Grand Trunk Pacific dock

The Grand Trunk Pacific dock was a shipping pier in Seattle, Washington.

The area where the pier stood is now part of the Seattle terminal of the Washington State Ferry system.

Immediately to the north of the Grand Trunk dock was used by the Seattle fire department's fireboat Duwamish.

The Grand Trunk liners also ran from the dock to the railway line's western terminus in Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

One source reports that the cause was a spark from a cigarette or cigar landing in a pile of sawdust.

[3] When the fire broke out, two vessels were moored alongside, the wooden inland steamboat Athlon and the coastal steamship Admiral Farragut.

[6] The fire engine's fuel tank, holding fifty gallons of gasoline, exploded, burning many of the firemen.

[2] The fire burned for two hours, and attracted a large number of onlookers, including the mayor of Seattle.

There were adjustable passenger slips and a depressed railway track for loading freight cars.

[1] Heavy construction costs and economic dislocation during World War I caused the bankruptcy of the Grand Trunk Pacific in 1920.

[5] In the early 1960s the dock was dismantled and the area where it stood became part of the Washington State Ferry terminal.

Grand Trunk Pacific dock on fire. Fireboat Duwamish at right fighting fire. Hand-tinted photograph.
The rebuilt Grand Trunk Pacific dock, circa 1920.