Discovery Park and Magnolia
article and photos by Chas Redmond reprinted with permissionHiked through Discovery Park and then trekked
through the Puget Sound-side cliffs of Magnolia, a rather tony and tidy
neighborhood on yet another jutting peninsula. Lots of images from the
day, Discovery Park, Magnolia, views of the city and Elliott Bay from
Magnolia Bridge, and some smooth-gliding ducks caught in the golden
reflections of a setting sun.
Finally, a truly Spring-like day arrived on
Thursday. It was the usual Seattle-gray start, gray with a bit of mist in
the air. I checked my AccuWeather satellite map and hourly forecast tables
and concluded that by the time I left the house and got to Magnolia there
would be a clear zone between the arms of whatever low-pressure system was
still lingering around off the coast. I figured this would be one of those
two-battery, two-flash card days and packed accordingly. Wearing a T-shirt
and really light cotton shirt-jac, I headed out at 11:30 am and made the
transfer on 4th Avenue in front of Rainier Square on time. I'd decided to
take the #24, which goes by Seattle Center and then through Interbay and
up the Magnolia Bridge and then snakes its way north, then west, then
south, then west again, and finally north - dead-ending at the south
entrance to Discovery Park.
Discovery Park was the former Fort Lawton, a World War I Army training ground which had been sought by the city and some of the Roaring Twenties' developers. Previous to that, the area known as Magnolia had been completely forested. It consists of two smallish ridges, running north-south, on a generally high area of about three-square miles just west of Queen Anne and separated from Queen Anne by the lowlands now known as Interbay. The area developed first in the lowlands as a harbor and rail head. First attempts at development began during the Civil War but didn't come to fruition until the turn of the 20th Century when a port and railroad yards were finally finished on the southern side. On the northern slope of the area, facing the Ship Canal and Salmon Bay, are the hundreds of wharfs and processing facilities associated with Fisherman's Wharf. Magnolia shares that area, across the water, with Ballard.
The western slops of Magnolia have severely steep inclines with many cliffs of several hundred feet dropping straight onto shallow and narrow beaches facing both the northern area of the hills into Puget Sound and the southern areas into Elliott Bay. Following World War II, during which time the Army still made use of the training facilities at Fort Lawton, the area of the fort was all but shuttered. In the early 1960's the Army sold the land back to the city which began to remove the facilities and convert the area into the parkland now known as Discovery Park. The northern area of the Park still has the highest elevation lighthouse in the Puget Sound region and in the center of the park is a sectional radar facility for the FAA - a huge radome on a very prominent rise in the center of rolling hills which are the topland of the park.
The park consists of 534 acres of meadow, cliffs, and protected tidal beaches. It is, by area, the largest park in the city. By comparison, some of the other large parks are: Carkeek, in the northwest area of Ballard, with 216 acres; Golden Gardens, on a Sound-side cliff in western Ballard, with 87 acres; Woodland Park with its two sections including the Zoo, in the north-center of town in Greenwood, with 90 acres; Sand Point Magnuson Park, on the northeast coast of the city with Lake Washington just north of the U-District, with 350 acres; Washington Park and the Washington Park Arboretum, northeast of Capitol Hill, with 230 acres; Interlaken Park, north of Capitol Hill, with 50 acres; Volunteer Park, just north of the urban village of Capitol Hill, with 48 acres; Seward Park, on a peninsula east of Columbia City in the city's southeast area, with 300 acres; Camp Long, in West Seattle's northeast area, with 68 acres; Westcest Park, in West Seattle's southeast area, with 81 acres; the West Duwamish Greenbelt, along West Seattle's Duwamish riverfront, with 181 acres; Schmitz Park, in West Seattle's central western hills, with 53 acres; and Lincoln Park, on the bluffs overlooking Puget Sound in my West Seattle neighborhood, with 135 acres.
For really large parks, that's 2,423 acres of parkland which is mostly preserve. There are separate 20 to 40 acre parks for recreation including ball fields and golf courses. By comparison, the largest urban reserve in the US is Rock Creek Park, in the center of DC, with 1755 acres. Anacostia Park, along the wetlands and eastern shore of the Anacostia River, also in DC, is 1200 acres. With Seattle's 97 square miles of city, that equates to an average of 24 acres per city square mile of parkland. With DC's 67 square miles, it runs about 44 acres per city square mile. One difference, though, is that the Nation's Capitol has its major parks concentrated in two separate areas and not much else is spread about the 67 square miles except for the occasional neighborhood recreation area or former Civil War fort (Fort Totten, Fort Reno, and so on). Seattle's parks and preserves are fairly and reasonably distributed throughout the city such that major parkland acreage is within about a mile of all the residents. Similar to DC, though, there are plenty of these Seattle preserve and wooded parks which are used to stow bodies after foul deeds as was the case with DC's Rock Creek Park following the Chandra Levy affair. And, like Rock Creek Park, these stashed human remains can stay for weeks or months before being found by visitors. All that speaks to is the true wilderness nature of some of America's city parks, which is a good thing.
The other distinction which Seattle, and probably every other city except maybe San Francisco, has in contrast to Washington, DC, is that in Washington, most of the parks are National Park Service parks, as is the case for a great deal of San Francisco's parks. In Seattle, and most other cities, the parks are owned and operated and maintained by the local residents. There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. In Seattle, some of the parks are in danger of suffering from a lack of funds now that the dot-com bust is in its umpteenth year here. Of course, in DC and San Francisco, some of their parks suffer because of underfunding of the National Park Service. I'd be hard-pressed to say which system works better for the residents and visitors. For years, the C&O Canal suffered miserably at the literally poor hands of the National Park Service, which had no funds to maintain the canal nor the locks. Recently, perhaps because of constituent comments to their representatives, NPS has restored much of the canal and now runs its summer mule-team boats from Georgetown upriver to the Great Falls area and back. With as much seemingly superfluous funding of Homeland Security that's occurring and the endless wars this country wages and the costs we bear for them, it would seem we could and should find a better use for our funds. Our parks certainly deserve better. and, as citizens we deserve better parks.
I spent probably two hours wandering around the perimeter trail at Discovery Park. There's a separate trail which descends down a steep incline to one of the pristine tidal shore areas. I did not venture down there but could see straight down to the shore along most of the upper trail. We're talking some pretty vertical areas, places where trees grow straight sideways out of the ground and then turn upward. This particular park, as well as Schmitz Park in my neighborhood, is home to a pair of nesting eagles. I didn't see them, though. Alas!
Magnolia sticks out way west, much like West Seattle. From Lincoln Park in West Seattle and from Discover Park in Magnolia one can see much about the central Puget Sound area. The islands become clear and identifiable, the shipping lanes and channels become evident. From the north end of West Seattle, along Alki Beach, one can see the bluffs of Magnolia and Discovery Park. From Discovery Park one can see the point which is Alki and the condominiums along Beach Drive and the hills of the the peninsula which is West Seattle. From both Alki Beach and Discovery Park one can look northeast or southeast right into Downtown and the harbor area. These are nearly the same views as one would have on an arriving ferry into Seattle's Colman Ferry Terminal. And, from both locations, one can easily see and follow the hills which are Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, First Hill and Beacon Hill. It's such an odd feeling being in a part of town and looking over vast expanses of water directly into other parts of the city and realizing that it's the same ctiy, that these strange and wonderfully different geographic areas, with all their local geology and history, are part of the fabric of the city as a whole.
That is perhaps one of the neatest, most fascinating and genuinely unique aspects of this city. Its neighborhoods are different, are sited differently, were developed differently and therefore have different looks and feels, and each neighborhood has its own, unique, perspective and view into the other neighborhoods. Because of the hills and the vast expanses of water, one can travel from neighborhood to neighborhood, looking at the city and the other elements such as the the harbor, and get the distinct impression of being a bird or a low-flying airplane. A few other places I've been offer these ubiquitous synoptic views of themselves. San Francisco certainly does, as does Vancouver, BC. Stavanger, Norway, does also, and I'm told that Bergen is similar. A lot of this experience has to do with hills, water and peninsulas, all of which owe most of their existence to previous generations of mountain building and glaciation. The vegetation certainly helps too. The northwest cities of North America owe a lot to the Japan Current and the west coast cities of Norway owe a lot to the Gulf Stream, though there are fewer green valleys in Norway.
I took a huge number of photographs. Some were full virtual reality shots, 360-degrees. I also shot a large number of 180-degree panoramas as well as a lot of individual frames. It was such a great day that I figured I'd get home by walking southeast through Magnolia itself, the neighborhoods and its urban village, and then follow the Elliott Bay hike-and-bike trail into downtown and wind up at the steps from the waterfront up to Pike Place Market. Because the #24 bus made such a circuitous route through both ridges of Magnolia, I'd already had a reasonable tour of the neighborhood. There's a tiny village at the northeast end of the hill, at W Government Way and 32st Ave. W, which is the northeast entrance to Magnolia from the Fisherman's Wharf side. There's a much larger urban village at 34th Avenue W between Viewmont Way W and W McGraw St. That's in the south central area of Magnolia. 34th Avenue W is sort of the main north-south artery, except because it's Magnolia, it's more of a boulevard than an artery. The western, cliff-side, of Magnolia has two periphery streets, Magnolia Avenue. which is on the lower slope, and Viewmont, which is on the higher slope and affords dynamite views of the Sound and the downtown as well as West Seattle and the harbor.
