U.S.S. Roosevelt leads a marine parade through the Ballard locks to dedicate the Lake Washington Ship Canal on July 4, 1917.

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On July 4, 1917, for the dedication ceremonies of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, the U.S.S. Roosevelt leads a marine parade of 300 commercial and pleasure craft through the Ballard locks to Lake Union and Lake Washington.

The S.S. Roosevelt was famous for transporting Admiral Robert Peary (1856-1920) on his North Pole expedition in 1909. Between February 5, 1916 and the July 4 dedication ceremonies, 17,000 vessels had already passed through the ship canal.

Although once envisioned as an access point to a new Naval base, the Ship Canal project, which connected Puget Sound, Lake Union, and Lake Washington, had been so long delayed that the base had already been built across the sound in Bremerton. In any case, naval ships soon became too broad across the beam to enter the larger of the two locks.

The locks were later renamed for General Hiram Chittenden (1858-1917), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer who championed construction of the Ship Canal.

Sources:
Walt Crowley, National Trust Guide Seattle (New York: Preservation Press, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998); Passport to Ballard (Seattle: Ballard News Tribune, 1988); Don Duncan, Washington: The First One Hundred Years: 1889-1989> (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 1989), 37-38.

By Patrick McRoberts, June 26, 1999

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Adm. Peary's flagship opens the Ballard locks on July 4th, 1917
Courtesy MOHAI