The Seattle Underground: The Hidden City 

Have you checked out my latest channel Business Blaze? It's interesting business stories with a dose of ridiculousness thrown in. Check it out here: ru-vid.com/show-UCYY5GWf7MHFJ6DZeHreoXgw

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up." - Monty Python

I worked as a painter in an old apartment building in Pioneer Square a few years back. The basement had a tunnel passage the went into a part of the underground not included on the tour. There was an old speakeasy that looked frozen in time and blanketed in dust. There were bottles still in a manual dumbwaiter they used to get everything out of sight when needed during prohibition.

I've taken the seattle underground tour and I CANNOT RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH. It's an amazing tour and the workers are fantastic. I am also incredibly happy that Simon talked about Lou Graham. She is legit the reason why seattle is what it is today!

My uncle actually lived in the 'underground' between '71 and '74. That guy is quite the character, returned from Vietnam in '70 and, like many other returning vets, he was better prepared for war than reintegration into society.

Local Seattle trivia: the city is said to be named for a Duwamish chief who helped the settlers not die. There’s a plaque in his honor down at the Ballard Locks. Also at the locks: one of the US’s first fish migration ladders.

Long story, short: Seattle was founded because Portland sucks. Some things never change.

If I remember correctly from when I went on the tour , they called the taxes charged SMUT tax.. sewing machine usage tax

I live in Salem, Oregon. We also have an underground city, where the Chinese businesses were. Laundries, restaurants, they throve underground.

I toured the Seattle Underground 3 years ago and loved it. So very interesting. I remember watching that episode of Night Staker many years ago and it was why I headed straight for the underground as soon as I arrive in Seattle. Thanks for your great videos.

As someone who grew up in the Seattle area and moved away at 15, I am extremely salty about not learning about the underground until I was an adult. Anyway, GREAT video, as usual, please do one on Chief Seattle (also known as Si'ahl or Chief Sealth)! It's going to be a lot of difficult names, but he was an important person. I may not have gotten to go into the underground, but my dad definitely took my sister and I to see his gravesite.

I lived right on Alki Point, interestingly, the house that inspired the movie "Up" was just several houses up the street. It was fun watching the workmen building a U shaped multiplex around her tiny house! I used to tell folks that I could point out exactly where I lived on any world map as Alki's point is so distinct. There's a mini Statue of Liberty on Alki Beach and a memorial to the Denny party.

About 5 years ago my daughter and I flew to Seattle for the weekend. We actually went there to shop, but while we were there we decided to do the underground tour. We completely enjoyed it and I highly recommend it.

There's also the Death Museum located in the underground area featuring a nice collection of macabre collectables which is free.

All Geography majors learn: Geography isn't about where things are, but rather WHY things are where they are. "Why here & not there?" "Why the hell here?" "Why are there so many (ethnic group) here? - There are reasons why things are where they are. And every reason has a story.

I grew up in Seattle, and have been fortunate to take the underground tour more than once. It's great. An incredible piece of our history. Lots of jokes and tons of old stories. Thanks for showcasing it. Love your vids.

Drove to Seattle from Florida a few years ago; spent a week there. It was great. Need to get back. And while we're on the subject, do one about the Gas Works. Fascinating history.

remind anybody of old New York in Futurama

I grew up an hour north of Seattle and now live here. It's been a while since I took the underground tour in 5th grade (I'm 28). Here are a couple things you missed: 1st of all, pronounciation- (I don't have the time to do this properly so hopefully this will work) Alki: Al-keye, Duamish: Dew-aum-ish. 2nd, the settlers spent the 1st winter on Alki, against the advice of the natives, then moved inland to where downtown is today. 3rd, someone already said this, but Seattle was named after Chief Seattle of the Duamish tribe. 4th, they got rid of Denny Hill to fill in the city. They used water to wash the dirt downhill. Also, they used a little bit of everything they could find; sawdust, garbage, etc.

“The pipes were made out wood so they were burning as well” “The city council hadn’t bothered to place signs warning of a 35ft drop between the streets” “There were not enough women to go around as wives but a lady came up with a solution. Build a brothel” “The prostitutes became the most educated and sophisticated inhabitants of the city” I laughed so much at all of this. Am I a bad person?

Nothing about chief seattle? There’s a huge native presence here and it’s a big part of the history

No mention of Chief Seattle? You know... the reason it’s called that?

I just love the 🇬🇧 trying to pronounce local words 😋

The Seattle Underground tours still go on to this day I went on the tour with my school as a child it's something that I will be taking my children to when they are a little older. Seattle has a very cool history.

Lou's brothel is now a mission to house and feed the homeless. I was down and out in Seattle a few years back. I slept (alone, alas) in her brothel!