Viewmont begins pretty much at Discovery Park's south border, so as soon as I left the park, I started walking along Viewmont. It's probably a mile and a half from the park to Magnolia Village and then another mile or so from the village to the Elliott Bay bike and hike trail, a trail I'd been on riding my bike back in September, before I knew anything about where I was going. I walk along Viewmont and notice several things which distinguish Magnolia from nearly all the other neighborhoods. For one, the area was a wooded set of hillsides through most of its Duwamish Tribe days, up to the turn of the 20th Century. Following that it was logged and cleared for development associated with the railroad yards and wharfs in the flatlands between Magnolia and Queen Anne Hills. Development of the housing tracts never happened, though, and the Army developed the top of the western hill in the 1930's and kept that hillside to themselves for the next 40 years or so. It was only in the mid 1960's when the housing market on Magnolia began to take off. It shows, the houses are all relatively new. They are all "custom" with nary a one giving signs of tract housing or housing development blocks. Also, it's one of the few neighborhoods in the city with virtually all utilities underground. One doesn't quite notice right away, but after walking around and looking at the multitude of vistas presented at every corner and from nearly the entirety of Viewmont Way, one begins to notice the absence of utility poles and wires strung everywhere.
And, except for Madison Park, this seems to be the most upper crust neighborhood in the city. I'm sure there are enclaves of even higher-end houses with even nicer yards, but for whole neighborhoods, I believe Magnolia probably has the upper end market cornered. It's three-square-miles of clearly economically-differentiated neighborhood. From the people I saw walking the street, or their dog, or working in their yard, I would say Magnolia has a reasonable ethic, racial and diversity component. What they all have in common, however, is clearly an income which can afford three-quarter-million dollar houses which, although clearly nice looking and well built, wouldn't sell for that amount in other neighborhoods in Seattle. There's probably a $200,000 premium on the houses in Magnolia. It's also a rather restricted neighborhood, not only by income. Because the flatland between Magnolia and Queen Anne is completely occupied with the facilities associated with a harbor on the southern end, with the facilities associated with a huge fishing fleet on the northern end, and with a massive railroad classification yard and huge National Guard facility as well as manufacturing and supply facilities occupying the space between the two ends, there are only about three useful ways into and out of the greater Magnolia area, all three realize their way through the use of bridges or flyovers. This constricts the comings and goings of both the residents and anyone, business or visitor, who might get to Magnolia - especially during the rush hour periods. The main north-south connecting road in between the northern, Salmon Bay, end and the southern, Elliott Bay, end is 15th Avenue W, which turns into Elliott Way as it nears downtown and becomes 15th Avenue NW after it crosses the Ballard Bridge north at Fisherman's Wharf. This is a major highway but not a freeway and it is populated with cross streets every block or so the whole length, each one having a traffic light or set of interchanges in the case of some of the flyovers which connect to Magnolia.
So if you're looking for a very, very tony part of town, one with unique and well-built quality homes, each with a magnificent view, and you're looking for a somewhat naturally-gated community, Magnolia is your neighborhood. I won't say I was put off by the residents because more than half said "hello" back while I was walking the mile-and-a-half from Discovery Park to Magnolia Village; but, at least a third of those I encountered looked at me as if I were some tradesman who had misplaced himself in their area. I suppose that's appropriate, I didn't find a single disheveled yard - in fact most of them probably cost as much to install and maintain as most apartments in the city. It's clearly a neighborhood where I immediately sensed that I wouldn't be allowed to practice my drums nor play my stereo very loudly unless I had what amounted to an acoustically-isolated studio. I did a lookup on the web of MLS listings and the cheapest home I could find in Magnolia was $280,000, and it was only 700 square feet. It did have a Magnolia address, though.
The urban village was borderline "quaint." That's not to say it was better than or posher than other urban centers, but there was a distinct "feel" about the place. Quiet streets with businesses whose front was porticoed by flower pots and sidewalks lined with trimmed trees. There appear to be only two supermarkets in the entire Magnolia area, a Thrifway in the main village area, and an Albertsons near the northern village. There's a QFC just across 15th Avenue W on the lower west side of Queen Anne. Not exactly convenient, but I'd be willing to bet that more than a few Magnolia residents have their groceries home-delivered. The village also had a small hardware store, drug store and a few restaurants, clothing, and knick-knack stores. Magnolia Village ran about four blocks east-west with one major cross street with businesses for about two blocks in either direction on that street. There were a scattering of service facilities and lawyers, accountants, and the like on a few side streets paralleling McGraw. There was the obligatory Starbucks with the equally obligatory Tully's caddy-corner across the main intersection. I chose to get my coffee at the third coffee shop in Magnolia Village, an independent which was quite nice but whose name I didn't remember. The independent coffee shop's crowning touch was a vase with a spectacular flower (bizarre name, also can't remember) which replaced the existing vase while I was ordering my cappuccino. The gent who brought the new flower and vase in to adorn the counter asked for his money while I was there - $30 for a single flower in a tall vase. Beautiful flower and lovely, smallish, coffee shop, but certainly in keeping with the upscale nature of Magnolia. I sat at one of the tables near the front window and changed batteries and flash cards, listening in on the conversation of three locals who were whiling away the afternoon discussing gardening and the price of plants at the local garden shops - on Magnolia, in Ballard and on Queen Anne.
I finished my coffee, thanked the young lady who was the sole employee at the coffee house, and headed out toward the Magnolia Bridge. It was about a half-mile walk from the Village to the bridge, along some really nice overhanging streets with some especially well-appointed houses affording the owners outstanding views of downtown and the whole Elliott Bay and Puget Sound side. One could easily imagine entertaining folks in one of these houses with some of the finest wines and really upscale dining and then turning on what I'm sure is a nice stereo and retiring to the deck to watch the shipping traffic and the lights of the city twinkling. The sun was close to setting and by the time I actually got on the bridge, the downtown was glistening with that golden reflection light which comes from a very low sun shining off tinted high-rise building glass. This bridge is one of the great viewpoints in the whole city. I walked very slowly, looking the hundred or so feet down to the lowlands below and trying to take my VR photos when the waves of traffic subsided. Since the bridge itself is gated by the traffic lights at 15th Avenue and a few other intersections, there seemed to be a pulse to the traffic - a minute of cars followed by a minute of solitude followed by another minute of cars - and so on. By the time I got to the bottom, the sun was lingering behind the clouds hanging low in the west. The Olympics were never visible, a lament I shared earlier with some hikers in Discovery Park. There had been these low clouds over all the mountains all day despite the sky being mostly blue with puffy white clouds. Just another of the myriad weather variations out here.
I got off the bridge, taking one of two stairways which link it to either the Elliott Bay trail or the main, 15th Avenue, throughway. I took the trail steps, illegally crossed some railroad tracks because this exit had apparently been closed by BNSF Railway but not by the city's engineering department. It was only about a 50-foot crossing and there were no trains coming so I figured, what the heck.
I got on the trail and headed south toward downtown, pausing for twenty minutes or so to watch a group of ducks which were making wonderful waves in the reflecting golden light of the setting sun in one of the deep water wharf areas adjacent to the trail. This section of the trail was developed by the Port of Seattle in an area which was formerly completely industrial and is a nice addition to the overall bike and hike trails in the city. It connects the downtown waterfront area to the Burke-Gilman trail which goes along the Ship Canal and northern shoreline of Lake Union from the western, Puget Sound, edge of Ballard to the northeastern, Lake Washington, edge of the U-District's northern neighbor - Sand Point. The Elliott Bay trail is one of the city's nicest trails with separate paving for bikes, bladers, and skateboarders on one lane and for walkers and other pedestrian types on the other. There are all sorts of commemorative plaques and statues which have been added. The area goes beneath one of the ship-to-shore transfer viaducts which links offshore but moored grain vessels with what is the only remaining grain storage area in the Seattle harbor. As I pass underneath the structure I can hear the valves and pulleys in the huge building working and wonder just what type of grain this is and whether the ship is being loaded or off-loaded. No real clues. The ship is moored about 500 feet offshore at a little platform with this overhead gantry and viaduct connecting the two.
From here the trail follows the waterfront in an area just west of the southern end of Queen Anne Hill and the Seattle Center. These low cliffs have recently been the site of a major set of developments for new, low-rise, condominiums and apartments. They all have nice views out over the Sound and across to both Magnolia and West Seattle's peninsulas. It really does seem to be the case that one would have to look hard to find a residence, house or place to rent in this town which did NOT have a view of something, and usually it's a nice view over water or out to the mountains. The trail is separated from these condos and the Seattle Center area by the main railroad lines north and south. While I'm walking along the trail, three trains pass heading north, one is the Amtrak Cascader - a regular run which has about a dozen trains a day, north and south, between Vancouver, BC, and Portland, Oregon. It stops at most of the towns in between and provides comparable service to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor runs between Boston and Washington. Although it doesn't have the hourly-frequency of the Northeast Corridor trains, the Cascader provides pretty much all day service, from early AM through late night with 6 or 7 going in one direction and 5 or 6 the other, depending on day of week. Another passenger train which passes north is one of Sound Transit's Sounder commuter trains taking Seattle workers home to Everett and stops in between. It uses the double-decked cars which Virginia Railway Express just recently acquired and which the Vancouver BC Transit Agency has been using for about a decade. They're really ungainly-looking rail cars but they do hold double the capacity of a regular coach car. There was also a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe freight which went north. Just as back East, the rail bed and tracks are owned by a private, freight, company. Here it's BNSF, back east it's CSX. And, just like back East, the freight company operates the tracks to its advantage, often holding up or delaying the passenger trains.
What a shame we have allowed rail transportation to come to this, especially considering all private rail lines operate on public right of way. That's a really long time to amortize our investment in the expansion of the West through the railroads. On the other side of that coin, though, is the fact that in areas where the rail companies have determined their trackage is no longer profitable, they have returned the land to the states which, by and large, have converted them into cross-state hike and bike trails in the Rails-to-Trails program. A few hundred miles of trackage have been converted here in Washington in various areas. The latest battle on that front is from the homeowners who used to have a railroad running adjacent to their property who now don't want a public trail going alongside their property line. Nearly every court where this issue has been raised has quelled this obvious "not in my backyard" persnickety perspective of the homeowner. What snots some folks are, as if the railroad itself were a model citizen.
