In 2016-2017 there will be special events and history research projects in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Seattle’s Ship Canal and the Ballard Locks.
Seattle, a city surrounded by water, grew up with transportation of raw materials by ship. Seattle’s early developers wanted to create a waterway to make it possible to travel from Lake Washington out to Puget Sound, and this dream was finally realized with the completion of the Ship Canal in 1917.
A new website, Making the Cut, and a consortium of neighborhood groups and historic research entities will celebrate the significance of the Ship Canal at this hundredth anniversary. The new website is already loaded with informational videos, historic maps, and descriptions of the impact of the canal on the development of Seattle. If your children have school projects to do, this would be the year to access the historic material about the Lake Washington Ship Canal and the Ballard Locks.