Archives West Finding Aid

The first settlers arrived in Seattle after arduous land and sea journeys. As industry rapidly developed across the region, transporting heavy freight such as coal and lumber was difficult and time-consuming without railroads. Shipping by sea to eastern markets in the United States required three months or more. By the 1870s a railroad connection was foremost in the minds of city developers. A federal land grant in 1869 authorized the Northern Pacific Railroad to cross the northern tier of states and territories. Seattle was a rapidly growing city with the best deep-water harbor in the Pacific Northwest, and civic leaders naturally assumed it would be the terminus for the new overland transportation route. In 1873, the Northern Pacific chose Tacoma instead as its western terminus.

Seattle attorney Thomas Burke (1849-1925) headed the effort to create an independent railroad connection between Seattle and the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1884 he sent a subscription list to ten local investors, including David Denny (1832-1903), Thomas Minor (1844-1899), and Daniel H. Gilman (1845-1913.) Gilman traveled east to secure funding and returned in early 1885. The Seattle, Lakeshore & Eastern Railroad was incorporated on April 15, 1885. The railroad's first depot was constructed in downtown Seattle near the corner of Columbia Street and Western Avenue. Railroad Avenue was built soon after, forming a conduit of multiple rail lines along Seattle's Elliott Bay waterfront.

The Seattle, Lakeshore & Eastern line ran from downtown Seattle around the northern shores of Lake Union, then east of Lake Washington. By 1889 the railroad reached as far as Snoqualmie Falls, where it linked to a northern branch of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Track was laid in Spokane for a line heading west, but the railroad never succeeded in crossing the Cascade Mountains. Due to the speculative nature of its financing, the company ran into management difficulties after seven years of operation. The transcontinental giant Northern Pacific Railway eventually absorbed the Seattle, Lakeshore & Eastern Railway.

In the 1950s, Railroad Avenue became the Alaskan Way highway along Elliott Bay. The Burke Gilman Trail is part of the original Seattle, Lakeshore & Eastern Railway line. The King County and Snoqualmie Valley Regional Trail system follows the old railroad bed past Duvall, through Carnation and Snoqualmie Falls, then continues east from North Bend as a cross-state trail.