As early as the 1890s, Seattle city engineers realized that Lake Washington could not supply enough clean water for the growing city. Workers built a pipeline system from the city-owned Cedar River watershed, and the first Cedar River water arrived in Seattle in 1901. The early pipelines used both steel and wood stave pipe. Workmen built the wooden pipes by fitting boards together over metal hoops and binding them tightly into a tube.

This photo, taken around 1926, shows a workman checking a stretch of wood stave pipeline in Seattle's municipal water system. Judging by the rotten boards, the photo may have been taken during a rebuilding project. Since that time, workers have gradually replaced the wooden pipes with more durable materials. The last stretch of wooden pipeline was removed in the mid-1980s.

Photographer's Reference Number: 119008