Pier 54, Seattle

Pier 54

Pier 54 from Alaskan Way, 2009
Type	tourist pier; former shipping pier and warehouse
Locale	Seattle, Washington
Owner	1900-1944: Northern Pacific Rwy., others later.
Total length	300 ft (91.4 m)
Width	150 ft (45.7 m)
Opening date	1900

Pier 54 is a tourist pier Seattle, Washington. Previously an active shipping pier and warehouse, Pier 54 was originally known as Pier 3 until it was renumbered during World War Two. This pier was also known as Galbraith dock and the Galbraith Bacon dock. Because of the large number of smaller local steamships, generally built of wood, that used the pier up until the 1930s, the pier was also known as the “Mosquito Fleet dock”.

Pier 54 is located at the foot of Spring Street. The current dock for the fireboats of the Seattle Fire Department is located immediately to the south of Pier 54. Pier 55 is the next pier to the north.

Pier 3 measured 300 by150 feet, and had a cargo warehouse measuring 284 by 130 feet with a storage capacity of 10,000 tons. There were two spur railway tracks on the pier. Depth of water at the pier was 25 to 40 feet.

Starting in 1900, Pier 3 was leased by Galbraith, Bacon & Co. The principals of this firm were James Galbraith and Cecil Bacon. They were wholesale dealers in grain, hay, plaster, concrete, and building materials. In 1910, the pier narrowly escaped destruction in the Belltown fire, although the nearby Galbraith, Bacon warehouse was destroyed.

In 1917, like Pier 1 and Pier 2, Seattle, Pier 3 was owned by the Northern Pacific Railway.

Pier 3 was the terminal for Island Transportation Co., Merchants Transportation Co., Puget Sound Naval Station Route, Kitsap County Transportation Co., Pollard Steamship. Co., and other Puget Sound local shipping lines. The Kitsap County Transportation Company, run by James Galbraith's son Walter Galbraith, competed against the Puget Sound Navigation Company running from the Colman Dock. As such it was home pier for wooden steamships such as the Kitsap, the Utopia, the Reliance and the Hyak. Other Puget Sound steamers known to have called at Pier 3 included Magnolia, Mohawk, Florence K, Dode, and Monticello 2. Pier 3 was within walking distance of Pike Place Market where much of the local groceries brought in by the steamers were sold. Typically this would have been done by the farmers themselves or their wives, who would ride the steamers into Pier 3 in the morning and depart in the evening. Live hens, slaughtered poultry, eggs, milk in galvanized cans, sacks of potatoes, rhubarb in bundles and fruit in crates. Dockside travel facilities offered few comforts then, but Pier 3 was one of the first to offer a small waiting room.