the city of seattle in washington state is one of the biggest on the american west coast seattle
is historically regarded as one of the most unique and visually stunning cities in the
world and is known for its tech industry massive forest and futuristic space needle
but did you know that there once existed a different and darker face to the city
completely underground you see underneath the streets of pioneer square neighborhood
lies a hidden section of seattle which at one time hosted an array of commerce
both legal and illegal as well as shops homes storage and a collection of fascinating history
unknown to most this came as the result of seattle's reconstruction following the great fire
of 1889 the streets were lifted several stories above ground level leaving all the surrounding
buildings to partially dwell underground thus the seattle underground was born after only a
few decades the city shut down the underground for public health and safety concerns but some areas
remain in use for various nefarious activities while the rest were left abandoned today we
journey into seattle's underground city i'm your host ryan socas and you're watching it's history
the city of seattle washington was founded nearly 170 years ago in 1851 and it originally started
out as a community of people looking to get into the timber industry and many people
including the city's own citizens are unaware that the neighborhood called pioneer square in
downtown seattle is actually the birthplace of this great city this is also where the seattle
underground is located so let's start at the very beginning since the founding of the city seattle's
biggest issue was climate and geography seattle is situated right on sea level and it was built upon
a slice of land between the pacific ocean and lake washington modern sewage systems still used today
are based on water flow and involve underground pipes sewers and toilets which were once called
water closets these systems born to the mid-1800s changed the way that cities worked across the
world however seattle being on sea level and in between two vast bodies of water would prove to be
a huge obstacle for these new systems the sewage pipes would eventually all filter out to the ocean
but as the high tide would come in the water would run in the opposite direction and the pipes would
overflow resulting in a very graphic and horrific situation where the reverse flow of the pipes
would be so bad that raw sewage would shoot out of people's toilets like a geyser which obviously was
not a pleasant sight for seattle citizens seattle is also a city that experiences constant and heavy
rainfall so as the rain streams down street this would often lead to the sewage system becoming
overwhelmed alongside the water from the high tide outside of the sewers heavy rain would also be
a major problem for the city as it caused severe mudslides in the streets that would be deep enough
to swallow people whole it soon became apparent to city officials that a mass reconstruction of
seattle was required to solve these problems but that was simply too expensive and challenging
to authorize that was until the great fire of 1889 of course you see in june of that
year a carpenter's apprentice accidentally let boiling glue come into contact with wood chips
which sparked into a huge fire and given the fact that seattle was built almost entirely out of wood
the fire grazed through the city's center without stopping for almost 24 hours a combination of
ocean wind fanning the flames in the summer heat along with a dysfunctional fire hydrant system
led to the most devastating fire in seattle's history seeing 25 blocks completely destroyed
along with the entire business district though luckily there were no deaths reported in any
official records in hindsight many actually viewed the great seattle fire of 1889 as a good thing
since it served as a turning point for the city now seattle was forced to remodel itself and with
over 120 thousand dollars in relief money they had the funds to do so this is the environment that
led to the creation of the seattle underground the reason that the fire of 1889 was so destructive
was that all the buildings were made of wood so going forward they required the buildings
to be reconstructed of stone or brick along with new buildings as well in the midst of all this
reconstruction it was thought that three major problems wood buildings mud and sewage could
be solved at once as a result the city officials decided to raise the streets with these new plans
all the streets and pioneer square would be raised one story higher or about eight feet above ground
level stone walls would be built on either side of the street and then the area in between would be
filled with new street on top this way stone streets as opposed to mud would mean no more
mudslides and now there would also be far more space for bigger and more efficient sewage pipes
that could handle the excess water from high tides and rain however the project to raise the streets
was planned to take nearly a decade to finish and in the meantime businesses had to go about
their daily commerce as they simply could not wait for 10 years so as time went by and construction
continued shops hotels and restaurants maintained their everyday activities knowing eventually that
the first and sometimes even second floors of their buildings would be entirely underground
once the new streets were finally finished the new sidewalks were connected to the old ones through a
series of tunnels staircases and ladders however the staircases and ladders would often be so
steep that several deaths were caused when unwary or inebriated pedestrians did not watch where they
were walking at night seattle would experience great change just prior to the turn of the century
with the 1897 yukon gold rush of alaska which saw over 100 000 ambitious miners trek across
the united states in order to reach alaska the travelers would have to go through seattle first
before shipping upstream this brought all kinds of new people and businesses to the city many
businesses in pioneer square capitalized on the gold rush and stocked up on supplies to sell to
the incoming miners so the seattle underground was then used as a storage space for all the supplies
but this would end up causing a mass infestation of rats it was a disturbing sight as there were so
many rats in the underground that people would claim the floor looked as if it was moving the
so-called swamp of rats quickly spiraled out of control and started to affect the entire city it
wasn't soon after that seattle experienced an outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1907
as a result with this in mind the city officials formally condemned the underground beginning