I get to the end of the trail at the waterfront area of downtown just below Vine Street, which is the end of the streetcar line which follows the waterfront and ends at the other end at Pioneer Square, near the King Street Amtrak and commuter rail station, and walk the remaining few blocks to the stairs which lead up from the waterfront to Pike Place Market. I make the 70 or 80 foot climb up through a series of stairways and overpasses to the Market and walk up to First Avenue to catch the bus home. It was a six-mile hike from Discovery Park back down through Magnolia and to the Market but it was a wonderful day. The sun had set about thirty minutes earlier but the temperature lingered in the high fifties with that warming feeling a southerly breeze always brings. The street was alive with folks going home or out to dinner and I just leaned back against the corner of the building and took it all in. It was exactly the kind of day for this type of exploration. I had discovered yet another jewel of a park, had wandered about that park and cliffside area for about an hour and then explored Magnolia, yet another Seattle neighborhood with a distinctive personality. I had been wanting to walk down Magnolia Bridge ever since I had seen it last year on my bike ride along the Elliott Bay trail, and the experience and views were every bit as vast and encompassing as I had imagined they would be. The Elliott Bay trail is one really sweet hike and bike trail, so walking along the wharves and waterfront was as much fun as biking along them had been previously. Obviously, these are areas I'll be back to often once the weather turns into bike weather again.
I had acquired a huge store of photographic data - two 128 meg flashcards full, equally spread between 360-degree VR panoramas, 180-degree panoramas, and single-frame images of those views which could best be shared and expressed in that format. It took me two days to process all that stuff - as much a function of my lowly iBook's processor speed as anything else, but I've acquired patience about a lot of things as I've grown older, and my iBook is otherwise a very valiant tool - hasn't let me down in over two years and I've stressed it as much as any other toy I own. The Canon camera, too, has been a stalwart veteran of thousands and thousands of miles of views and as much as 100 degrees range of temperatures. The one thing I need is more batteries. I literally ran out of juice at the end of the walk. It took coaxing and trickiness on my part to get a few of the final shots I wanted to get before I got to Pike Place. I'll correct this minor flaw before I head out to San Francisco this coming Saturday.
The images are posted below. Tthere are a lot, 30 single frame images, 21 180-degree pans and 8 VR pans. Some of the views are truly outrageous and I had great fun with some "art" stuff as well, especially the ducks in the deep water wharf area. I think I've concluded that I can't be just a writer and I can't be just a photographer. The two go so well together and it's always the case that different folks get different perceptions from the combination.
Can't say what this week will bring. We got an estimate from our builder which was - as expected - slightly higher than we really wanted to pay but we'll get with our architect on Monday and go over some of the items. Also, the city's planning reviewer apparently found something in the plans which is going to cause our architect to add or modify something. We'll hopefully get an update on that as well.
And like that.
Chas
Beautiful day for a walk in a park, especially one with the cliffs which Discovery Park has. That's Bainbridge Island in the distance.
Looking south from Discovery Park's western edge, that's Alki Beach and Alki Point in the distance. To the left of Alki Point is Elliott Bay and in front of this view is Puget Sound. Vashon Island can barely be made out in the distance to the right of Alki.
This is one of Seattle Parks and Recreation's information plaques which dot most of the city's parks. This one is explaining the various lifeforms which live in and around the cliffs and the beach below. The previous views were taken from the area on this map which shows the tiny people in the top right. The periphery trail runs along the edge in the green-shaded area. Because the cliffs are fragile, there is only a single trail leading down to the beach and lots of logs and other devices to seriously discourage people from scampering over the edge. It's really dangerous, too, since some of the cliffs offer a sheer drop down at least a hundred feet.
This info sign gives a perspective in the direction the view would face if reading the sign. It is talking about the nesting eagles and other sea birds which frequent or live in and about these cliffs. A hundred years ago this top area was completely forested, most of which was logged for use by the city's lumber mills at the time.
Another grand and sweeping view out into the Sound with the waves giving an indication of the beach just below where this photo was taken. Hiding behind the clouds and just beyond Bainbridge Island are the Olympic Mountains.
This view gives some idea of the steepness of the cliff and how shallow the shoreline is along this side of Magnolia.
A 180-degree panorama taken from an area just above one of the steeper cliff areas. The periphery trail can be seen in front near the edge of the land traversing from left to right. The area directly in front is a sandy area with no clue as to how the sand got 100 feet up from the beach. Bainbridge Island is on the right in the distance with Alki Point on the left. The other side of the mainland can be barely seen in between Alki and Bainbridge.
This is standing further back from the edge and gives a view of the area from which the previous photo was taken. The vegetation growing on the now-cleared hilltop was mostly scrub pine and other kinds of low trees with marsh grass and reeds near the cliff edges.
This view is even further back from the previous one and shows a ferry plying across the Sound on the left and a pleasure craft just to the right of the sun glint. Notice the cumulus clouds, these billow up on calm days and can get quite high.
This view is further south along the periphery trail and once again shows the incoming waves bunching up as they get close to the shoreline. Because the beach is so shallow, the waves don't break on the shore but compress in the shallow sea off land in the area immediately before the beachhead. The beach was probably only 5 or so feet deep right below this cliff.
This is further north along the periphery trail and no longer affords a view of West Seattle but rather a more full-on view of Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge is a major suburban commuter area with heavy ferry traffic between it and Seattle at this end and heavy ferry traffic between Seattle and Bremerton, on the mainland on the other side of Bainbridge. A hint of the Olympic Mountains can be seen at the right above Bainbridge Island.
This is a full 360-degree panorama and shows the trail as it leads from the south entrance to the park to the main, periphery, trail along the cliffside of the bluff. This view is looking straight East with West at either end of the picture. Discovery Park is on the high ground in Magnolia so there are scant areas which are any higher than this one.
Here's another 360-degree pan taken from one of the bluff edges along the periphery trail. The entire field area in front used to be occupied by training barracks and outdoor exercise fields for the US Army's Fort Lawton training facility. The city reacquired this property in 1965. The Army had occupied this area for nearly 40 years previously and used the fort to train soldiers for both World War I and World War II.
This is at the western-most point of the park. Bainbridge Island is on the left side out in the Sound. West Seattle is on the right side abutting the lower area of Magnolia's peninsula. This view is looking due East. From the area where the couple is resting, it was a straight drop down about 100 feet to the beach below, I mean straight drop.
This view is slightly further south than the one previous and shows more of the edge vegetation. Barely visible in the right third above the shrubs is the FAA regional radar dome on stilts jutting above the landscape. West Seattle is across the water on the right and Bainbridge Island is across the water to the right of the sun glint.
There was one USGS benchmark posted on the edge of the western section of the park.
This is a close-up of the USGS benchmark. It's not clear whether Harry is the name of the benchmark or the name of the benchmarker.
Here I am risking life and limb by standing close to the edge of the cliff. Lighting was difficult and I tried to walk backwards so I was out of the glare of the sun. This is where having another person would have been useful. Fortunately, there were lots of log fences, the other side of which I was supposed to stay, which afforded a good resting spot for the camera so I could use the self-timer.
This is one of the intersecting streets and viewscapes along W Viewmont Way W showing off the Sound and Bainbridge Island. Yes, Katherine remarked that there were a lot of "wests" in the name of this particular street, the higher of two periphery roads which ring the western and southern slopes of Magnolia. Officially it's West Viewmont Way West. Far as I can tell there's no East Viewmont Way West and there's no Viewmont Way East, either. But, Seattle insists on the geographic identifiers.
Further along Viewmont there is this down-slope view of Vashon Island to the south of the Magnolia peninsula. It might be difficult to make out, but believe me that's Vashon in the distance.
And still further is this view from Viewmont of West Seattle and Alki Point. Truly a wonderful viewscape street and lots of impressive homes lining it, too.
Round another bend and there's a view of Downtown and the sports stadiums with parts of the harbor cranes visible as well.
This is a 180-degree panorama of a section of Viewmont showing the range and general tenor of the houses. Notice the "perfect" yards. I don't think in any other section of town are there this many manicured yards. The water tower in the center left is visible from other sections of the city.
Here's another 180-degree panorama showing Viewmont intersecting another street and the tremendous views which this area has. That's Bainbridge Island in the center right across the Sound.
I didn't find a home grocery deliver truck but I did find this most unusual traveling road show band - a complete dog grooming and cleaning salon in a van. Not shown in this photo was the hose which was running from the house to the rear of the van and which supplied presumably the fresh water for the cleaning. I could hear the sounds of muffled dog noises, so I'm guessing the van is fairly well sound-proofed. With the number of dogs in this town, each neighborhood has any number of "poodle palaces" and other dog grooming outfits. My favorites are the "do it yourself" ones because, although I have never been inside one, I imagine something like the scrubber brushes of a car wash with the dog being placed on a conveyor belt at one end and coming out the other end where the blow-dryers would be.
Here's yet another intersection with Viewmont and two other streets and yet again views of Bainbridge Island and the Sound. Viewmont, in addition to meandering around the western and southern slopes of Magnolia, also undulates several score feet in elevation as it does its meandering. Nearly all these homes have direct views of the Sound, most from nearly every window.
This was one of the more unusual architectural installations I ran across. Very tastefully and artfully designed and executed brick house with glass brick tiles used everywhere on the street side. The sun was not quite below the roof of the structure which is why the top is somewhat washed out. The front yard also had these birch trees laid out in an equally artful manner. No idea what something like this would cost to build. The roof was flat-panel slate. Notice the horizontal brick detailing running the length of the house at both windows levels.
