Seattle Public Utilities

In accordance with this vote, the city Water Department acquired the Lake Union and Spring Hill plants for $400,000.

Attention soon focused on the Cedar River,[4] an idea first proposed in the 1870s;[8] the question was how to bring that water to the city.

From 1892, the responsibility for doing so fell to newly hired City Engineer Reginald H. Thomson and his assistant George F. Cotterill.

Besides the technical challenges, they and a series of Seattle mayors had to keep the citizenry on board to move forward with this expensive project through the Panic of 1893.

[9] The original Cedar River pipeline was made of reinforced wooden pipe "big enough so a small boy could stand upright in it" and carried 22,500,000 US gallons (85,172 kl) of water a day.

[8] To guard against contamination at the source, the city purchased or otherwise gained control of 142 square miles (370 km2) of land and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Sanitation.

Water supply intake and wing dam under construction, 1900.
Pipe near Renton, Washington to bring Cedar River water to Seattle; this 1900 picture shows pipe newly laid.
Closeup view of a section of the wooden pipe that brought Cedar River water to Seattle from 1930 to 1991. Metal bands hold the pipe together. This section is now on display in Maple Valley, Washington .