File:Yesler cable car on Jackson Street trestle, Seattle, ca 1889 (MOHAI 1122).jpg

The western shore of Lake Washington was becoming a popular recreation area during the booming 1880s. The need for transportation spurred development of a cable railway line. The proposed route ran through unsettled, logged off land owned by Henry L. Yesler and others. The first cable cars began running in 1889 and descended to the lake on this trestle with a fifteen percent grade. The Jackson Street trestle proved dangerous, as evidenced by a near disaster that occurred in August of 1890 when a gust of wind struck a cable car near the top of the grade, causing the trestle to sway so violently that the pasengers leaped from the moving vehicle and clung to the railing on the sides.""The gripman stuck valiantly to his post, careening wildly down to the lake front, where he was finally stopped by ties hurriedly thrown across the tracks."

Caption on border: Asahel Curtis, Commercial Photographer, 625 Colman Block, Seattle. Handwritten on mount: Trestle on Jackson St down to Lake Wash. Caption information from Leslie Blanchard's The Street Railway Era in Seattle.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Trestles--Washington (State)--Seattle; Cable railroads--Washington (State)--Seattle