This bend of Viewmont presents the skyscrapers of downtown clearly in the center. Elliott Bay is also visible to the right of the green street sign and to left of the red stop sign - both in the center-right area of the image.
And, because I know you didn't believe me, this is a close-up view of downtown from the same photograph as was used in making the 180-degree panorama image above. To give some sense of scale, the building to the far right, Smith Tower, is one-and-a-half miles from the Space Needle and from this spot it's 4.2 miles to Smith Tower and 2.9 miles to the Space Needle. The Space Needle is 605 feet high and the Bank of America tower is 967 feet high. The difference between those two heights is that the Space Needle is on what's left of Denny Hill at an altitude of a hundred or so feet and the Bank of America tower starts at 70 or so feet above sea level and is further away.
Coming down towards Magnolia Village from Viewmont as it nears the end of its course. At the bottom of the hill, in a little valley, is the urban village for all of Magnolia. Looks like a real nice small town, doesn't it?
Here's the major crossroads at Magnolia Village, 34th Avenue W and W McGraw Steet. 34th Avenue is the major north-south boulevard for central Magnolia and is lined pretty much the entire way with trees and set-back houses or public buildings such as schools and the post office.
This 180-degree panorama is at the western edge of the Magnolia Village and shows some of the other associated side streets to the town core.
This is the coffee corner, with Starbucks on the left and Tully's on the right. The independent coffee shop was on the same side of the street as Tully's and a little further down this block.
This is at the eastern end of the Village and this cross street is where the hardware and drugstore are located. This valley is in the center of Magnolia and runs between the neighborhood's two ridges, one on the eastern side towards Interbay and one on the western side towards the Sound.
This is where Magnolia Avenue finishes its around-the-bluff course and becomes W Galer Street and starts heading downhill toward the Magnolia Bridge. It's also the point on Magnolia where the underground utilities go above ground again.
This little side street is just down from the previous image and consisted of these two corner houses, the light brick structure on the left and the house behind the fence on the right and one final abode at the very edge of this point which had 180-degree sweeping views from its south side of Elliott Bay - from downtown on the left to the Sound and islands on the right. That's the northern end of West Seattle peering over the Bay in the middle.
On the south side of this bluff right where the Magnolia Bridge is about to start was formerly a US Navy installation. The Navy sold this back to the city recently and the hillside land will be turned into yet another Seattle viewpoint park. This section of Magnolia is called Smith's Cove and right below this is the lowland area of the harbor and railroad yards. Dr. Henry Smith was a territorial legislator before Washington became a state. He was also a doctor, botonist and farmer and in 1852 staked a 160-acre area claim on the land below here where he hoped to establish a harbor and convince the railroads to build. It took 35 years for that vision to begin happening. In the meantime Smith farmed this hill, treated the Duwamish tribal members who were still native to the hillside and farmed the area. Between then and 1887, when the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern Railroad began to build tracks in the area, Smith had acquired 1,000 additional acres and had become quite the local healer and landowner. In 1893 the Great Northern Railroad connected to this area and the port below joined the rest of the Seattle waterfront as a major deepwater port.
Just down from Smith Cove Park (to be) at the top of Magnolia Bridge. The Smith Cove harbor and wharves are easily visible in this view, about 100 feet above the sea-level grade below. That's Queen Anne Hill on the left with downtown just south of it. The land jutting out of the water on the right is the northern end of West Seattle and the bluff which overlooks Elliott Bay is Duwamish Head. The new harbor area can be seen dead-ahead demarked by the orange cranes. The Duwamish River empties into Elliott Bay just south of the new harbor, which is built on a landfill island at the Duwamish River estuary.
This is a 360-degree view of W Galer Street on the upper section of Magnolia Bridge. The view is straight down and into Smith's Cove (now Interbay) on the left and across to Queen Anne Hill on the right.
A closer look at the docks and wharves on the Elliott Bay, southern, side of Interbay, formerly Smith's Cove. The long white arm sticking up at an angle in the center of the picture is the viaduct which contains the feed lines between the grainery on the land and the grain ships which dock in the harbor, offshore.
This 360-degree panorama is pretty nearly the same spot as the close-up view above and shows the sweep of the harbor in this section of Elliott Bay. The sun is setting West-South-West in this view and dead-center is due west. West Seattle is visible across the harbor and appears as an island from this perspective.
This is midway down the bridge and is a 180-degree panorama showing only the southern side of the bridge with Queen Anne Hill on the left, the Interbay harbor in the center and the bluff which rises from Smith's Cove on the right with what's left of the old US Navy installation directly below the bluff on the waterfront. That's West Seattle dead-ahead across Elliott bay and one huge ocean tanker moored in the harbor.
This is nearing the bottom of the bridge with the railroad yards on the left and right and Magnolia Hill dead-center with Queen Anne Hill on the right.
This is a section of concrete abutment which was containing the earth for one of the interconnecting streets which joined the Magonlia Bridge. The entire abutment, some 500 feet or so, was all finished with this specially-cast concrete facing material, mimicking the coiled ropes one would find at a wharf. All over Seattle, the public infrastructure is built with these refinements depicting the neighborhood the structure was built in. This is true for infrastructure which was built during the WPA era and from then forwards. Nice touches all over town on the most obtrusive of objects.
This was the first of a series of duck shots. These guys swooped down and landed in this deep water draft area of Interbay harbor. They seemed to want to just glide in the sunlight.
Another view showing their combined wake. They also seemed to be paddling in unison.
Another pair which was closer to the wharf and swimming against the grain. Their wake is even more visible here than the ones above.
A more synoptic view of the general "duck pond" with the sun nearly set at this point.
A parting shot at these ducks as I headed south along the trail. They had paused for something and were just sitting there, basking in the late afternoon sun. Temperatures were in the low sixties, the water temperature was probably in the mid fifties.
This is just past the wharf area and at the point where the trail turns from going east-southeasterly to southerly. The grain elevator is on the left along with the ship it's currently loading or unloading out in the harbor. The tanker docked in the harbor is probably waiting to use the moorage at the grain elevator.
This is a 360-degree panorama along the Elliott Bay hike and bike trail with the grain elevator on the right and the ship it's connected to on the left. Moored in mid-harbor is a tanker, probably another grain vessel waiting for dockage at this platform. The pier in the center of the view is a fishing pier associated with the trail. The Interbay harbor area is dead-center and behind the pier. The slight rise behind the trees in the center is Magnolia Hill and the rise behind the grain elevator is Queen Anne Hill.
Just past the grain elevator along a stretch of the Elliott Bay hike and bike trail which comes near the shoreline. The sun was gone behind the clouds although there was still a significant sky glow from the back-lit clouds. Hardly any wind giving the Bay and Sound beyond a very peaceful appearance.
This is near the end of the trail as it approaches the northern end of downtown. The building dead-center is the Post-Intelligencer newspaper's new waterfront office with the Hearst Globe on top, barely visible as the blue sphere with the red horizontal line. The waterfront borders the trail on the west (to the right in this view) and the railroad tracks border it on the east (to the left in this view).
This area gives a fairly good view of the railroad tracks which pass between the hillsides of the city and the waterfront. This is just north of the area where Elliott Avenue curves around Queen Anne Hill. These condominiums are in western Lower Queen Anne. This is one of Sound Transit's "Sounder" commuter trains going north to Everett taking commuters home. It stops a few places before it reaches Everett, the northern edge of the Seattle metro area. Another Sounder run goes south to Tacoma.
Just west of the Seattle Center, at what would be Harrison Street if it went through, is this commemorative light house honoring the missing mariners who have lost their lives in the course of the city's history as a seaport. The light house is called "Shipmates Light."
This is the plaque affixed to the southern face of the stone foundation for the light house. The light atop the structure blinks once a second and is yellow.
Directly in front of the P-I's new offices with the Hearst Globe quite visible and the Space Needle serving as backdrop. This globe is one of those signs which has been part of Seattle history for countless decades and when the P-I moved to these new offices from their old facility at 5th Avenue and Wall Street, there was a local clamor to have the newspaper carry the globe and reinstall it on top of their new building. It cost $30,000 to remove it from the old building, refurbish it and reinstall it. It rotates, with the phrase "It's in the P-I" making a circuit about once a minute.
A close-up of the famous P-I globe with the Hearst eagle spreading its wings atop. My former employer, before the Park Service and NASA. It's got about 175,000 circulation versus the Seattle Times' 230,000. The Times is the more stodgy, business-friendly, paper and the P-I is the more liberal, individual rights newspaper. The two papers are under a Joint Operating Agreement with the Times providing the printing, circulation and advertising sales force. The papers publish different editions Monday through Saturday and a joint Sunday paper. It's one of only 13 JOA's still around (according to a 2000 Newspaper Guild website). The other twelve are in Albuquerque, Birmingham, Charleston (WV), Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Wayne, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Tucson, Salt Lake City, and York. The JOA's came into being after the Newspaper Preservation Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in 1970. The one in Cincinnati will expire in 2007 with both papers agreeing to the death of one (don't know which one of the two - the Enquirer or Post - will survive).
As an example of why the Newspaper Preservation Act is important, consider this. In 1973 Washington, DC, had three newspapers, each with a fairly decent circulation - the Washington Daily News, a New York-Post styled tabloid which had racing and sports cornered, the Evening Star which was a liberal-conservative paper which fully covered local events and politics and had an international set of bureaus, and the Washington Post which was a conservative-liberal up-and-coming newspaper which aspired to cover national politics and foreign policy. Fast forward to 2004 where the Nation's Capitol has the ultra-liberal super-circulation national Washington Post which gives reasonably short-shrift to local news, and the ultra-conservative Sun-Young-Moon Washington Times which gives opposition to the Post's liberal ventings but which covers local events and politics even worse than the Post. Are the residents of the Washington area being served by these two papers? No. Both papers serve their national audience first and their local audience second, if at all. Blame Evening Star and Riggs National Bank owner Joseph Lewis Albritton (JLA) for the demise of the Star. He also owns News Channel 8 and WJLA (ABC) radio and television in Washington. Riggs is the largest of the remaining hometown banks in Washington and is strictly a metropolitan bank these days, choosing not to compete with Bank of America, CitiBank, First Union, BB&T, and the rest of America's mega-banks. Long-time residents still lament the loss of the Evening Star, whose offices were right downtown at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue across from the Old Post Office, a building which still has Evening Star embedded in stone.
