Seattle Moves a Mountain: The Story of the Denny Regrade, c. 1930

Seattle Moves a Mountain: The Story of the Denny Regrade, c. 1930 - 1970

Рет қаралды 67,464

9 жыл бұрын

Original format: Digital Betacam (transferred from 16mm), black and white with sound.
A film created by the Seattle Engineering Department about the history of the Denny Regrade. Includes footage as well as still images of the downtown Seattle area with maps, models, and drawings of future projects.
Item 3271, Record Series 1204-05, Seattle Municipal Archives

Пікірлер: 91

@tackyman2011 5 жыл бұрын

This is fascinating. Those barges are ingenious.

@chasgotthespins6124 5 жыл бұрын

I love these historical films, thank you for uploading these.

@tristankline6676 6 жыл бұрын

Very cool to finally get a sense of the history of a place I've called home.

@tudorjason 3 жыл бұрын

I don't think I've seen pictures of the city before regrading started. The Denny Hill was big!

@cme98 Жыл бұрын

Dude, anywhere east of the Rockies that hill would be called a mountain. What we call hills they call mountains, what we call mountains they cant grasp. They never saw anything 14,000 feet tall or 8,000 feet tall. You cant imagine what you know nothing of.😅

@MartsGarage Жыл бұрын

That was very interesting. Thanks for making this footage available.

@vudu8ball Ай бұрын

Fabulous !

@catherinehansel Жыл бұрын

Sad that so many historic buildings had to be destroyed during this project. Even Seattle's first park! It almost seems like it was more of a hassle to remove Denny Hill than it would have been to keep it... but who knows!

@willowdog5084 3 жыл бұрын

ok is there anyone watching this for fun?

@vipermad358 3 жыл бұрын

Me!

@JadedLady 6 ай бұрын

I am.

@thomasthompson6378 Жыл бұрын

I haven't (yet) watched a single frame of this, but I do hope they'll show that, when Denny Hill was "regraded," it totally destroyed one of the largest and newest hotels in the city, as well as everything else on the Hill.

@RealLifeFinance Ай бұрын

Seems very strange

@charlesmcintyre1081 5 жыл бұрын

This area of this regrade contains some of the most unsightly streets in Seattle. A case of man trying to tame nature, and he ends up neutering the beauty of the natural world. The video explains clearly that the motivation to regrade Denny Hill was financial in origin.

@HungryH1951 5 жыл бұрын

You got that right. Instead of resembling San Francisco with it's hills and buildings we got the mess we have now. It's nearly if not criminal what these businessmen did to Seattle.

@DanPackard Жыл бұрын

Truly tragic how such natural beauty was mowed down and carved away. The wonderful old Washington hotel and other genteel buildings, and a spacious city park with tremendous views, obliterated and flattened. The majority of that area was turned into flat parking lots, some which still exist today, nearly 100 years later! It was an engineering marvel, but an expensive environmental and political tragedy.

@MikeLempriere 11 ай бұрын

Wonderful historic of old Seattle! (Audio is so quiet I had to turn on closed captioning.)

@SJR_Media_Group 2 жыл бұрын

Even today this would be very large grading project. Technology and equipment has improved. Fill placed in water would be done much different today. There was no compaction, no screening / grading fill material. Clay was dumped along with glacial till and silts. None are good fill material as placed. The next 'big one' earthquake will liquefy fill and major damage will happen. Many of the buildings on fill have no piles. Today, a seawall would be built and in some areas water pumped out. Dry fill on dry base with compaction is current technology.

@hebneh 5 жыл бұрын

I imagine the Denny Regrade has long since been developed by now, but it's interesting that it was completed in 1930 but by 1970 was still not fully built on, to judge by the narration.

3 жыл бұрын

its still an undeveloped shithole

@wendyrx Жыл бұрын

Makes me so proud to be one of the descendants of the Denny party. My great grandmother was Nellie Denny.

