The image seen here was taken as crowds watch a fire that engulfed the Grand Trunk Pacific dock, located on the Seattle waterfront at the foot of Marion Street. The structure, at the time the largest wooden pier on the West Coast, was only four years old and had been built atop 5,000 creosote-soaked piles. Firefighters from nearby Engine House 5 fought the flames, as did city's fire boats, Duwamish and Snoqualmie, preventing the fire from jumping to the nearby Colman Dock and spreading into the city. Five people were killed and 29 were injured, many of whom were firefighters. The pier was rebuilt and remained until 1964, when it was demolished for the expansion of the ferry terminal at Colman Dock.
Caption information source: "Seattle's Grand Trunk Pacific dock burns on July 30, 1914," by Alan J. Stein, HistoryLink.org Essay 3475.
ID Number: 1980.7171.1
Date: 1914
Physical Description: 1 photographic postcard : b&w ; 5.5 x 3.5 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant.
