I featured this as Martian Pipeline Posse on Broadway on Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. Go read about the residents of these houses and their strange religious beliefs.

Original is at Seattle Municipal Archives.

Work on the first Cedar River Water Supply System began in the spring of 1899. The dam, headworks, and pipeline work was let to the Pacific Bridge Company whose workers are depicted here building Cedar River Pipeline No. 1. Total cost of work on the system was $1,250,000. Item 7299, Water Department Photographic Negatives (Record Series 8200-13 ), Seattle Municipal Archives.

On Renton Hill, located east of downtown, is a road named Beacon Way which runs diagonal to the city street grid. The reason for its odd orientation is because it’s the right-of-way for the City of Seattle's Cedar River Pipeline that runs through Renton and transports water from the Cedar River to Seattle.

In the "then" image from 1899, courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives and then colorized, the pipeline will soon be installed in Beacon Way near Renton Ave S. The photo looks northwest and provides a great view of Renton 125 years ago. The line of tall trees on the left partially obscures the Black River which connects to Lake Washington. The Cedar River is on the right (also partially obscured by trees) and you can see where it feeds into the Black. Skyway-Bryn Mawr hill has no visible homes and downtown Seattle can’t been seen in the distance. In the “now” image, there is one Renton Hill house (on the left) that still stands, there are many more buildings in Renton and its hills, the Seattle skyline is now visible, and the Black River no longer exists since the 1917 completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal which lowered the lake 9-11 feet.

Today, the Cedar River Pipeline consists of 3 large watermains in Beacon Way. These pipes run underneath 2nd Street and 3rd Street in downtown, eventually crossing Rainier Ave at 2nd Street and then continuing northwest to Beacon Hill in Seattle.

This is another "then and now" from Renton Hill along Beacon Way. The photos look northwest and were taken on the lower slopes of the hill. The "then" photo is from 1899 and courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives and colorized. It shows workers constructing Seattle's Cedar River Pipeline that runs through Renton and transports water from the Cedar River to Seattle. The brick building on the left is the Snoqualmie Falls Power Substation at 3rd and Mill. In the "now" photo, Renton Hill no longer continuously slopes to downtown due to the presence of the I-405 highway and overpasses, but the substation building is still partially visible (yellow arrow).

The portion of I-405 in Renton opened in September 1965 and was originally called the Renton Freeway. Like other interstate highways, it greatly altered the city's landscape. The highway curves around Renton Hill in the infamous Renton S-curves, which had more drastic turns when it first opened that caused slowdowns and accidents. The curves were "straightened" in the 1990s. Construction on another major I-405 expansion project is currently underway.

#rivbike #seattlelandmark #cedarriverpipeline #seenwhileridingmybike #cyclinginwinter #sackvillesaddlesack #sackvillebarsack #errandonneuring #urbanindustrial #☯️

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