Seattle is one of the centers of the high tech world. As a result, it has been flooded by former honors students who specialize in being nice. But here’s the great thing about Seattle. It actually has a really gritty history. While it has been inherited by the geeks, it was actually formed by loggers and robber barons who built the city on a tidal flat.
Nestled down in Pioneer Square, the Seattle Underground tour is a great way to get a peek into Seattle’s unvarnished past.
Building on a tidal flat was not a wise idea. First of all, the city had a tendency to flood. Second of all, when people elected to install indoor plumbing, the raw sewage stalled at the bottom of the hills. As soon as the tide rolled in, all of that raw sewage was returned to the people who delivered.
After a fire leveled the city, the good citizens elected to rebuild, but aside from that, they decided to raise the city. As a result, Seattle was left with a subterranean underground. The tour is the only way to see it first hand.
Now if you’re a fan of the old Kolchak show, you won’t see a complete city like Darren McGavin did. What you actually see is a lot better. There are several underground tunnels complete with skylights, some of them still used as storage for above ground business.