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Understanding 9/11tv Northern Pacific Railroad CSPAN August 13, 2017 9:50pm-10:01pm EDT
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this year, c-span is touring cities across the country, exploring american history. next, a look at our recent visit to do,, washington. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> in the years before the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, tacoma was not dissimilar from most of the other small communities around the pacific northwest. the population present was predominantly native american. of the 19th century, coming over the oregon trail and some by sea, small little villages of americans and europeans had arrived mostly along the shoreline and that was
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because the primary purpose for people that were settling was cutting timber and milling timber that was then sent down to san francisco. that prompted a lot of doors and small investment adventures to come up and build cities. seattle, bellingham, townsend, small,, they were all small is communities of 52 a few hundred people. of theo becoming transcontinental. at the conclusion of the civil war and the announcement that the railroad was coming -- every community hoped that they would be the terminal city, they would be chosen for the railroad.
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being betweeno seattle, tacoma and olympia. by 1873, by early 1873, the transcontinental was being built in two directions. rail,n't have just one the big decision was congress in the charter for the railroad had dictated that the section from the columbia river needed to be completed and the railroad company needed to bring steam engines to saltwater by december of 1873. in july of that year, the traps and been laid for columbia pathway to where it is today on i-5 and then it was in july of
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that year. all the time, the railroad had been entertaining offers from the various communities, cash, land, port facilities, whatever the the community city could put together to lower the railroad there. in january or july of 1873, july 14, the final decision between seattle and two, was made. was made.oma it was not only set up to be derived for goods and travelers but also for the arrival of the telegraph which meant news and banking and communications. the course of the aanscontinental railroad was
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big deal for the far west. -- reason to, was picked there is a multitude of reasons. primary reasons are that this is an absolutely perfect harbor. especially for sailing vessels. even today, it is an ideal harbor. a deep water harbor, tied and lots of area for warps. rock --solid bread bedrock. you can bring the train right up to the dock and be able to load goods off and on of the ship. that was part of it. thatly, another reason was the railroad was built on land grant. the federal government divided the whole route into square-mile blocks and surveyed it. the railroad got a checkerboard
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and every other parcels as payment for building the railroad. in seattle, most of seattle had already been state claimed and was owned by the residents of seattle. in tacoma, a much smaller population, much more vacant ground. they came here because they can literally on the city. when they arrived here, this was part of the first half of its life. the railroad came in and this had at that, land company and he began to profit off of the sale of land. it went from forest land that was practically valueless to suddenly urban real estate that they could profit off of. they brought wealth with them and they were able to turn around and profit from it. we can see elements of that because not only did they own
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the lands and thereby on the terms by which they would sell the land to somebody wanted to build a building or whatever, e-house, -- a house, they were able to enforce their own ideas about how they wanted the city to look. you very much sense that today on the campus. there is a sturdy brick warehouse that were built under the guidelines that were imposed by the railroad. the builders of the warehouses would meet the cash terms to buy the land in the first place but the railroad's been dictated the design, the construction method of the building themselves. these 35 warehouses are often much the ideaetty of the force to building standards that the railroad had.
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by the 1930's and into the 40's, the neighborhood began to recede a little bit as the automobile took over and passenger traffic by rail faded away. warehouses still began and in operation but as the port modernized, a lot of the big grocery warehouses and hardware moved out into the industrial port area. the paradigm became almost forgotten anyway, it was still a utility, it was still used. it wasn't appreciated or understood. really, after the second world war, even passenger services stopped on the paradigm in 1955. the last passenger service stopped on the prairie line.
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by the 1990's, the city itself began to go through a real revival. because of the sturdy, well built infrastructure, the environment of tacoma, the recovery of the city largely happened around the u.s. -- reuse of the historic buildings. it was during back here that the people began to realize that the origin of the city is still intact. it is still here and still functioning. thehe 1990's, in the end of current century, after 2000's the campus decided that the university of washington should launch the cap is here. they had been downtown. they moved to the warehouse district and began buying up all of the empty warehouses and building a modern-day campus. ago, about 2010 --
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with the expansion of the library, for the first time, people began to talk about intruding on the 80 foot right-of-way on the prairie line that was -- there was conversation being had about building at the campus. that somebody remembered the 80 foot right-of-way is where everything started. the university made a very courageous decision to keep the right-of-way as open space, to keep the loading docks has covered pedestrian ways and to keep as much of a good as the of the railroad still intact. the prairie line has been modernized. railcars don't use it anymore,
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it is now the linear central open space of the campus. here, theycoming don't just enjoy a modern campus, they get a very authentic look at the narrative -- tacoma, to, our staff recent travel to tacoma, washington, to learn more about its rich history. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. founded in 1846, the smithsonian institution was originally housed in a redstone building on the national mall known as the castle. up next, a behind the en
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