Discovery Park was the former Fort Lawton, a World War I Army training ground which had been sought by the city and some of the Roaring Twenties' developers. Previous to that, the area known as Magnolia had been completely forested. It consists of two smallish ridges, running north-south, on a generally high area of about three-square miles just west of Queen Anne and separated from Queen Anne by the lowlands now known as Interbay. The area developed first in the lowlands as a harbor and rail head. First attempts at development began during the Civil War but didn't come to fruition until the turn of the 20th Century when a port and railroad yards were finally finished on the southern side. On the northern slope of the area, facing the Ship Canal and Salmon Bay, are the hundreds of wharfs and processing facilities associated with Fisherman's Wharf. Magnolia shares that area, across the water, with Ballard.
The western slops of Magnolia have severely steep inclines with many cliffs of several hundred feet dropping straight onto shallow and narrow beaches facing both the northern area of the hills into Puget Sound and the southern areas into Elliott Bay. Following World War II, during which time the Army still made use of the training facilities at Fort Lawton, the area of the fort was all but shuttered. In the early 1960's the Army sold the land back to the city which began to remove the facilities and convert the area into the parkland now known as Discovery Park. The northern area of the Park still has the highest elevation lighthouse in the Puget Sound region and in the center of the park is a sectional radar facility for the FAA - a huge radome on a very prominent rise in the center of rolling hills which are the topland of the park.
The park consists of 534 acres of meadow, cliffs, and protected tidal beaches. It is, by area, the largest park in the city. By comparison, some of the other large parks are: Carkeek, in the northwest area of Ballard, with 216 acres; Golden Gardens, on a Sound-side cliff in western Ballard, with 87 acres; Woodland Park with its two sections including the Zoo, in the north-center of town in Greenwood, with 90 acres; Sand Point Magnuson Park, on the northeast coast of the city with Lake Washington just north of the U-District, with 350 acres; Washington Park and the Washington Park Arboretum, northeast of Capitol Hill, with 230 acres; Interlaken Park, north of Capitol Hill, with 50 acres; Volunteer Park, just north of the urban village of Capitol Hill, with 48 acres; Seward Park, on a peninsula east of Columbia City in the city's southeast area, with 300 acres; Camp Long, in West Seattle's northeast area, with 68 acres; Westcest Park, in West Seattle's southeast area, with 81 acres; the West Duwamish Greenbelt, along West Seattle's Duwamish riverfront, with 181 acres; Schmitz Park, in West Seattle's central western hills, with 53 acres; and Lincoln Park, on the bluffs overlooking Puget Sound in my West Seattle neighborhood, with 135 acres.
For really large parks, that's 2,423 acres of parkland which is mostly preserve. There are separate 20 to 40 acre parks for recreation including ball fields and golf courses. By comparison, the largest urban reserve in the US is Rock Creek Park, in the center of DC, with 1755 acres. Anacostia Park, along the wetlands and eastern shore of the Anacostia River, also in DC, is 1200 acres. With Seattle's 97 square miles of city, that equates to an average of 24 acres per city square mile of parkland. With DC's 67 square miles, it runs about 44 acres per city square mile. One difference, though, is that the Nation's Capitol has its major parks concentrated in two separate areas and not much else is spread about the 67 square miles except for the occasional neighborhood recreation area or former Civil War fort (Fort Totten, Fort Reno, and so on). Seattle's parks and preserves are fairly and reasonably distributed throughout the city such that major parkland acreage is within about a mile of all the residents. Similar to DC, though, there are plenty of these Seattle preserve and wooded parks which are used to stow bodies after foul deeds as was the case with DC's Rock Creek Park following the Chandra Levy affair. And, like Rock Creek Park, these stashed human remains can stay for weeks or months before being found by visitors. All that speaks to is the true wilderness nature of some of America's city parks, which is a good thing.
The other distinction which Seattle, and probably every other city except maybe San Francisco, has in contrast to Washington, DC, is that in Washington, most of the parks are National Park Service parks, as is the case for a great deal of San Francisco's parks. In Seattle, and most other cities, the parks are owned and operated and maintained by the local residents. There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. In Seattle, some of the parks are in danger of suffering from a lack of funds now that the dot-com bust is in its umpteenth year here. Of course, in DC and San Francisco, some of their parks suffer because of underfunding of the National Park Service. I'd be hard-pressed to say which system works better for the residents and visitors. For years, the C&O Canal suffered miserably at the literally poor hands of the National Park Service, which had no funds to maintain the canal nor the locks. Recently, perhaps because of constituent comments to their representatives, NPS has restored much of the canal and now runs its summer mule-team boats from Georgetown upriver to the Great Falls area and back. With as much seemingly superfluous funding of Homeland Security that's occurring and the endless wars this country wages and the costs we bear for them, it would seem we could and should find a better use for our funds. Our parks certainly deserve better. and, as citizens we deserve better parks.
I spent probably two hours wandering around the perimeter trail at Discovery Park. There's a separate trail which descends down a steep incline to one of the pristine tidal shore areas. I did not venture down there but could see straight down to the shore along most of the upper trail. We're talking some pretty vertical areas, places where trees grow straight sideways out of the ground and then turn upward. This particular park, as well as Schmitz Park in my neighborhood, is home to a pair of nesting eagles. I didn't see them, though. Alas!
Magnolia sticks out way west, much like West Seattle. From Lincoln Park in West Seattle and from Discover Park in Magnolia one can see much about the central Puget Sound area. The islands become clear and identifiable, the shipping lanes and channels become evident. From the north end of West Seattle, along Alki Beach, one can see the bluffs of Magnolia and Discovery Park. From Discovery Park one can see the point which is Alki and the condominiums along Beach Drive and the hills of the the peninsula which is West Seattle. From both Alki Beach and Discovery Park one can look northeast or southeast right into Downtown and the harbor area. These are nearly the same views as one would have on an arriving ferry into Seattle's Colman Ferry Terminal. And, from both locations, one can easily see and follow the hills which are Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, First Hill and Beacon Hill. It's such an odd feeling being in a part of town and looking over vast expanses of water directly into other parts of the city and realizing that it's the same ctiy, that these strange and wonderfully different geographic areas, with all their local geology and history, are part of the fabric of the city as a whole.
That is perhaps one of the neatest, most fascinating and genuinely unique aspects of this city. Its neighborhoods are different, are sited differently, were developed differently and therefore have different looks and feels, and each neighborhood has its own, unique, perspective and view into the other neighborhoods. Because of the hills and the vast expanses of water, one can travel from neighborhood to neighborhood, looking at the city and the other elements such as the the harbor, and get the distinct impression of being a bird or a low-flying airplane. A few other places I've been offer these ubiquitous synoptic views of themselves. San Francisco certainly does, as does Vancouver, BC. Stavanger, Norway, does also, and I'm told that Bergen is similar. A lot of this experience has to do with hills, water and peninsulas, all of which owe most of their existence to previous generations of mountain building and glaciation. The vegetation certainly helps too. The northwest cities of North America owe a lot to the Japan Current and the west coast cities of Norway owe a lot to the Gulf Stream, though there are fewer green valleys in Norway.
I took a huge number of photographs. Some were full virtual reality shots, 360-degrees. I also shot a large number of 180-degree panoramas as well as a lot of individual frames. It was such a great day that I figured I'd get home by walking southeast through Magnolia itself, the neighborhoods and its urban village, and then follow the Elliott Bay hike-and-bike trail into downtown and wind up at the steps from the waterfront up to Pike Place Market. Because the #24 bus made such a circuitous route through both ridges of Magnolia, I'd already had a reasonable tour of the neighborhood. There's a tiny village at the northeast end of the hill, at W Government Way and 32st Ave. W, which is the northeast entrance to Magnolia from the Fisherman's Wharf side. There's a much larger urban village at 34th Avenue W between Viewmont Way W and W McGraw St. That's in the south central area of Magnolia. 34th Avenue W is sort of the main north-south artery, except because it's Magnolia, it's more of a boulevard than an artery. The western, cliff-side, of Magnolia has two periphery streets, Magnolia Avenue. which is on the lower slope, and Viewmont, which is on the higher slope and affords dynamite views of the Sound and the downtown as well as West Seattle and the harbor.
Viewmont begins pretty much at Discovery Park's south border, so as soon as I left the park, I started walking along Viewmont. It's probably a mile and a half from the park to Magnolia Village and then another mile or so from the village to the Elliott Bay bike and hike trail, a trail I'd been on riding my bike back in September, before I knew anything about where I was going. I walk along Viewmont and notice several things which distinguish Magnolia from nearly all the other neighborhoods. For one, the area was a wooded set of hillsides through most of its Duwamish Tribe days, up to the turn of the 20th Century. Following that it was logged and cleared for development associated with the railroad yards and wharfs in the flatlands between Magnolia and Queen Anne Hills. Development of the housing tracts never happened, though, and the Army developed the top of the western hill in the 1930's and kept that hillside to themselves for the next 40 years or so. It was only in the mid 1960's when the housing market on Magnolia began to take off. It shows, the houses are all relatively new. They are all "custom" with nary a one giving signs of tract housing or housing development blocks. Also, it's one of the few neighborhoods in the city with virtually all utilities underground. One doesn't quite notice right away, but after walking around and looking at the multitude of vistas presented at every corner and from nearly the entirety of Viewmont Way, one begins to notice the absence of utility poles and wires strung everywhere.
