A Park, a Station, and Segregation
This week HistoryLink showcases some of our new Tacoma content, made possible by funding from the City of Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Commission. We begin with a stroll through Point Defiance Park, which was founded in 1888 and now welcomes more than 3 million visitors a year. Containing a network of trails and paths, the park is also home to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, a relocated Fort Nisqually, lush gardens, and more. Five years ago, Dune Peninsula opened there and has sweeping views overlooking the water.
Next, we travel to Union Station, built by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1911 at the height of passenger rail travel. Trains had been going in and out of Tacoma for decades before that, and Tacomans welcomed the grand station when it opened. By the 1980s, passenger service had dropped off, and the building was showing its age. After a massive restoration project, Union Station became a federal courthouse. A 1926 plaque honoring the first passenger train to Tacoma can be found nearby.
We end our set on a serious note, with a look back at redlining, racial covenants, and housing discrimination. During the first half of the twentieth century, the private sector in real estate used various methods to bar people of color from buying, renting, or occupying property, and the Home Owners Loan Corporation drew "redlining maps" for Tacoma to help banks and mortgage lenders identify safe areas for investments. Local activists fought to eliminate such overt forms of discrimination until the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, but the residual effects of redlining and racial covenants are still being felt.
Notable Dates in Transportation
This week appears to be a quite popular time in Washington for bridge openings. The University Bridge in Seattle opened on July 1, 1919, replacing the Latona Bridge, which opened exactly 28 years earlier on July 1, 1891. Nearby, the Montlake Bridge opened on June 27, 1925, and on July 1, 1958, the second Columbia River Interstate Bridge opened between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.
In 1940, two noteworthy Washington bridges opened one day apart. On July 1, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was dedicated, as was the Lake Washington Floating Bridge the following day. Both bridges were marvels of their time. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was high, long, and slender – too slender as it turns out, as high winds caused its collapse a few months later. When the Lake Washington Bridge opened it was the largest floating structure in the world, but years later it too suffered a disaster when it sank during a storm in 1990. Both bridges were rebuilt and now have parallel spans nearby.
And finally we note one Washington bridge that has two anniversaries this week. On June 30, 2010, the South Park Bridge over the Duwamish River ended its career after carrying traffic for almost 80 years. The neighborhood mourned its loss, but celebrated four years later when a new bridge opened in its place 10 years ago this week, on June 29, 2014.
