File:Montlake Ditch (CURTIS 1095).jpeg

English: Waterway built between Lake Washington and Lake Union to transport logs by the Washington Improvement Company, ca. 1884

On verso of image: The first actual work on a canal was by harvey L. Pike who in 1860 with pick, shovel and wheelbarrow began building a one man canal. Pike soon abandoned his work, but later with other completed a canal for bringing logs from lake Washington to lake Union. A portion of the canal route was used for transporting coal from the mines at Newcastle and Coal Creek beginning in 1872. The coal cars were taken from the mines to Lake Washington on barges across the lake, then on a narrow gauge track to lake Union, on barges across the lake from there to a narrow gauge track down Westlake and Pike Streets to bunkers at the foot of Pike Street.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Canals--Washington (State)--Seattle