And, except for Madison Park, this seems to be the most upper crust neighborhood in the city. I'm sure there are enclaves of even higher-end houses with even nicer yards, but for whole neighborhoods, I believe Magnolia probably has the upper end market cornered. It's three-square-miles of clearly economically-differentiated neighborhood. From the people I saw walking the street, or their dog, or working in their yard, I would say Magnolia has a reasonable ethic, racial and diversity component. What they all have in common, however, is clearly an income which can afford three-quarter-million dollar houses which, although clearly nice looking and well built, wouldn't sell for that amount in other neighborhoods in Seattle. There's probably a $200,000 premium on the houses in Magnolia. It's also a rather restricted neighborhood, not only by income. Because the flatland between Magnolia and Queen Anne is completely occupied with the facilities associated with a harbor on the southern end, with the facilities associated with a huge fishing fleet on the northern end, and with a massive railroad classification yard and huge National Guard facility as well as manufacturing and supply facilities occupying the space between the two ends, there are only about three useful ways into and out of the greater Magnolia area, all three realize their way through the use of bridges or flyovers. This constricts the comings and goings of both the residents and anyone, business or visitor, who might get to Magnolia - especially during the rush hour periods. The main north-south connecting road in between the northern, Salmon Bay, end and the southern, Elliott Bay, end is 15th Avenue W, which turns into Elliott Way as it nears downtown and becomes 15th Avenue NW after it crosses the Ballard Bridge north at Fisherman's Wharf. This is a major highway but not a freeway and it is populated with cross streets every block or so the whole length, each one having a traffic light or set of interchanges in the case of some of the flyovers which connect to Magnolia.
So if you're looking for a very, very tony part of town, one with unique and well-built quality homes, each with a magnificent view, and you're looking for a somewhat naturally-gated community, Magnolia is your neighborhood. I won't say I was put off by the residents because more than half said "hello" back while I was walking the mile-and-a-half from Discovery Park to Magnolia Village; but, at least a third of those I encountered looked at me as if I were some tradesman who had misplaced himself in their area. I suppose that's appropriate, I didn't find a single disheveled yard - in fact most of them probably cost as much to install and maintain as most apartments in the city. It's clearly a neighborhood where I immediately sensed that I wouldn't be allowed to practice my drums nor play my stereo very loudly unless I had what amounted to an acoustically-isolated studio. I did a lookup on the web of MLS listings and the cheapest home I could find in Magnolia was $280,000, and it was only 700 square feet. It did have a Magnolia address, though.
The urban village was borderline "quaint." That's not to say it was better than or posher than other urban centers, but there was a distinct "feel" about the place. Quiet streets with businesses whose front was porticoed by flower pots and sidewalks lined with trimmed trees. There appear to be only two supermarkets in the entire Magnolia area, a Thrifway in the main village area, and an Albertsons near the northern village. There's a QFC just across 15th Avenue W on the lower west side of Queen Anne. Not exactly convenient, but I'd be willing to bet that more than a few Magnolia residents have their groceries home-delivered. The village also had a small hardware store, drug store and a few restaurants, clothing, and knick-knack stores. Magnolia Village ran about four blocks east-west with one major cross street with businesses for about two blocks in either direction on that street. There were a scattering of service facilities and lawyers, accountants, and the like on a few side streets paralleling McGraw. There was the obligatory Starbucks with the equally obligatory Tully's caddy-corner across the main intersection. I chose to get my coffee at the third coffee shop in Magnolia Village, an independent which was quite nice but whose name I didn't remember. The independent coffee shop's crowning touch was a vase with a spectacular flower (bizarre name, also can't remember) which replaced the existing vase while I was ordering my cappuccino. The gent who brought the new flower and vase in to adorn the counter asked for his money while I was there - $30 for a single flower in a tall vase. Beautiful flower and lovely, smallish, coffee shop, but certainly in keeping with the upscale nature of Magnolia. I sat at one of the tables near the front window and changed batteries and flash cards, listening in on the conversation of three locals who were whiling away the afternoon discussing gardening and the price of plants at the local garden shops - on Magnolia, in Ballard and on Queen Anne.
I finished my coffee, thanked the young lady who was the sole employee at the coffee house, and headed out toward the Magnolia Bridge. It was about a half-mile walk from the Village to the bridge, along some really nice overhanging streets with some especially well-appointed houses affording the owners outstanding views of downtown and the whole Elliott Bay and Puget Sound side. One could easily imagine entertaining folks in one of these houses with some of the finest wines and really upscale dining and then turning on what I'm sure is a nice stereo and retiring to the deck to watch the shipping traffic and the lights of the city twinkling. The sun was close to setting and by the time I actually got on the bridge, the downtown was glistening with that golden reflection light which comes from a very low sun shining off tinted high-rise building glass. This bridge is one of the great viewpoints in the whole city. I walked very slowly, looking the hundred or so feet down to the lowlands below and trying to take my VR photos when the waves of traffic subsided. Since the bridge itself is gated by the traffic lights at 15th Avenue and a few other intersections, there seemed to be a pulse to the traffic - a minute of cars followed by a minute of solitude followed by another minute of cars - and so on. By the time I got to the bottom, the sun was lingering behind the clouds hanging low in the west. The Olympics were never visible, a lament I shared earlier with some hikers in Discovery Park. There had been these low clouds over all the mountains all day despite the sky being mostly blue with puffy white clouds. Just another of the myriad weather variations out here.
I got off the bridge, taking one of two stairways which link it to either the Elliott Bay trail or the main, 15th Avenue, throughway. I took the trail steps, illegally crossed some railroad tracks because this exit had apparently been closed by BNSF Railway but not by the city's engineering department. It was only about a 50-foot crossing and there were no trains coming so I figured, what the heck.
I got on the trail and headed south toward downtown, pausing for twenty minutes or so to watch a group of ducks which were making wonderful waves in the reflecting golden light of the setting sun in one of the deep water wharf areas adjacent to the trail. This section of the trail was developed by the Port of Seattle in an area which was formerly completely industrial and is a nice addition to the overall bike and hike trails in the city. It connects the downtown waterfront area to the Burke-Gilman trail which goes along the Ship Canal and northern shoreline of Lake Union from the western, Puget Sound, edge of Ballard to the northeastern, Lake Washington, edge of the U-District's northern neighbor - Sand Point. The Elliott Bay trail is one of the city's nicest trails with separate paving for bikes, bladers, and skateboarders on one lane and for walkers and other pedestrian types on the other. There are all sorts of commemorative plaques and statues which have been added. The area goes beneath one of the ship-to-shore transfer viaducts which links offshore but moored grain vessels with what is the only remaining grain storage area in the Seattle harbor. As I pass underneath the structure I can hear the valves and pulleys in the huge building working and wonder just what type of grain this is and whether the ship is being loaded or off-loaded. No real clues. The ship is moored about 500 feet offshore at a little platform with this overhead gantry and viaduct connecting the two.
From here the trail follows the waterfront in an area just west of the southern end of Queen Anne Hill and the Seattle Center. These low cliffs have recently been the site of a major set of developments for new, low-rise, condominiums and apartments. They all have nice views out over the Sound and across to both Magnolia and West Seattle's peninsulas. It really does seem to be the case that one would have to look hard to find a residence, house or place to rent in this town which did NOT have a view of something, and usually it's a nice view over water or out to the mountains. The trail is separated from these condos and the Seattle Center area by the main railroad lines north and south. While I'm walking along the trail, three trains pass heading north, one is the Amtrak Cascader - a regular run which has about a dozen trains a day, north and south, between Vancouver, BC, and Portland, Oregon. It stops at most of the towns in between and provides comparable service to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor runs between Boston and Washington. Although it doesn't have the hourly-frequency of the Northeast Corridor trains, the Cascader provides pretty much all day service, from early AM through late night with 6 or 7 going in one direction and 5 or 6 the other, depending on day of week. Another passenger train which passes north is one of Sound Transit's Sounder commuter trains taking Seattle workers home to Everett and stops in between. It uses the double-decked cars which Virginia Railway Express just recently acquired and which the Vancouver BC Transit Agency has been using for about a decade. They're really ungainly-looking rail cars but they do hold double the capacity of a regular coach car. There was also a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe freight which went north. Just as back East, the rail bed and tracks are owned by a private, freight, company. Here it's BNSF, back east it's CSX. And, just like back East, the freight company operates the tracks to its advantage, often holding up or delaying the passenger trains.
What a shame we have allowed rail transportation to come to this, especially considering all private rail lines operate on public right of way. That's a really long time to amortize our investment in the expansion of the West through the railroads. On the other side of that coin, though, is the fact that in areas where the rail companies have determined their trackage is no longer profitable, they have returned the land to the states which, by and large, have converted them into cross-state hike and bike trails in the Rails-to-Trails program. A few hundred miles of trackage have been converted here in Washington in various areas. The latest battle on that front is from the homeowners who used to have a railroad running adjacent to their property who now don't want a public trail going alongside their property line. Nearly every court where this issue has been raised has quelled this obvious "not in my backyard" persnickety perspective of the homeowner. What snots some folks are, as if the railroad itself were a model citizen.
