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THE BURKE-GILMAN TRAIL
Little did Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman realize when they were working on bringing rail service to Seattle, that their names would become household words in Seattle less than 100 years later. Burke, a lawyer who moved to Seattle in 1875 at the age of 26, later to become a judge, and Gilman, a shrewd businessman, were two of Seattle’s most noteworthy, most enthusiastic and frankly, most avaricious developers.
In 1883 the Northern Pacific Railroad began service to Seattle but because of its considerable real estate investment in “New Tacoma” and its determination to make Tacoma the principal city in the Northwest, the service was intentionally poor and soon stopped altogether. In 1885, realizing the need for a railroad in Seattle if this city was to prosper, a group of businessmen, led by Gilman and Burke, sent Gilman to Wall Street to find financial backers for Seattle’s railroad. He succeeded in finding a group to back the railroad here including the President of the New York Stock Exchange.
Work began in January of 1887 and the SEATTLE, LAKESHORE AND EASTERN RAILWAY was finished a year later, never extending past Arlington but nonetheless becoming a major spur line. The line connected Seattle with the Canadian Pacific Railway and was used to help transport products from the area’s booming coal iron mines and forests to Eastern markets. Before the railroad was completed there were only 20 families living along the route from the present Ballard area to Union Bay (my how we’ve grown — for good or ill).
The link with the Canadian Pacific and the imminence of other railroads entering into the Seattle market convinced the Northern Pacific of the futility of denying service to Seattle any longer, thereby recognizing its potential as being as great as Tacoma (Wow! What a goal, “as great as Tacoma”).
In 1913 Northern Pacific bought the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern and the line was used as until 1963. In 1970, the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Burlington lines merged and became the Burlington Northern Railway.
In 1968, the King County voters approved the Forward Thrust bond issue, $65 million of which went to Seattle and included the Burke-Gilman along with the Waterfront Park & Aquarium, Discovery Park and the Freeway Park. In 1971, the U of W’s Board of Regents passed a resolution in support of Burlington Northern’s petition for abandonment of the track which had served Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern line. In 1973, Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman (who coincidentally lived in Bryant at the time) negotiated an agreement with Burlington Northern which permitted the City to acquire this abandoned track bed. This was then linked with an adjacent right-of-way acquired by King County and 12.5 mile long Burke-Gilman trail was dedicated August 19, 1978, extending from Gas Works Park in Seattle to Kenmore’s Logboom Park. Thanks to the 1989 Open Space bond issue the trail now extends another 2.5 miles to the Sammamish River Trail leading to Marymoor Park in Redmond.
Easy access to the Burke-Gilman Trail is truly one of the advantages of living in the Bryant-Ravenna neighborhood. Our home overlooks the trail and there is rarely a time it is not being used — even at night bicycle lights can be seen as someone peddles home from late classes at the U of W. During the day the Trail is filled with people on foot, skate, wheelchair, bike or — the snow — even skis! Neighbors wait each summer for the perfect time to pick the blackberries from the vines that line the Trail.
If you haven’t spent any time on the BURKE-GILMAN TRAIL, try it, you’ll like it.
Jan
Paul (1993) |