Friday, September 20, 2013

Seattle Underground Tour by Beneath Streets @ Seattle, Washington

Seattle Underground is a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States that was ground level at the city's origin in the mid-19th century. After the streets were elevated these streets fell useless. The second level of structures begins construction after the Great Seattle Fire in 1889 which destroyed 31 blocks. Instead of rebuilding the city as it was before, there are two strategic options: first, that all new buildings must be of stone or brick, to prevent similar disaster in the future; and second to level up the streets one to two stories higher than the original street level. Pioneer Square had originally been built mostly on filled-in tidelands and it often flooded. When the higher level were constructed, ladder were used by pedestrian to access the lower level. Once the walk way completed, the businesses moved to upper level and the lower level were left abandoned. Some still use the lower level as storage space. Only a small portion of the Seattle Underground has been restored and accessible to the public on guided tours. You may join this tour provided by Beneath Streets to fully understand and experience Seattle Underground. The tour will bring you around Pioneer Square to see the restored section of Seattle Underground.


Look out for this signboard for Seattle Underground.

Waiting place and get ready for the Seattle Underground tour.


Part of the Seattle Underground. You can still see the remaining items such as toilet, sink and shop doors.

At some places, the shop owner converted the place to storage space to keep their item. You can see many beer container here.

Storage space but the items are unkept.

From above the street, you may see the glass cover.

From below, this is how the glass cover look like. There is some light passing thru.

Empty tunnel.

There a scale stick to the wall to measure if there is earthquake. This is to detect if there is any destruction from earthquake.

Old cabling and pipes at underground.

The wall to separate between shops to prevent thieves.

Old signboard. This level were once at street level but now is underground.

The shop owner plan to convert this space into useable area.

Another section of underground.

Back to above street in Pioneer Square.

GPS/Coordinate: 47.602858, -122.334087
Address: 102 Cherry St, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.
Price: USD7.00. I have discounted ticket. Normal price is USD12.00.

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