dock was used for offices. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway herald

The dock was built by the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

, a Canadian company that built the second Canadian transcontinental railway and that also had interests in steamship lines.Newell, ed., ''McCurdy Marine History'', at page 171. In 1910, the company had two new steamships built, the ''Prince Rupert'' and the ''Prince George'', which used the Grand Trunk dock as their Seattle terminal. The ''Prince Rupert'' and the ''Prince George'' each could carry 1,500 day passengers, and also had 220 staterooms for longer runs. The Grand Trunk Railway employed them in competition with the steamships of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

on the "Triangle Route", which ran between Seattle,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, and

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. The Grand Trunk liners also ran from the dock to the railway line's western terminus in

Prince Rupert, British Columbia Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kaien Island near the Alaskan panhandle. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and has a population of 12, ...

. The liners arrived in 1910, even though the first train did not reach Prince Rupert until 1914.Newell and Williamson, ''Pacific Coastal Liners'', at pages 151-57.

Destruction by fire

On July 30, 1914, the dock was destroyed by an explosion and massive fire. One source reports that the cause was a spark from a cigarette or cigar landing in a pile of sawdust.Faber, ''Steamer's Wake -- Voyaging down the old marine highways of Puget Sound, British Columbia, and the Columbia River'', at pages 248-49. When the fire broke out, two vessels were moored alongside, the wooden inland steamboat ''Athlon'' and the coastal steamship ''Admiral Farragut''. According to one source, ''Athlons engineer first noticed the fire at about 3:00 pm. He alerted the

Seattle Fire Department The Seattle Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. The department is responsible for an area of , including of waterfront, with a population of 713,700. There ...

. Another source says that it was the

wharfinger Wharfinger (pronounced ''wor-fin-jer)'' is an archaic term for a person who is the keeper or owner of a wharf. The wharfinger takes custody of and is responsible for goods delivered to the wharf, typically has an office on the wharf or dock, and ...

who noticed the fire at about 3:40 pm and raised the alarm.Stein, Alan J., “Seattle's Grand Trunk Pacific dock burns on July 30, 1914”, HistoryLink.org Essay 3475, (July 31, 2001).
(accessed 06-11-11). Although the fire spread rapidly through the dock, fueled by the

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood, or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types w ...

-saturated piers and timbers of the pier, both ''Athlon'' and ''Admiral Farragut'' were brought off the dock without damage. Engine Company No. 5 of the

responded to the alarm and drove out on the dock. According to the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...

'', "'they said they were just standing there – and the very air around them seemed to turn to flame.Quoted in Faber, ''Steamer's Wake'', at page 249. The fire engine's fuel tank, holding fifty gallons of gasoline, exploded, burning many of the firemen. Two firemen, Patrick Cooper and John Stokes, were trapped in the fire. Badly burned, both had to jump into the water to safe themselves. Cooper died three days later and Stokes was never able to return to full duty as a fireman. Fire companies responded from all around the city. The fireboats ''Duwamish'' and ''Snoqualmie'' fought the fire, and, with the aid of the revenue cutter '' Unalga'' they were able to keep the fire from destroying the adjacent

, although that dock did sustain $10,000 in damages.Paul Dorpat
Seattle Central Waterfront Tour, Part 4: From Mosquito Fleet to Ferry System at Colman Dock
, HistoryLink, May 24, 2000. Accessed 18 October 2008. Five people died and 29 more, including 10 firemen, were injured. The fire burned for two hours, and attracted a large number of onlookers, including the mayor of Seattle. Some people took advantage of the fire to loot nearby businesses, including

Ye Olde Curiosity Shop Ye Olde Curiosity Shop is a store founded in 1899, on the Central Waterfront of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is currently located on Pier 54, Seattle, Pier 54. Best known today as a souvenir shop and museum, it a ...

, a business still in existence as of 2014, which was then located at Colman Dock.

Later history

A replacement dock, without a watchtower, was promptly built, and survived until 1964, when it was replaced by waiting area for automobiles boarding ferries at the new ferry terminal.. In 1917, the new dock measured 605 by 116 feet, with 1,200 feet of berthing space, with a cargo storage capacity of 12,000 tons. There was a storage room on the second floor of the warehouse which was served by an elevator with a 400 ton capacity. The wharf as it existed in 1917 was said to have been "semi-fireproof." There were adjustable passenger slips and a depressed railway track for loading freight cars. There were offices and waiting rooms on the street end. Like Colman Dock, the Grand Trunk dock had an overhead bridge to the Seattle business district. Depth of water alongside the dock was 55 feet. Heavy construction costs and economic dislocation during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

caused the bankruptcy of the Grand Trunk Pacific in 1920. The line was taken over by the government of Canada and operated as a division of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

. In 1927, the

Kitsap County Transportation Company The Kitsap County Transportation Company was an important steamboat and ferry company that operated on Puget Sound. The company was founded in 1898 as the Hansen Transportation Company. Hansen Transportation The Kitsap County Transportation Com ...

(KCTC) and Puget Sound Freight Lines (PSFL) formed a joint venture company called the Ferry Dock Company, which took out a long-term lease on the Grand Trunk Pacific dock, which was then in a rundown condition. The dock became the main terminal and for both lines. In 1929, the stockholders of KCTC and PSFL reached agreement with Wilbur B. Foshay (b. 1887) to sell their companies, including the Ferry Dock Company, to Foshay, who was then assembling a utility and transportation business empire. Foshay however was financially ruined in the October 1929 stock market crash and the transaction never went through. In August 1930, the Canadian Pacific Railway began using the Grand Trunk Pacific dock as the Seattle terminal for their ships on the

-Victoria-Vancouver, British Columbia route.Kline and Bayless, ''Ferryboats – A Legend on Puget Sound'', at pages 181, 188, 196, and 200. In 1959 the Grand Trunk dock was used by the Black Ball Freight Service. In the early 1960s the dock was dismantled and the area where it stood became part of the Washington State Ferry terminal.

Notes

References