[music]
In a city made of hills and surrounded by water, City of Seattle engineers had their
work cut out for them. Shaping and reshaping the landscape were major undertakings that
determined how the City landscape is used today. To move enormous amounts of land, create
lakes, reshape rivers, and shore up the waterfront, and connect it all with bridges, sewers, and
fresh water, City employees dredged, sluiced, filled, and dived. Yes, they dived! The work
of creating modern Seattle didn't just happen on land. This 1912 image is one of my favorite
objects. This nitrate negative from the Engineering Department is described only as “North Trunk
Sewer. Diver.” It is the earliest photo of a diver in our collections. What I love
about this photo (aside from the look on the diver's face) is the awareness that it brings
to the work that operating a city requires. On this hot summer day, August 2, 1912, this
diver is in standard diving dress consisting of a metallic helmet, an air hose, a diving
knife, and boots, and a lead weight affixed to his chest to counteract the buoyancy of
his helmet and suit. This suit was the standard for several decades from the 1890s through
the 1960s. The underwater work that the diver has done in completing the North Trunk Sewer
is integral to the health and safety of Seattle's residents.
Designed and supervised by Engineering Department Director R. H. Thompson
and traveling over and through land and underwater,
the North Trunk Sewer System was a network of tunnels that served Capitol Hill, Queen Anne,
and Downtown areas and snaked north to include Ballard and Interbay,
terminating at Fort Lawton in Shilshole Bay.
On the day this and several related photos were taken, Engineering
Department staff were hard at work on the terminal piece of the trunk system.
To view these photos and other feats of engineering, go to archives.seattle.gov.