Sub-Seattle

Seattle is a town built on water, and I don't just mean in the sense of its industry. When it was established it was built on soggy tide flats, mostly out of wood. In 1889 the center of town was destroyed by a fire, and the Seattleites seized the opportunity to build a better, non-wooden and less soggy city. I've ripped the following description from the website of Bill Speidel's Underground Tour (http://www.undergroundtour.com), which explains it all better than I can:

The city built retaining walls, eight feet or higher, on either side of the old streets, filled in the space between the walls, and paved over the fill to effectively raise the streets, making them one story higher than the old sidewalks that still ran alongside them. Building owners, eager to capitalize on an 1890s economic boom, quickly rebuilt on the old, low, muddy ground where they had been before, unmindful of the fact that their first floor display windows and lobbies soon would become basements. Eventually, sidewalks bridged the gap between the new streets and the second story of buildings, leaving hollow tunnels (as high as 35 feet in some places) between the old and new sidewalks, and creating the passageways of today’s Underground.

Spooky old chair

The Seattle Underground

Fascinating stuff and the tour itself was great. Except that each time we came up for air it was raining, and once again, we didn't have wet weather gear on. Apparently you can't teach two old dogs new tricks, even if they've been buying lots of expensive weather-appropriate clothing.