When I was a kid I went on the underground tour and the guide handed me and my little brother (we were 7 and 9 at the time) sticks and flashlights and had us go ahead of the tour group to scare off the rats. We even managed to hit a few of them. It was a lot of fun. Pretty sure PETA, and about a dozen government agencies would throw a fit about it now but in 1975 nobody thought twice about it, not even our mother. :D

A city filled of seamstresses, and no one can darn my socks....

I came here because of the movie Malignant amazing new horror from James Wan that heavily features the Seattle Underground. I never knew about it and now I'm trying to learn as much as possible, it's so fascinating! Thanks for making this very informative video!

I’ve lived in Seattle my entire life. Nobody talks about or even realizes it was built on sex work. I’m sure our current self-righteous city council would prefer to pretend it didn’t happen. Hilarious.

I lived in Seattle for a couple of years..too expensive for me, anyhow...I went on the underground tour...its creepy as hell but very interesting!

"Involuntary suicide" was the working title for the Saw franchise ;)

That Kolchak episode is hilarious! It's a Hollywood set with the daylights turned off. So great. Come to Seattle; take the tour. Good times!

You forgot to mention that the fire was in the middle of the night and the majority of population were quite drunk and laughed and mocked the struggling firefighters.

Extremely fascinating... I enjoyed your report. You made me laugh when you said , " they really needed some sewing done by some seamstresses."

Growing up and living in Seattle, I had to do the Seattle Underground tour a couple of times in school. The biggest memory most kids have that did the tour was the extensive history on the toilet... and exiting in the gift shop 🤣

In 1973, my parents, sister and I went to Seattle and did the underground tour. It was very interesting. If I didn't live half the country away, I'd've gone back many times.

Ashland, WI, a much smaller city, has a similar underground history. Back in the 70's folks who knew of it could gain access through certain shops through cellars and crawl spaces and emerge down the street via connecting underground structures. From what I've heard, most of those access points have now been boarded or bricked over and the remaining deep spaces are just private storage spots without interconnection.

Ah, Boeing was the first high tech company in Seattle. ;-)

Whoa! Pretty awesome you did a vid on the city I was born and raised in! Seattle has a pretty dark history that very few people know about, but we have some great tours explaining it's dark history. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for mentioning Lou Graham's contribution to the city! As liberal and open-minded as people around here like to pretend to be, they seem to have selective amnesia that prostitution built so much of the town. Many of the town founders have entire districts named for them, but do you think the largest contributor to schools, business infrastructure or female education and suffrage in the area has a street named after her? Nope!

Great clip! As a Seattle native, and someone who has a penchant for the past, I appreciated your attention to detail, and thorough research. The only small additional fact I would add is that after the fire, the City of Seattle took control of the Fire Department (which had been volunteer) and water supply, and developed an advanced (for its time) communication system to alert other of potential fires. This approach became a model for other major cities. As an epilogue, today in Pioneer Square, the City is in the process filling many of those open areas beneath the glass blocks. This is because those areas are all aged structures - with the sidewalk being the roof. If large trucks or busses are near, they can be damaged. So there is a program to fill those spaces that are vulnerable. Thanks again for your excellent video, I look forward diving into your other clips.

Actually the movie you are referring to is called " The Night Strangler " and it was the first time I heard of Seattle's Underground City. But I still learned so much from you as usual Simon, especially about the famous (or infamous) Seamstresses.

In the 1850s Seattle used a swath of land from the top of First Hill down to Yesler's mill on the waterfront to "skid" logs downhill for processing. The path became known as "Skid Road".

Yeaaaaaaaaaaah buddy I have been waiting for this video!!! This is one of my favorite historical stories to tell! So creepy and sad as well

Who else is from Wa👀👋🏼 I’ve been there too

Geographics + Biographics are such a good idea, I'm addicted to these vids

How on earth can this have 469 dislikes!? It’s such an innocuous topic that’s done well, as usual for Simon and company. You really can’t please some people. I guess their mothers didn’t teach them that if you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all.

I've been on the underground tour multiple times. It's a fun and educational tour. I highly recommend it. Thanks Simon.

I've been on the tour and found it hauntingly beautiful. Also the drink after at the bar at the end of the tour was great. Love the video! Would love to see one about some haunted locations since October is coming up. Stull cemetery would be a great start

Well, now I know what I'm doing next time I go to Seattle.

Absolutely loved this!!

Great video,thank you.

Great topic, thanks! I live near Seattle, and have been on the tour many times over the years, it's a lot of fun. We have a lot of very interesting individuals that have lived and helped develop the city. You forgot about Doc Maynard, he was a very special character.

