Forgotten city under Seattle streets

Rome has its catacombs; Paris its sewers, and Seattle in America's Washington State has its underground city.

So, here I am beneath Seattle's sidewalks, surrounded by a tangle of water and sewerage pipes and rubble walking through what remains of Seattle's 19th century downtown waterfront area.

I look through a window at a blank wall – a window which once looked out on a seaport town that had its origins in logging and fishing.

Seattle's waterfront, at the base of steeply rising hills, was then a muddy swamp, so low that twice a day when the tide came in the sewerage system would back up and toilets became fountains.

A person could get blown out of a toilet or drown in a pothole. A whole generation of Seattle children was raised on the tide timetable which was published daily in the local newspaper.

Visitors to town, unaware of the eccentricities of the sewerage system, often were treated to a chilling experience. Newcomers became known as "wet backs".

Merchants tried to remedy the problem by creating a dais for the toilet systems. But people didn't like climbing a ladder to get to the toilet.

The waterfront's main industry was a sawmill surrounded by saloons, gambling houses and brothels for the mill workers. A typical slum.

(The term Skid Road – or Row – originated here where huge logs were skidded downhill to the mill and its surrounding depressed area.)

When a fire destroyed, in about 12 hours, 33 blocks of the settlement in 1889 it presented an opportunity to rebuild to fix the chronic and malodorous plumbing problem.

Streets would be rebuilt a full storey above the old, stranding many first-floor street fronts in subterranean sidewalks. Sewers could then be built to respond with greater respect for the tide and the law of gravity.

Seattle rebuilt and moved on to become provisioner for thousands of prospectors rushing to Canada's Klondike goldfields. The old quarter was forgotten – until local newspaper columnist Bill Speidel campaigned to save from possible extinction the area which was the city's birthplace.

That was more than 40 years ago. Responding to demand from locals wanting to inspect the old underground remains, Speidel himself led tours of the buried city – the Seattle equivalent of the ruins of Pompeii.

Today the underground tour (www.undergroundtour.com) is one of the city's major tourist attractions and in the American Automobile Club's list of major attractions in America.

Sixteen square blocks of the area have been named as an historic site. Any proposed exterior changes to buildings are screened for compatibility with the entire area. A couple of dozen old buildings have had restorations. So, Old Seattle is booming with new life.

Every hour, tours ($US12 ($NZ15.50) adult) start from a restored Doc Maynard's public house on Pioneer Place, on the corner of First Avenue and Yesler Way.

Like lines of obedient schoolchildren, tour groups march to the entrance to the underground and disappear to emerge elsewhere 90 minutes later. Our underground walk takes us through about a tenth of the 33-block forgotten city.

Four metres above me are the footpaths of today's Seattle. It's a fun history lesson, a humorous stroll through intriguing subterranean storefronts and sidewalks entombed when the city was rebuilt.

As we mingle with the old dirt and rusting sewers, heavy timber beams, old furniture and cobwebs, we learn of the corruption and scandal that marked early Seattle. We pass an old bank vault where, our guide tells us, there have been more than 50 ghostly sightings. Don't take the tour if you have a fear of bad jokes or dark, musty basements.

The tour ends in Rogues Gallery where you'll find displays showing the city's past and its memorabilia, including the bawdy, rough-and-tumble Klondike goldrush period.

For another take on old Seattle, you can join a tour (May to September only) of the city's infamous old redlight district and enjoy stories of opium, graft, sex and debauchery.

The Pioneer Square block itself is worth exploring for cobblestone parks, Victorian-era buildings, a glass and cast iron pergola or arbour, huge authentic Indian totem poles and the Smith Tower, the city's beloved skyscraper which was once the tallest building outside New York.

Skid Road still has several missions and shelters for the homeless. Today's Seattle is best known as the home of Microsoft and giant aircraft company Boeing and birthplace of Starbucks, the coffee shop chain.

The city is known, too, as one of the wettest cities in America. (It is also said to have the highest per capita sales of sunglasses in America because when the sun does shine people have forgotten where they put their sunglasses.)

A few blocks away from Pioneer Square is Pike Place Public Market, one of America's oldest continuously operating open-air markets. Pike Place is open daily and features growers, bakers, fishmongers, arts and crafts and street performers in a colourful and festive atmosphere.

You might even see a fishmonger, to the delight of tourists, tossing a large salmon to a colleague for weighing and wrapping.

For a great view of the city visit the Space Needle. This iconic, 200-metre high landmark of Seattle and, indeed, of the Pacific Northwest was built for the World's Fair in 1962.

A good deal is the CityPass which gives you visits to five Seattle attractions for $US39.50 – Argosy Harbour Cruise, Pacific Science Center, Museum of Flight – one of the world's greatest air and space museums with more than 85 air and spacecraft. and Seattle Aquarium and Woodland Park Zoo.

A good way to see Seattle is on an Argosy Cruises tour (www.argosycruises.com) of Puget Sound.

IF YOU GO:

Qantas economy return flights to Los Angeles, with connections to Seattle, from Sydney start at $2,173 including taxes; from Melbourne, $2,255; from Brisbane, $2,265 and from Perth, $2,736. Cathay, from $2086, including taxes.

- AAP