Life on the Duwamish

The two bridges linking Fortress West Seattle to the mainland form a nice gateway to the Waterway. Contrary to popular belief, this tower does not keep the inmates in West Seattle; rather, it controls the Lower Spokane Street Swing Bridge. The fascinating thing about the bridge (right), is that it opens by having one leaf, or both, swing horizontally, not vertically, about a pivot. If you've never seen it in operation, it's pretty surreal to watch its roadway and light poles swing away from you sideways.

Kellogg Island. This is the only wooded island on the lower Duwamish; it is a sort of natural preserve and habitat restoration area. In the foreground and proceeding to the right is the straightened channel of the Waterway. The channel going behind (west) the island is a natural meander of the Duwamish river. It is the only natural meander left in this lower portion.

The river has its share of Superfund, and otherwise polluted, sites but that should not stop the intrepid urban adventurer from exploring. If you do go out in a small vessel like this fellow, make sure you are adept at navigation, as you'll have to steer clear of large tugs, barges, fishing nets bouyed close to shore, and apparently an emphatic ebb current.

Local Native tribespeople fish the river using seines, which are nets that hang just below the water line and are suspended by buoys. Due to the nature of the water, eating more than sparse quantities of fish from the river is not recommended.

Containers aren't just restricted to Harbor Island proper. The stretch from the Island upriver to Georgetown has piles of them sitting next to the shore. From the water, they look like they are going to tip and capsize the shore into the river.

Continuing Seattle's domination of Alaskan maritime affairs, barges like the pictured Stikine Provider load up all manner of goods for transport up north. As this photo shows, things like pick-ups, trailers, box trucks, and even pleasure boats are just loaded on naked and chained down for the ride.

One of two car-crushing yards in the area is located right here on the banks of the river. Our tour spent quite a bit of time here because navigation further upstream was not possible do to some tied-up barges and (fishing) gilllnets that were in the way. That was quite alright, though, because, as television commercials tell us, everybody loves car crushing mayhem.

But we saw more than just the crushing of automobiles. This plant also seemed to be shredding the old carcasses, presumably to be able to separate the recyclable metal from the plastics, glass, squeezings of young children, and other materials that are found in your average Pontiac. The result is what, from far away, looks like a refined pile of fine metal that mechanized yard machines constantly sift, pick, and fuss through.

Of course, to maintain and sustain all of this activity, especially the heavy industry, the lower Duwamish's channel must be maintained at a sufficient depth for large ships, this requires several large fleets of dredging vessels equipped with cranes to scoop out the river bed. By far, and perhaps second only to tugs, these were the most numerous of all the vessels we saw tied up in the Waterway.

We've got to hand it to the old salts who operate in various capacities on this urban stream. Despite the sometimes gloomy talk about pollution, things are being done to mitigate some of it. There's been some successful clean here and there. Local groups, as well as local Native tribes, are working to restore habitat, for example. Both the Port and the City have peppered the working waterfront with small public accesses. And despite the fact that the Duwamish remains a heavily industrialized waterway, at the very least the various bits of floating infrastructure are absurdly colorful and pretty to look at.

Our good friend and Seattle native, Mr. JT Glover, commented to us that the Duwamish is

such a striking example of American riverine life. In the days of my father's Ill-Fated Boat, it was docked in South Park and we would take it down to the mouth of the river, piddling around. Herons, industrial waste, mud the color of concrete...

Piddling around. That's what we did the other day and it's something we'd like to come back and do on our own sometime. Waterways are excellent for piddling, and this river seems to be especially suited for it, as there is so much to catch your eye. Grab a friend sometime and check it out.