under the soggy ground

Sam and I have a tendency to try to avoid the obviously touristy things when we travel, but somehow we decided that the Underground tour in Pioneer Square would be a good idea. I was worried when they only accepted cash and there were 100 people in our group, but it ended up all right in the end.

The Underground tour takes you to the underground city of Seattle. Did you know it had one? The beginning of the tour gave the history of Seattle's beginning on the only piece of land in the area that sometimes was dry during low tide. Years later, after huge problems with sewage returning on the high tide, they built walls on either side of the streets and built a new street level above. The old building entrances and old sidewalks can still be seen and traversed, along with some old stuff left behind when everyone moved upstairs. The coolest part of the tour was seeing the skylights in the current sidewalks from above and below.

I don't know how much I'd suggest this tour to someone, but for anyone interested in urban history, or just weird history, I'd recommend looking up a book about Seattle's early history. They were pushing a book at the tour, but I don't remember the name. I'm sure you can find it if you look hard enough.