@RealLifeFinance Ай бұрын

Sweet!

@MrWolfTickets 3 жыл бұрын

10:35 Woah, those electric shovels weren't Diesel Electric- but actually plugged in!!!

@tombirkland 2 жыл бұрын

Similar to the big drag line diggers at open pit coal mines. They are amazing machines.

@DanDDirges 7 жыл бұрын

Really good and interesting video! I don't think todays Seattle would have done the regrades out of concern for the environment.

@wildone106 5 жыл бұрын

Yes no concern for its actual citizens

@vipermad358 3 жыл бұрын

@@wildone106 Many people were against these regrades at the time. If you read some history books, instead of using your flawed supposition, you would know that. But, I suspect the truth does not actually concern you. 🤔

@dg7259 Жыл бұрын

@@vipermad358o

@misst1741 5 жыл бұрын

great vid.

@Dimension150 Жыл бұрын

UA Cinemas at 17:44! The location of this theater was referred to as "in the Denny regrade".

@fullmoonAZ Жыл бұрын

David Denny deserves a lot more recognition. He was an amazing man, integral to the birth of Seattle.

@thomasthompson6378 Жыл бұрын

Yes; too bad the City felt the need to destroy it.

@fullmoonAZ Жыл бұрын

@@thomasthompson6378 The need to destroy what? His reputation?

@hebneh 5 жыл бұрын

I don't understand what happened to the private property there. It's implied that people somehow retained ownership even after the original contours of their land were completely removed. How did they translate former boundaries to the newly-flattened area?

@GnomeChomsky9999 4 жыл бұрын

I think maps are flat.

@markpreston6930 2 жыл бұрын

@@GnomeChomsky9999 A elevating boundary would be longer than a flat boundary you fool.

@thomasthompson6378 Жыл бұрын

They used the power of eminent domain to condemn the property. They "compensated" the owners, but the owners had no say whatsoever in how much that compensation would be.

@hebneh Жыл бұрын

@@thomasthompson6378 That's what I assumed would have happened, but the narrator twice said that the landowners had petitioned to have the hill removed. If their property was then lost via condemnation, why would they want this to occur?

@timfredrickson3889 3 жыл бұрын

Imagine how beautiful the tideflats and lake Washington and the hills would have been without the city :(

@timfredrickson3889 3 жыл бұрын

And the duwamish river :(((Sad to think we did so much damage just for a good port

@Robert-un3cf Жыл бұрын

and the old growth forest with massive trees

@michellelaclair 6 ай бұрын

yes this is fascinating / wondering if any landslides happened due to rainfall

@wafflesnfalafel1 4 жыл бұрын

Pretty neat that the entire area is covered in hundreds of millions of dollars of tech money - who would have thought back then!

@vipermad358 3 жыл бұрын

Perhaps. I’d rather have the hill back.

@stanburdick9708 Жыл бұрын

And hundreds of stinkin yuppys😡

@dorianjepsen 6 жыл бұрын

My volume is set at MAX and the sound is barely audible even with headphones. Please re-upload this video with the audio set at something greater than three decibels!

@Jswines123 7 жыл бұрын

The beginning of the end of a once great and beautiful city.

@Dizzy206 7 жыл бұрын

Jswines123 It still is a great and beautiful city. How would you know what Seattle was like before the regrade?

@fullydude 6 жыл бұрын

Yup. it's been all down hill from there. hahahahaha

@stanburdick9708 Жыл бұрын

Yep from 2000 on the once loved city has turned to $hit😡

@Gizathecat2 Жыл бұрын

My family moved to Seattle in 1964, and I recall as a child noticing the difference between downtown and what I later learned was the Denny Regrade. It was so flat! I don’t go into Seattle, especially downtown anymore. Seattle was so much more livable back in the days of sensible government when laws were enforced and wrongdoing prosecuted!

