Before the 14th Avenue South and 1st Avenue South Bridges across the Duwamish a Trolley Bridge gave access to Southpark. It was at the end of 8th Avenue South and Portland Avenue.
It was erected in 1914 and demolished in 1937. This small park has an art installation commemorating this piece of history. This is part of Duwamish Revealed’s 2015 project to bring art and a celebration of Seattle’s only river. Here is a close up of the information and credits of the artist.
Details on trolley bridge over Duwamish River
This small park is surrounded by industry and small houses. It was carved out of a corner that touches the river.
Duwamish River from site of old bridge in Southpark
Park at 8th & So Portland Avenue Seattle
To my delight I found a small treasure that is related to the Georgetown Steam Plant. I did an extensive visit and series of posts around this historical wonder of old electricity production.
Look across the Duwamish River and there is the pump house that fed the steam plant after they straightened the river. Before it was dredged and they drained the curves out of the river the steam plant was next to the river. Once the curves were gone it was stranded until this pump house a mile away was built. Bonus to the photo is how it has Seattle’s skyscrapers contrasted to the 100 year old cutting edge technology of electricity generated by steam. Times change!
Pump Station for Georgetown Steam Plant – after course of Duwamish was changed
To see more of my Duwamish Adventure I have a directory post that links all of the pieces together. You can find that post here – My Duwamish Adventure Directory
When I got home from my adventure at the Georgetown Steam Plant I quickly looked at my 180 plus photos. I discovered some disturbing things that I cannot explain except that they are paranormal. The one that really caught my eye was where a heap of electrical cable was piled. The last photo in the series is a glow and I have no explanation for this.
Let me set the stage for this. I had already walked around the big boiler room area. That area as you can see from the other posts was large, creepy and a step into the past. As I turned the corner back at the entrance end I saw this pile of cable. Not sure why I was so fascinated by this ugly pile but here is the series of photos I took.
Electrical Cable – close up – 1st photo no flashPile of cable – 2nd photo with flashpile of cable – 3rd photo no flash
In this next fourth photo where did the glow come from? This room has limited light and no way is this from an outside source or my camera. I had the flash turned off and you can check the photo properties if you like. I almost thought it was my shaking the camera but look at how clear the cable looks.
Glowing pile – final photo & no flash
Next set of photos that had something creepy going on is a set of boiler doors. These two doors are right across from the cable. Coincidence?
Boiler doors – no flash taken after creepy photoLittle Boiler door close up
At first I thought again this was just a bad photo moment. However, with no flash used and the bands of light coming from the door it makes me wonder… is this a spirit or a poltergeist living in the boiler room?
The light is coming from or around the smaller boiler door
The last example I have is not as obvious but has a higher creepy factor. It is when I went back down those enclosed cement stairs that reminded me of Alcatraz. By accident I took a picture of the stairs with my feet in the picture. I don’t like to get my shadow or body in pictures. No selfies for me.
Neither of these two pictures used a flash but in the one with my feet it has a glow or some unexplained aura. Yes it was right at my feet. Glad I was holding onto the railing. Remember my fear of heights in earlier posts. That was a good thing I hung on huh?
Staircase after the glowing photo with my feet. – No Flash used.No flash photo with light blob glowing at my feet.
I could not find much on the Steam Plant being haunted. The one thing I did find was the Georgetown Halloween walk from a prior year mentioned that the building might have a poltergeist. That would explain the glowing lights on the cable and boiler door. However, the glow in the stairs were more like a spirit due to the temperature and bad vibe I had.
What do you think? Not sure we will ever really know but this world has lots of things we can’t explain.
Want more of the Georgetown Steam Plant? Go to my master post on this subject for the other topics around this historic place.
After I was done with the interior of the Georgetown Steam Plant, I walked around the entire building. Of course I took photos as I went and got really cold hands in the deal. It was so worth it for the magnificent views of the building’s Neo Classical style.
Early on I had seen a huge flock of birds moving around Boeing field which this building borders. I hoped they were crows but instead they were starlings. Not as noble a bird but just as awesome. To my delight they landed on the building while I was photographing.
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Want more of the Georgetown Steam Plant? Go to my master post on this subject for the other topics around this historic place.
My trip to Seattle Electric Company 1906 building aka Georgetown Steam Plant was a step back in time mechanically and technologically.
Machines and more machines
If you look behind this machine you will see the elevator cage that is used to store signs. This cage does not belong to the building but I found the iron work lovely.
Elevator cage iron work
Then there is the boiler room, a combination of pipes, doors and dials. Add to this a creepy factor that we all discussed as we stood there in awe.
Big Boiler Room – 8 to each sideBoilers with Seattle Electric Company on them.
Boiler doors
I leave you with one of the turbines or the heart of the plant.
Curtis Turbine
Want more of the Georgetown Steam Plant? Go to my master post on this subject for the other topics around this historic place.
The 1906 Steam Plant was full of pipes large and small. They were made of brass, metal and painted over in different colors. They carried oil, water, steam and who knows what else.
Lets have a walk around the plant and see what we can find.
Look up and you see pipes
The ceiling is a honeycomb of piping.
These brass pipes were on the side of the turbines. Oil or steam?
Brass pipes
Up in the boiler room the pipes and valves were everywhere. When I looked between the boilers looking to the west sunshine I got this photo. The spooky factor was high in this room.
Creepy space between boilers
The boilers were eight on each side. Down at the southern end of the long room the light streamed in from a window high up. It gave this shot of the front of the boilers two different tones of color. Add more pipes and gauges to the picture for a good photo opportunity.
Front of two boilers
Later you will see a picture of the coiled heavy electrical cable that I was drawn to. After I took several photos of that I weaved behind that area and found this huge pipe and valve wheel.