I get to the end of the trail at the waterfront area of downtown just below Vine Street, which is the end of the streetcar line which follows the waterfront and ends at the other end at Pioneer Square, near the King Street Amtrak and commuter rail station, and walk the remaining few blocks to the stairs which lead up from the waterfront to Pike Place Market. I make the 70 or 80 foot climb up through a series of stairways and overpasses to the Market and walk up to First Avenue to catch the bus home. It was a six-mile hike from Discovery Park back down through Magnolia and to the Market but it was a wonderful day. The sun had set about thirty minutes earlier but the temperature lingered in the high fifties with that warming feeling a southerly breeze always brings. The street was alive with folks going home or out to dinner and I just leaned back against the corner of the building and took it all in. It was exactly the kind of day for this type of exploration. I had discovered yet another jewel of a park, had wandered about that park and cliffside area for about an hour and then explored Magnolia, yet another Seattle neighborhood with a distinctive personality. I had been wanting to walk down Magnolia Bridge ever since I had seen it last year on my bike ride along the Elliott Bay trail, and the experience and views were every bit as vast and encompassing as I had imagined they would be. The Elliott Bay trail is one really sweet hike and bike trail, so walking along the wharves and waterfront was as much fun as biking along them had been previously. Obviously, these are areas I'll be back to often once the weather turns into bike weather again.
I had acquired a huge store of photographic data - two 128 meg flashcards full, equally spread between 360-degree VR panoramas, 180-degree panoramas, and single-frame images of those views which could best be shared and expressed in that format. It took me two days to process all that stuff - as much a function of my lowly iBook's processor speed as anything else, but I've acquired patience about a lot of things as I've grown older, and my iBook is otherwise a very valiant tool - hasn't let me down in over two years and I've stressed it as much as any other toy I own. The Canon camera, too, has been a stalwart veteran of thousands and thousands of miles of views and as much as 100 degrees range of temperatures. The one thing I need is more batteries. I literally ran out of juice at the end of the walk. It took coaxing and trickiness on my part to get a few of the final shots I wanted to get before I got to Pike Place. I'll correct this minor flaw before I head out to San Francisco this coming Saturday.
The images are posted below. Tthere are a lot, 30 single frame images, 21 180-degree pans and 8 VR pans. Some of the views are truly outrageous and I had great fun with some "art" stuff as well, especially the ducks in the deep water wharf area. I think I've concluded that I can't be just a writer and I can't be just a photographer. The two go so well together and it's always the case that different folks get different perceptions from the combination.
Can't say what this week will bring. We got an estimate from our builder which was - as expected - slightly higher than we really wanted to pay but we'll get with our architect on Monday and go over some of the items. Also, the city's planning reviewer apparently found something in the plans which is going to cause our architect to add or modify something. We'll hopefully get an update on that as well.
And like that.
Chas
Beautiful day for a walk in a park, especially one with the cliffs which Discovery Park has. That's Bainbridge Island in the distance.
Looking south from Discovery Park's western edge, that's Alki Beach and Alki Point in the distance. To the left of Alki Point is Elliott Bay and in front of this view is Puget Sound. Vashon Island can barely be made out in the distance to the right of Alki.
This is one of Seattle Parks and Recreation's information plaques which dot most of the city's parks. This one is explaining the various lifeforms which live in and around the cliffs and the beach below. The previous views were taken from the area on this map which shows the tiny people in the top right. The periphery trail runs along the edge in the green-shaded area. Because the cliffs are fragile, there is only a single trail leading down to the beach and lots of logs and other devices to seriously discourage people from scampering over the edge. It's really dangerous, too, since some of the cliffs offer a sheer drop down at least a hundred feet.
This info sign gives a perspective in the direction the view would face if reading the sign. It is talking about the nesting eagles and other sea birds which frequent or live in and about these cliffs. A hundred years ago this top area was completely forested, most of which was logged for use by the city's lumber mills at the time.
Another grand and sweeping view out into the Sound with the waves giving an indication of the beach just below where this photo was taken. Hiding behind the clouds and just beyond Bainbridge Island are the Olympic Mountains.
This view gives some idea of the steepness of the cliff and how shallow the shoreline is along this side of Magnolia.
A 180-degree panorama taken from an area just above one of the steeper cliff areas. The periphery trail can be seen in front near the edge of the land traversing from left to right. The area directly in front is a sandy area with no clue as to how the sand got 100 feet up from the beach. Bainbridge Island is on the right in the distance with Alki Point on the left. The other side of the mainland can be barely seen in between Alki and Bainbridge.
This is standing further back from the edge and gives a view of the area from which the previous photo was taken. The vegetation growing on the now-cleared hilltop was mostly scrub pine and other kinds of low trees with marsh grass and reeds near the cliff edges.
This view is even further back from the previous one and shows a ferry plying across the Sound on the left and a pleasure craft just to the right of the sun glint. Notice the cumulus clouds, these billow up on calm days and can get quite high.
This view is further south along the periphery trail and once again shows the incoming waves bunching up as they get close to the shoreline. Because the beach is so shallow, the waves don't break on the shore but compress in the shallow sea off land in the area immediately before the beachhead. The beach was probably only 5 or so feet deep right below this cliff.
This is further north along the periphery trail and no longer affords a view of West Seattle but rather a more full-on view of Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge is a major suburban commuter area with heavy ferry traffic between it and Seattle at this end and heavy ferry traffic between Seattle and Bremerton, on the mainland on the other side of Bainbridge. A hint of the Olympic Mountains can be seen at the right above Bainbridge Island.
This is a full 360-degree panorama and shows the trail as it leads from the south entrance to the park to the main, periphery, trail along the cliffside of the bluff. This view is looking straight East with West at either end of the picture. Discovery Park is on the high ground in Magnolia so there are scant areas which are any higher than this one.
Here's another 360-degree pan taken from one of the bluff edges along the periphery trail. The entire field area in front used to be occupied by training barracks and outdoor exercise fields for the US Army's Fort Lawton training facility. The city reacquired this property in 1965. The Army had occupied this area for nearly 40 years previously and used the fort to train soldiers for both World War I and World War II.
This is at the western-most point of the park. Bainbridge Island is on the left side out in the Sound. West Seattle is on the right side abutting the lower area of Magnolia's peninsula. This view is looking due East. From the area where the couple is resting, it was a straight drop down about 100 feet to the beach below, I mean straight drop.
This view is slightly further south than the one previous and shows more of the edge vegetation. Barely visible in the right third above the shrubs is the FAA regional radar dome on stilts jutting above the landscape. West Seattle is across the water on the right and Bainbridge Island is across the water to the right of the sun glint.
There was one USGS benchmark posted on the edge of the western section of the park.
This is a close-up of the USGS benchmark. It's not clear whether Harry is the name of the benchmark or the name of the benchmarker.
Here I am risking life and limb by standing close to the edge of the cliff. Lighting was difficult and I tried to walk backwards so I was out of the glare of the sun. This is where having another person would have been useful. Fortunately, there were lots of log fences, the other side of which I was supposed to stay, which afforded a good resting spot for the camera so I could use the self-timer.
This is one of the intersecting streets and viewscapes along W Viewmont Way W showing off the Sound and Bainbridge Island. Yes, Katherine remarked that there were a lot of "wests" in the name of this particular street, the higher of two periphery roads which ring the western and southern slopes of Magnolia. Officially it's West Viewmont Way West. Far as I can tell there's no East Viewmont Way West and there's no Viewmont Way East, either. But, Seattle insists on the geographic identifiers.
Further along Viewmont there is this down-slope view of Vashon Island to the south of the Magnolia peninsula. It might be difficult to make out, but believe me that's Vashon in the distance.
And still further is this view from Viewmont of West Seattle and Alki Point. Truly a wonderful viewscape street and lots of impressive homes lining it, too.
Round another bend and there's a view of Downtown and the sports stadiums with parts of the harbor cranes visible as well.
This is a 180-degree panorama of a section of Viewmont showing the range and general tenor of the houses. Notice the "perfect" yards. I don't think in any other section of town are there this many manicured yards. The water tower in the center left is visible from other sections of the city.
Here's another 180-degree panorama showing Viewmont intersecting another street and the tremendous views which this area has. That's Bainbridge Island in the center right across the Sound.
I didn't find a home grocery deliver truck but I did find this most unusual traveling road show band - a complete dog grooming and cleaning salon in a van. Not shown in this photo was the hose which was running from the house to the rear of the van and which supplied presumably the fresh water for the cleaning. I could hear the sounds of muffled dog noises, so I'm guessing the van is fairly well sound-proofed. With the number of dogs in this town, each neighborhood has any number of "poodle palaces" and other dog grooming outfits. My favorites are the "do it yourself" ones because, although I have never been inside one, I imagine something like the scrubber brushes of a car wash with the dog being placed on a conveyor belt at one end and coming out the other end where the blow-dryers would be.
Here's yet another intersection with Viewmont and two other streets and yet again views of Bainbridge Island and the Sound. Viewmont, in addition to meandering around the western and southern slopes of Magnolia, also undulates several score feet in elevation as it does its meandering. Nearly all these homes have direct views of the Sound, most from nearly every window.
This was one of the more unusual architectural installations I ran across. Very tastefully and artfully designed and executed brick house with glass brick tiles used everywhere on the street side. The sun was not quite below the roof of the structure which is why the top is somewhat washed out. The front yard also had these birch trees laid out in an equally artful manner. No idea what something like this would cost to build. The roof was flat-panel slate. Notice the horizontal brick detailing running the length of the house at both windows levels.
This bend of Viewmont presents the skyscrapers of downtown clearly in the center. Elliott Bay is also visible to the right of the green street sign and to left of the red stop sign - both in the center-right area of the image.
And, because I know you didn't believe me, this is a close-up view of downtown from the same photograph as was used in making the 180-degree panorama image above. To give some sense of scale, the building to the far right, Smith Tower, is one-and-a-half miles from the Space Needle and from this spot it's 4.2 miles to Smith Tower and 2.9 miles to the Space Needle. The Space Needle is 605 feet high and the Bank of America tower is 967 feet high. The difference between those two heights is that the Space Needle is on what's left of Denny Hill at an altitude of a hundred or so feet and the Bank of America tower starts at 70 or so feet above sea level and is further away.
