Tomato seeds are apparently indestructible, even after sewage treatment. When Seattle bought the Gas Works Park property to create Lake Union’s first park, the soil was too polluted to grow grass, so the city coated the site with sewer sludge. The grass grew well and, during the first summer, an added bonus of tomatoes sprouted in the park. Gas Works Park displays rusting remnants of a 1902 gasification plant that converted coal to liquid fuel for streetlights and cooking stoves. The last gas was made in 1957 when a new pipeline brought natural gas from British Columbia.

Virginia V – 125’ wooden double-decked passenger vessel built in 1922 powered by an 1898 oil fired steam engine. The last remaining steamer of the Mosquito Fleet, she provided passenger & freight service to & from Seattle, Tacoma, and many small communities until 1972.

Southern Lake Union once extended to what is today Mercer Street.

A visitor to Lake Union Park sees a lake buzzing with activity.

An 1889 fire that claimed over twenty-five city blocks, every wharf and mill from Union to Jackson Streets, and one million rats, spurred Seattle to ban wooden buildings in the business district downt