Big pressure pipe and control wheel.
I leave you with two more sets of pipes at the Steam Plant.
My brain exploded with more pipes
Pipes on the boiler with funnel to control flow
Want more of the Georgetown Steam Plant? Go to my master post on this subject for the other topics around this historic place.
Georgetown Steam Plant was full of gauges and control panels. Let’s talk about visual overload for my camera and me.
Similar to the Seattle Electric Company Plant Stairways post let us go around the building in order that I saw them.
At first I was fascinated by these oilers. The workmanship of the brass and glass is from a time before things were made in foreign countries.
brass and glass = machinery art
Oilers full and ready to go
This next piece of the machinery must have twirled and turned as the machine worked.
imagine this in motion
Then I turned to the big generator made by General Electric over 100 years ago. Not only do I have good shots of its inner workings but of the manufacture’s plate.
Generator up close
Continuous Current Generator Mfg Plate
Inner workings of Generator
Let us get down to the gauges and there was plenty of them. Some looked like they belonged on a ship and some had pipes and faucets around them. A delight to the mechanical eye.
Gauges were everywhere
Is this the bridge of a ship?
facets and gauges control the steam
Deep brass colors
Boiler gauge
In the boiler room area there was a few tools and other odd things from the century past. They were dusty and just lying around like the workers had left them decades ago. This added to the unsettling feeling that I had interrupted someone. I was fascinated by this old heater and how its coils on the outside were visually delightful.
Old space heater a graphic treat
Remember the mystery stairs photo? At the same time I came out of the boiler room and took that shot I captured the control panels on the third level. This multiple tier kind of reminded me of Alcatraz too.
Control Panels of yesterday looks modern
This next photo gives you a better look at the start stop dial and the wench hook that hung from the ceiling. I recently received a comment from Clyde Furd who told me that the dial may look like a clock (which is what I thought it was originally) but it really shows the electrical output of the plant when it is running. It has numbers from 0 to 25 megawatts. The hook in the upper right corner is a 50 ton crane.
Start Stop clock and control panels
Want more of the Georgetown Steam Plant? Go to my master post on this subject for the other topics around this historic place.
The Steam Plant in Georgetown had some amazing stairway photo opportunities. The site is multiple leveled so the workers could get to all the huge machinery in the building.
The feature photo was one I captured when looking at gauges. Then I saw light from the big windows at the back of the building was illuminating the stairs and pipes.
Let us take a tour of the stairs in the building. I am going to show you them in order of my discovery. We entered the building by the back big door. Then were directed to the left to circle around into the machinery area on the main floor. The other option was to take the back stairs up to the second level. I opted for machinery first. This photo looks back toward the entrance and combines lots of visual variety.
Machinery, pipes and stairs
After I wandered around the machinery I decided to take these enclosed stairs. They wind up and into an office that had old newspaper articles. Having been to Alcatraz years ago I would say this set of stairs was just as spooky. Guess I picked creepy over the back stairs that made me queasy with height phobia.
Spooky stairs to offices
Stairs like seen at Alcatraz
Speaking of those back stairs that made my fear of heights act up. Here is a shot of them from the second floor. I had a hard time overpowering my fear to get close to the rail here.
This area gave me leapaphobia
After I wandered around the boiler area that continued to sustain the creepy feeling, I came upon this set of stairs going up towards the top of the boilers. To the side were more oven type doors but they were painted red vs the black ones lower on the boilers.
Stairs upward in boiler room
Next when I moved back into the room with the turbines, I looked up behind the control panels and saw this next staircase. It seemed to be lighted from the roof and I couldn’t tell where it came from or went. Thus I named it mystery stairs.
Mystery stairs in rooftop distance
Then the last shot I took was of the one at the back of the building. Full circle was made.
Back of the house stairs to second level
Want more of the Georgetown Steam Plant? Go to my master post on this subject for the other topics around this historic place.
Tucked away at the north end of Boeing Field sits a building that looks like it is out-of-place. It has 1906 on the header and old windows looking out of an early reinforced concrete construction with neo-classical ornamentation.
1906 caught my eye from the roadNumber 1 Steam Plant in Seattle
What is this place I wondered several years ago while looking for an estate sale in Georgetown. I found that it is the Seattle Electric Company’s first Steam Plant. It was built on 18 acres near the Duwamish River and provided both direct and alternating current to it’s customers. The main ones being the Interurban Railway streetcar and the city of Georgetown (before it was annexed into Seattle).
Old front doors of Steam Plant in Seattle
The coolest thing is this Steam Plant is the last working example of vertical Curtis Turbines manufactured by General Electric in 1907. This is described as the beginning of the end of reciprocating steam engine dominance in electrical power generation.
Seattle Steam Plant Generators
The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984 joining famous places like the Brooklyn Bridge and the USS Constitution. It is also designated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark (see placque below). Plus the building is a Seattle City Landmark and is on the Washington State Register of Historic Places.
National Historic Mechnical Engeneering Landmark Placque
Duwamish Revealed, a series of art installations that celebrate Seattle’s only river which I subscribe to due to my love of the Duwamish hosted an event at the Steam Plant. I jumped at the opportunity to get inside the building. They had a dance troop performing there. Sorry to say art people, but I was so busy taking photos that I missed the performance. I took so many pictures that I am going to break my blog posts into several. Just too much for one post. By the way I took over 180 pictures in 2 hours. That is a lot of shutter time.
Here is a directory of the posts:
General Information – this post Georgetown Steam Plant
Stairs – Seattle Electric Company Plant Stairways – Stairs
Gauges – Seattle Steam Plant Gauges of time – Gauges