@fullmoonAZ Жыл бұрын

@@Gizathecat2 "Back in my day... "

@kevincook1618 3 жыл бұрын

Once upon a time: "The vision of Forward-Looking Citizens." 2020: "CHAZ!!!" Says a lot about the modern version of 'vision.' Missing the Emerald City.

@pagerhoads1531 Жыл бұрын

Look at all those Tartarian mud flood buildings

@RealLifeFinance Ай бұрын

Musta been a big slide that wiped out the other buildings by the Hotel

@Lanternsinthesky-studios Жыл бұрын

The environmental damage for all of us in the name of progress.

@stanburdick9708 6 ай бұрын

Yep, now nothing but glass garbage dump

@markproulx1472 Жыл бұрын

Seattle really dropped the ball when it failed to implement the Seattle Commons.

@billmulkins3217 14 күн бұрын

without that you wouldn't have the kingdome or baseball stadium or even Boeing field.

@Landoniousiii 3 жыл бұрын

Health & Safety doesn't approve of the scene at 9:30

@RealLifeFinance Ай бұрын

Haha

@willowdog5084 3 жыл бұрын

5:00 7:27 12:15

@atheistleopard618 5 жыл бұрын

Regrade 1930-1970....Homeless camps 1970-2019... from 0:01 to 18:44

@stephenlally6009 4 жыл бұрын

there were plenty of homeless camps during the depression

@chrispeterson1247 3 жыл бұрын

@@stephenlally6009 Were they all strung out on heroin too?? Lol Seattle is a giant pile of shit now...burn it to the ground and start over

@vipermad358 3 жыл бұрын

@@chrispeterson1247 Id rather someone do that to you. Fucking ignoramus. Ever heard of opium? No. Cuz you are a dumbass.

@neil2831 2 жыл бұрын

@@vipermad358 your mother was on opium when she had you.

@Robert-un3cf Жыл бұрын

@@stephenlally6009 there were "Hoovervilles" but nothing like the public display of mental illness and addiction that is common now

@rcrinsea 5 жыл бұрын

It wasn’t until the 1970’s that people of East Asian ancestry were allowed to live in north Seattle. That’s why it’s still whiter than south Seattle. Seattle was not a progressive city back in the day.

@wildone106 5 жыл бұрын

racist

@vipermad358 3 жыл бұрын

@@wildone106 Asshole.

@3treept 2 жыл бұрын

Not entirely correct. Chinese came to Seattle to help complete the railroads. They settled in the area close to the railway station. The area became known as Chinatown. As other Asians immigrated to Seattle, they settled with other Asians. Eventually this area became known as the International District. That's the main reason south Seattle has more Asians than north Seattle. None of this is to say that Seattle was not racist in its housing patterns.

@bluecollarbeat3156 2 жыл бұрын

Substantiate this with references if you are not a liar

@markpreston6930 3 жыл бұрын

No trees in Seattle because of glaciation and regrade.

@reverend11-dmeow89 3 күн бұрын

tell everyone the July 23 council meeting will be a meet my neighbors hilarity fest.

@cme98 Жыл бұрын

Love being SHOUTED AT IN THE OPENING OF THIS CLIP IS THAT HOW ALL SEATTLE CITIZENS WERE TAUGHT TO WRITE? BY SCREAMING AT EVERYONE?! THATS FUCKED UP!

@bsea35 4 жыл бұрын

Amazon Regrade 😕

@stanburdick9708 2 жыл бұрын

A loved city embraced by myself and those who knew it when it was alive and well , sadly has regressed to a GLASS GARBAGE DUMP............HOW TERRIBLE

@shaggybreeks Жыл бұрын

Those fake film scratches and streaks -- good grief, back in the day, those were undesirable. Now they add them to videos? IQ!

@SeattleArchives Жыл бұрын

This film was created in the 1970s. The copy retained by the Engineering Department and transferred to the Archives was very scratched (which is indeed undesirable, but an unfortunate reality in this case). No effects were added to the video transfer of this film.