Thursday, October 14, 2010

{ The underground adventure }

We didn't do lots of research before we went to Seattle, but something that everyone was really happy to recommend was doing the "Seattle Underground Tour."

Here's the deal on the tour and why it exists. Before Seattle was an established city, they built it without knowing about the tides and the sea level. Seattle is below sea level which means it can flood easily and it did.

So instead of moving to higher ground, they built their new city on top of the existing city. Thus raising the buildings out of danger of the water and raising their buildings above sea level. That's how the underground was created.

Our tour guide told us that so many people that live in Seattle do not know the true history of it and don't know these underground tunnels of the old city exist. Mysterious and spooky. . . right up my alley.

To prove that he did a little experiment. When the new city was built, they constructed skylights of colored glass so that the tunnels below have some natural light.

We took some pictures above it. . .

And below it. . .

He turned off all the lights below and has us scream to see if anyone above us noticed!

The entrance to the tunnels just looked like the basement. Once you got down these stairs, you had to go down another staircase underground.

And this is what you saw when you got down to the bottom of the tunnels!



We also wandered through this tunnel and he told all of us not to talk as we walked through it. After we had passed through it he asked us if all of our cameras worked and if we had felt anything.
Turns out that part is supposedly haunted and people have felt and seen things happen. Not us!

There were so many old parts of the city down there. There were old abandoned pieces of furniture, bathrooms, toilets, and building equipment.




There were also old signs from landmarks.


He told us too that we would have many more tunnels to explore and much more history of early Seattle life, if more buildings would excavate their basements. He said many did not because of the high cost and no need for additional space. It makes you think what else there is under it all!

One room that he told us used to be a parlor back in the day, had pretty walls and paint. I can't imagine what it would be like to create such a lovely room only to have it flooded!




The underground was an awesome adventure. If you are ever in seattle do this. You will have a jolly good time.

4 comments:

Mel and Paul said...

That's really cool Linds!! Looks like you guys had a really fun trip!!

MeiLani and Michael said...

Linds! Help! I'm pregnant again and want to get a matching Caden Lane blanket like the one you got me from work. Where did you get it monogrammed? Was it through? Caden Lane? Love that you are back in the blogging world sidenote.

Dowland Fam said...

That is super cool! We heard about it when we went to Seattle but didn't get to go on the tour. Now I want to see it.

Rebecca said...

glad you are back blogging! nice to catch up on your adventures... must go to seattle soon!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...