For me(I'm from the UK) I think of Seattle as the home of grunge music.

Great video on the Seattle Underground! Just one small correction... and it’s a very common mistake given Seattle’s reputation for “rain”. Seattle is definitely one of the wettest cities in the U.S. if we define it by “days of measurable rain”. However, Seattle is only average if we define it by “amount of rain”. The average yearly U.S. rainfall is 30”-35” depending on the source. Seattle’s average yearly rainfall is 36”. Most cities on the East Coast and South East average significantly more rain (amount) than Seattle. In fact, Seattle actually sits in a rain shadow created by the Olympic Mountains to the west. Cities outside of the rain shadow like Olympia and Bellingham receive considerably more rain.

Thank you for making a great video!

Went to the underground a few years back- it’s amazing. The history that’s encased under the ground is insane to see. If you ever go to Seattle, this needs to be on your list!!! (And the Dale Chihuly exhibit)

Watching this as a Seattleite and hearing Simon butcher the Native names

Thanks for this vid from Seattle.

Love all you guys do for us

Love this channel. Feeds my inner nerd 🤓

Thanks, Simon, I've lived in Seattle my entire life. But I've never gone to the underground, but now I will. And Starbucks opened its first store at our Pike Place market...And the pioneer square area is all historic landmarks that will stay there forever...

Love all your content...

I first heard about the Underground City on that episode of Kolchak. I would like to take the tour to see what it's like in real life. Thanks for the video. It was really informative.

I am from Seattle, and I am pleasantly surprised at how accurate you were. You did forget the natives, but I can overlook that, as the early settlers by and large didn't let them take much part in things, beyond mispronouncing the name of their Chief at the time and naming the city after him, using the wrong name. His name was Chief Sealth, but they wrongly called him Seattle. I love that you brought light to the fact that hookers, in addition to the loggers they serviced, were what kept the city going until Tacoma lost their bid to keep the rail out of Seattle. (It stopped in Tacoma for many, many years, making Tacoma the leading city in the state until the rail came to Seattle)

I knew Seattle was one of the inspirations for Ankh Morpork in Discworld, due to the underground. But when seamstresses came up, that surprised me.

Excellent episode! Than you for producing & posting. Will check-out your biz channel.. 👍🏻

ty great info

I've been to Seattle underground its amazing and lived in Seattle

Local of Washington here. I'm going to love hearing your mispronunciations after Duwamish.

Awesome Simon !!! I love this channel too !

Very well done sir! Love the history.

I live here and you made its sound cooler than even going inside was.

I loved my tour of the underground

Absolutely fascinating !!!

I loved this tour the first time I went, so I made sure to do it again when we were visiting last week! It's a great tour, I highly recommend it to everyone! I've got to check out this underground ghost tour though for sure! Great video!!

Small correction: the Seattle underground wasn’t featured in an episode of the Kolchak TV series. It was in _Kolchak: The Night Strangler,_ the sequel to the original movie.

Seattle's older history makes it sound like the perfect city for a steampunk noir type of story !

Love your channels! A lot to learn here through each video!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us all

I still love living in historic lowman building on 1st and Cherry in Pioneer Square!!

I'd love to explore this

Gracias!!!! For your search I did not know that big hug!!!😃👍

Hey Simon good info and thoroughly enjoyed👍👍😁

It’s pronounced al-KAI not al-KEY. The entire city didn’t burn to the ground, just pioneer Square and the finically district.

Grunge finally makes a whole lot more sense.

Simon and team: great video. I'm a 6th gen Seattlite and have been on the tour several times. Plus, my grandfather was one of those who played cards and other games of chance in a casino/card room in the Underground. So I thought I knew almost all about the site until your video. I learned quite a few new things. Thanks. Always great to learn; your videos always show me new and fascinating things.

Good video. Had forgotten about that place. Thanks for the reminder.

Malignant brought me here 👻

Malignant brought me here. 😅

Thankyou! This was very interesting.

What a fascinating story. I don't know how you keep coming up with info about forgotten places rediscovered but please keep it up, I'm totally hooked.

It's nice to see a RU-vidr diversifying their channels, instead of putting all their eggs into one basket.

You should do a video on the time they raised Chicago's downtown by a full story. The city was lifted💯. Love the video💯💯💯✌

I Always enjoy your videos. Thank you for your efforts.

Great little history. Live a couple hours from Seattle and have always wanted to do the tour.

It's pronounced ALK(EYE)

it's nicer underground than it is above ground.

The underground Seattle tour was awesome!

Born and raised in Seattle, my parents and I did the tour back late 1970's early eighties and we used the flashlights during our tour. But it was fun to learn about history of the old Seattle.