Coming down towards Magnolia Village from Viewmont as it nears the end of its course. At the bottom of the hill, in a little valley, is the urban village for all of Magnolia. Looks like a real nice small town, doesn't it?
Here's the major crossroads at Magnolia Village, 34th Avenue W and W McGraw Steet. 34th Avenue is the major north-south boulevard for central Magnolia and is lined pretty much the entire way with trees and set-back houses or public buildings such as schools and the post office.
This 180-degree panorama is at the western edge of the Magnolia Village and shows some of the other associated side streets to the town core.
This is the coffee corner, with Starbucks on the left and Tully's on the right. The independent coffee shop was on the same side of the street as Tully's and a little further down this block.
This is at the eastern end of the Village and this cross street is where the hardware and drugstore are located. This valley is in the center of Magnolia and runs between the neighborhood's two ridges, one on the eastern side towards Interbay and one on the western side towards the Sound.
This is where Magnolia Avenue finishes its around-the-bluff course and becomes W Galer Street and starts heading downhill toward the Magnolia Bridge. It's also the point on Magnolia where the underground utilities go above ground again.
This little side street is just down from the previous image and consisted of these two corner houses, the light brick structure on the left and the house behind the fence on the right and one final abode at the very edge of this point which had 180-degree sweeping views from its south side of Elliott Bay - from downtown on the left to the Sound and islands on the right. That's the northern end of West Seattle peering over the Bay in the middle.
On the south side of this bluff right where the Magnolia Bridge is about to start was formerly a US Navy installation. The Navy sold this back to the city recently and the hillside land will be turned into yet another Seattle viewpoint park. This section of Magnolia is called Smith's Cove and right below this is the lowland area of the harbor and railroad yards. Dr. Henry Smith was a territorial legislator before Washington became a state. He was also a doctor, botonist and farmer and in 1852 staked a 160-acre area claim on the land below here where he hoped to establish a harbor and convince the railroads to build. It took 35 years for that vision to begin happening. In the meantime Smith farmed this hill, treated the Duwamish tribal members who were still native to the hillside and farmed the area. Between then and 1887, when the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern Railroad began to build tracks in the area, Smith had acquired 1,000 additional acres and had become quite the local healer and landowner. In 1893 the Great Northern Railroad connected to this area and the port below joined the rest of the Seattle waterfront as a major deepwater port.
Just down from Smith Cove Park (to be) at the top of Magnolia Bridge. The Smith Cove harbor and wharves are easily visible in this view, about 100 feet above the sea-level grade below. That's Queen Anne Hill on the left with downtown just south of it. The land jutting out of the water on the right is the northern end of West Seattle and the bluff which overlooks Elliott Bay is Duwamish Head. The new harbor area can be seen dead-ahead demarked by the orange cranes. The Duwamish River empties into Elliott Bay just south of the new harbor, which is built on a landfill island at the Duwamish River estuary.
This is a 360-degree view of W Galer Street on the upper section of Magnolia Bridge. The view is straight down and into Smith's Cove (now Interbay) on the left and across to Queen Anne Hill on the right.
A closer look at the docks and wharves on the Elliott Bay, southern, side of Interbay, formerly Smith's Cove. The long white arm sticking up at an angle in the center of the picture is the viaduct which contains the feed lines between the grainery on the land and the grain ships which dock in the harbor, offshore.
This 360-degree panorama is pretty nearly the same spot as the close-up view above and shows the sweep of the harbor in this section of Elliott Bay. The sun is setting West-South-West in this view and dead-center is due west. West Seattle is visible across the harbor and appears as an island from this perspective.
This is midway down the bridge and is a 180-degree panorama showing only the southern side of the bridge with Queen Anne Hill on the left, the Interbay harbor in the center and the bluff which rises from Smith's Cove on the right with what's left of the old US Navy installation directly below the bluff on the waterfront. That's West Seattle dead-ahead across Elliott bay and one huge ocean tanker moored in the harbor.
This is nearing the bottom of the bridge with the railroad yards on the left and right and Magnolia Hill dead-center with Queen Anne Hill on the right.
This is a section of concrete abutment which was containing the earth for one of the interconnecting streets which joined the Magonlia Bridge. The entire abutment, some 500 feet or so, was all finished with this specially-cast concrete facing material, mimicking the coiled ropes one would find at a wharf. All over Seattle, the public infrastructure is built with these refinements depicting the neighborhood the structure was built in. This is true for infrastructure which was built during the WPA era and from then forwards. Nice touches all over town on the most obtrusive of objects.
This was the first of a series of duck shots. These guys swooped down and landed in this deep water draft area of Interbay harbor. They seemed to want to just glide in the sunlight.
Another view showing their combined wake. They also seemed to be paddling in unison.
Another pair which was closer to the wharf and swimming against the grain. Their wake is even more visible here than the ones above.
A more synoptic view of the general "duck pond" with the sun nearly set at this point.
A parting shot at these ducks as I headed south along the trail. They had paused for something and were just sitting there, basking in the late afternoon sun. Temperatures were in the low sixties, the water temperature was probably in the mid fifties.
This is just past the wharf area and at the point where the trail turns from going east-southeasterly to southerly. The grain elevator is on the left along with the ship it's currently loading or unloading out in the harbor. The tanker docked in the harbor is probably waiting to use the moorage at the grain elevator.
This is a 360-degree panorama along the Elliott Bay hike and bike trail with the grain elevator on the right and the ship it's connected to on the left. Moored in mid-harbor is a tanker, probably another grain vessel waiting for dockage at this platform. The pier in the center of the view is a fishing pier associated with the trail. The Interbay harbor area is dead-center and behind the pier. The slight rise behind the trees in the center is Magnolia Hill and the rise behind the grain elevator is Queen Anne Hill.
Just past the grain elevator along a stretch of the Elliott Bay hike and bike trail which comes near the shoreline. The sun was gone behind the clouds although there was still a significant sky glow from the back-lit clouds. Hardly any wind giving the Bay and Sound beyond a very peaceful appearance.
This is near the end of the trail as it approaches the northern end of downtown. The building dead-center is the Post-Intelligencer newspaper's new waterfront office with the Hearst Globe on top, barely visible as the blue sphere with the red horizontal line. The waterfront borders the trail on the west (to the right in this view) and the railroad tracks border it on the east (to the left in this view).
This area gives a fairly good view of the railroad tracks which pass between the hillsides of the city and the waterfront. This is just north of the area where Elliott Avenue curves around Queen Anne Hill. These condominiums are in western Lower Queen Anne. This is one of Sound Transit's "Sounder" commuter trains going north to Everett taking commuters home. It stops a few places before it reaches Everett, the northern edge of the Seattle metro area. Another Sounder run goes south to Tacoma.
Just west of the Seattle Center, at what would be Harrison Street if it went through, is this commemorative light house honoring the missing mariners who have lost their lives in the course of the city's history as a seaport. The light house is called "Shipmates Light."
This is the plaque affixed to the southern face of the stone foundation for the light house. The light atop the structure blinks once a second and is yellow.
Directly in front of the P-I's new offices with the Hearst Globe quite visible and the Space Needle serving as backdrop. This globe is one of those signs which has been part of Seattle history for countless decades and when the P-I moved to these new offices from their old facility at 5th Avenue and Wall Street, there was a local clamor to have the newspaper carry the globe and reinstall it on top of their new building. It cost $30,000 to remove it from the old building, refurbish it and reinstall it. It rotates, with the phrase "It's in the P-I" making a circuit about once a minute.
A close-up of the famous P-I globe with the Hearst eagle spreading its wings atop. My former employer, before the Park Service and NASA. It's got about 175,000 circulation versus the Seattle Times' 230,000. The Times is the more stodgy, business-friendly, paper and the P-I is the more liberal, individual rights newspaper. The two papers are under a Joint Operating Agreement with the Times providing the printing, circulation and advertising sales force. The papers publish different editions Monday through Saturday and a joint Sunday paper. It's one of only 13 JOA's still around (according to a 2000 Newspaper Guild website). The other twelve are in Albuquerque, Birmingham, Charleston (WV), Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Wayne, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Tucson, Salt Lake City, and York. The JOA's came into being after the Newspaper Preservation Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in 1970. The one in Cincinnati will expire in 2007 with both papers agreeing to the death of one (don't know which one of the two - the Enquirer or Post - will survive).
As an example of why the Newspaper Preservation Act is important, consider this. In 1973 Washington, DC, had three newspapers, each with a fairly decent circulation - the Washington Daily News, a New York-Post styled tabloid which had racing and sports cornered, the Evening Star which was a liberal-conservative paper which fully covered local events and politics and had an international set of bureaus, and the Washington Post which was a conservative-liberal up-and-coming newspaper which aspired to cover national politics and foreign policy. Fast forward to 2004 where the Nation's Capitol has the ultra-liberal super-circulation national Washington Post which gives reasonably short-shrift to local news, and the ultra-conservative Sun-Young-Moon Washington Times which gives opposition to the Post's liberal ventings but which covers local events and politics even worse than the Post. Are the residents of the Washington area being served by these two papers? No. Both papers serve their national audience first and their local audience second, if at all. Blame Evening Star and Riggs National Bank owner Joseph Lewis Albritton (JLA) for the demise of the Star. He also owns News Channel 8 and WJLA (ABC) radio and television in Washington. Riggs is the largest of the remaining hometown banks in Washington and is strictly a metropolitan bank these days, choosing not to compete with Bank of America, CitiBank, First Union, BB&T, and the rest of America's mega-banks. Long-time residents still lament the loss of the Evening Star, whose offices were right downtown at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue across from the Old Post Office, a building which still has Evening Star embedded in stone.
Posted: Sun - February 22, 2004