a new chapter in its history after about a decade the yukon gold rush began to die down
along with it went the mass influx of travelers to seattle most of the more lucrative legitimate
businesses left pioneer square to go elsewhere in the city leaving the once prestigious square
to take on a rather negative reputation you see the fledging reputation of pioneer square
due to the fleeing commerce also coincided with the emergence of the seattle underground
as a mysterious community completely separate from those above ground with the city's condemnation of
the underground and the lack of legitimate business in the area all that remained was
the illegal and clandestine enterprises who now had free reign to rule the underground
then once the prohibition era began in the 1920s and alcohol was banned across the united states
the seattle underground became a prime location for speakeasies illegal bars that sold alcohol
during prohibition but were also associated with jazz music organized crime flappers and
other popular culture icons of the 1920s in the underground many restaurants or bars that
were now under the streets were repurposed into these speakeasies that attracted many customers
as we mentioned before this brought about many safety hazards as numerous intoxicated patrons
would fall to their death around the ladders trying to enter or leave the underground
over time the seattle underground morphed into a topic that was rarely discussed in formal dialogue
as it did not officially exist it soon became a thing of myths rumors and tall tales but by
the 1930s the public intrigue grew large enough that a group of private investors led by a man
who called himself captain g ventured into the underground in 1936. the goal of their journey
was the investigation of illegal gambling and racketeering operations which were suspected to be
large and lucrative they would then report their findings in the seattle star a popular newspaper
publication for the first half of the 20th century captain g and his investigators concluded that the
seattle underground was not actually as bad as the public perception of it was in fact they
noted that it was an entirely different community within itself and they led a relatively civil
society where most adhered to their own laws granted these laws which they obeyed were not
the official laws of seattle and the people still engaged in numerous illegal activities that the
general public viewed as socially degenerate what the investigators observed was that the
seattle underground was not necessarily worse than any of the other crime districts within the city
or others across the united states that being said the criminal operation in the seattle
underground still posed a huge detriment to the city overall because all legitimate businesses
are heavily taxed by the city government and often have to pay costly license fees none of
the profits from the illegal businesses in the underground ended up in the city's circulation
the underground cost seattle millions of dollars in lost tax revenue annually not only were these
illegitimate businesses profitable but they were also plentiful as captain g and his
investigators found many bookies games of blackjack lotteries slot machines and racing spots
however due to the action of these investigators who had been granted a plea from a grand jury
to look into the underground lots of the racing spots began to close down resorts became deserted
slot machines disappeared and over time it seemed the entire illegal industry in the underground
faded away in 1939 the puget sound earthquake which measured as a 6.2 on the richter scale
shook seattle and many parts of the underground were filled with debris most of which remains
there to this day but other than that earthquake the seattle underground stayed rather undisturbed
for the better part of 30 years ever since the illegal gambling rings were broken up well these
series of passageways evolved into sensationalist rumors and myths surrounding the criminal
underworld in the 1910s 1920s 40s and 50s the seattle underground almost disappeared completely
from the public mind and everyday citizens would walk the streets without knowing the vast array
of corridors that lied just beneath their feet it wasn't until the 1960s that the underground
was rediscovered when a writer from pioneer square named bill spidel uncovered old newspapers talking
about the old and secretive passageways under the city after writing about his discoveries and
gaining an overwhelming amount of public curiosity bill spidel created the seattle underground tour
in 1965 by popular demand on the tour customers are taken into the underground itself where they
can experience the mysterious atmosphere first hand they also learn the deep history of this
unusual structural phenomenon the tour still exists today and remains very popular while
20 blocks of pioneer square were officially recognized as a historic district by the city
ever since the creation of the tour many people claim that the seattle underground
is a common sight for ghost sightings and other forms of paranormal activities for example many
who take the tour say that they have a constant uneasy feeling throughout well some have seen
and heard unexplained things while taking the tour there have also been several notes
of strange occurrences involving moving objects or changes to pictures or paintings some people
even notice strange figures in the pictures they take themselves while on the tour skeptics would
say that this phenomenon is just played up by the tour guides to sell more tickets but for those
with an imagination it does make sense for the seattle underground to be rife with unexplained
occurrences given its long and dark history in fact the 2021 horror film malignant which was
directed by famous horror director james 1 deals with the seattle underground in its own storyline
the seattle underground remains a strange and very interesting part of seattle's history starting off
as a structural solution to sewage problems mud-covered streets and landslides it slowly
evolved into the breeding ground for dangerous diseases before hosting the perfect arena for
criminal activities such as illegal gambling nowadays the seattle underground stands as a
shadow of its former self with the tour serving as a reminder of the deep lying history that
stains its stone walls and wooden ladders so next time you're walking the streets of seattle
be wary of the ground you step upon you never know what might lie beneath it that's it for
today guys hit that subscribe button to catch new videos every thursday and saturday feel
free to put your episode ideas in the comments section below this is ryan socash signing off