100 Years for The Seattle Fishing Fleet!
Anyone who watches reality TV knows that the fish and crab are caught off of Alaska. What the couch potatoes do not know is that the fleet of intrepid fisher folk has its home base in Seattle at Fishermen’s Terminal.
Before the Lake Washington Ship Canal was begun back in 1911, a deep water (salt that is) channel had been dredged from Salmon Bay to the present and then proposed Terminal.
In 1916, after the locks were finished, the water in the canal rose 21 feet higher … and there was fresh water from the new locks, through the Montlake Cut all the way to Lake Washington.
The piers and buildings for the new terminal were built for this man made flood and now boats at the terminal could have the luxury of a fresh water birth, bathing away growth and barnacles accumulated in the salt water transit to and from the fishing waters off of Alaska. Of course, the fisher folk also found their Seattle homes a lot warmer and with better ties to the lower 48 than the far-off reaches of Alaska in a time before Mr. Boeing had built airplanes. 