Seattle, gateway to the Yukon Goldfields, was originally  built on a mud flat and as a result was a pretty hard place to live back in the early days. If you survived the trip west on the Oregon Trail and became one of the towns new residents (of which 98% were male) then you stood a good chance of getting swallowed up in the ooze and slop that always results in new government-funded developments.

A variety of corrupt and misguided government initiatives during Seattle’s early years left the city very vulnerable to fire, and guess what, that’s right, a fire of enormous proportions burnt the city to the ground in less than twelve hours.

This gave the towns founding fathers an opportunity to rebuild the town (this time using stone not timber) and build up the street level to stop the flooding and improve the sewerage drainage system (up until now toilet were on stilts and the sewer pipes were timber box pipes often suspended above  ground level).

The major problem was that it took so long to elevate the streets that the buildings were rebuilt before the streets were raised. This left the buildings below street level, so in true Monty Python fashion they built new buildings on top of the old ones which in turn left a subterranean city of about 5 square blocks. This is Seattle’s Underground.

The tour begins at the hardware Store four metres below street level.

Walkway to nowhere.

Fancy plumbing.

Old generator used for elevator. Again just left behind.

Left behind after the rebuild.

Original plumbing still in use.