Going Underground

Alisha says:  When I looked at the extended forecast on February 1st all it showed was straight rain for the next 10 days. So the first week of February was a little rough for us. Still wanting to do something fun on Saturday we decided that a great rainy day activity would be to use a groupon that I had purchased for a Beneath the Streets Tour of the historic part of downtown Seattle. We learned some interesting history of Seattle and go to go to a few of the underground areas.

Here is a brief recap:
Seattle was originally built on a tidal mud flat and buildings were made out of wood. What this meant for the city was that twice a day the tide would come in and cause problems with flooding and the sewage. In 1889 there was a great fire where 31 blocks of the city burned. When starting to rebuild the city it was decided that in order to try to fix the tide/flooding problem they would raise the streets, all new buildings had to be constructed of fire safe materials and at least three stories tall. A retaining wall would be build surrounding each city block and then the place where the street was would be filled with dirt. Once the streets were filled with dirt a new sidewalk would be built and what used to be the 2nd floor of the buildings was now the entry level. For a time before the new sidewalks were built that were level with the new street you would exit a building by the original 1st floor, be greeted by a big retaining wall on which the new street rested, walk to the corner, climb up a 12-30 foot ladder, cross the street and climb down another ladder. Not one person died in the big fire but apparently several died and lots were injured using the ladders.

Once the new sidewalks were built the now underground levels went through several stages where they played host to many shady dealings before they were eventually condemned. Some of the underground areas have been restored and are in use and others look terrible. It was neat to see the pieces of old glass that worked as skylights.

The underground, the current sidewalk is on top of the ceiling

The original sky lights that you can still see if you walk around

 This is what the skylights look like from underground

 After our tour we went and checked out West Seattle and Alki Beach. You get a great view of the Seattle skyline across the water. And the fun day continued in the evening with a session at the climbing gym and dinner with Sarah and Chris.