Columbia Tower 

My sister Vicki and I are going to visit the Columbia Tower to check out the view from there.  I need to do it within the next couple of weeks before heading to California for a memorial service, going to a business meeting with my husband in St Louis and then having knee replacement surgery.

Because we are going to check out the view from this building, I went online to find out what I could about the building.

Columbia Tower as seen from Smith Tower

Columbia Center which houses the tower is the tallest skyscraper in the downtown Seattle skyline, as well as the tallest building in the state of Washington. It occupies most of the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth Avenues and Cherry and Columbia Streets. At 932 ft it is currently the second tallest structure on the West Coast (after Los Angeles' 72 story US Bank Tower). It contains 76 stories of office space above ground and seven stories of various use below ground, making it the building with the most stories west of the Mississippi. Construction of this building began in 1982 and finished in 1985. It was designed by Chester L. Lindsey Architects who also designed the Fourth and Blanchard Building in the Belltown neighborhood, and was built by Howard S. Wright Construction.

Looking up at Columbia Tower from the ground

The base of the building is clad in Rosa Purino Carnelian granite. The building's structure is composed of three geometric concave facades with two setbacks, causing the building to appear like three towers standing side by side.  There is an observation deck on the 73rd floor which offers views of Seattle and environs. The top two floors of the building (75th and 76th) are occupied by the private Columbia Tower Club, which houses a restaurant, bar, library, and meeting rooms. An underground concourse connects the building to the nearby Seattle Municipal Tower and Bank of America Fifth Avenue Plaza.

Looking north from Columbia Tower

The tower, originally proposed as Columbia Center, opened under the name Columbia Seafirst Center after its largest tenant and financier, Seafirst Bank, and then changed to the Bank of America Tower, when Seafirst, which had been owned by Bank of America since 1983, was fully integrated into Bank of America. That name gave it the nickname "BOAT" (Bank of America Tower). In November 2005, the building's name was changed back to Columbia Center after the bank reduced its presence in the building. Bank of America still maintains office space within the building, including a bank branch.

Columbia Center plays host to the largest firefighter competition in the world. About 1,500 firefighters from around the world yearly make the trek up 69 floors and 1,311 steps wearing their full firefighter gear. This event benefits the local chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

On June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001, attacks called for the hijacking of ten planes, to be crashed into targets including the "tallest buildings in California and Washington State," which would have been the Columbia Center and the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles. 

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 34

Photo by:  Cherri

This is the last of the traffic control boxes painted by Todd Lown and Jesse Brown that I have found.  This box is also funded by the Department of Neighborhoods and supported by the Broadway Business Improvement Assoc.
It is sponsored in part by the Capital Hill Chamber.

I have this marked as located across from Seattle Central Community College Bookstore on Broadway, just south of Denny.  There is a signal there for pedestrians in the middle of the block because it is in the middle of the college campus.  Just to verify that I have this placed correctly, I went to google maps to look at a street view of this location.  The painted traffic control box at that location seems to have a heart painted on it.  So, I traveled along the road in the maps program to Denny and found that the traffic box there is not the one I have listed on this blog either!

My belief is that they have been repainted, but I will have to take a drive up there and check it out for you.  I also will take a drive along 4th street to see if I can find the box I saw with airplanes painted on it south of the stadiums. Hopefully, this will happen next week.  

One last editorial comment:  It infuriates me that someone is so disrespectful of the artist that he would tag this piece of interesting and outstanding street art with his own graffiti gibberish.  Shame on him!

New Dungeness Lighthouse

The New Dungeness Lighthouse is located on the Dungeness Spit in the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge near the town of Sequim in Clallam County, Washington, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was first lit in 1857 and was the second lighthouse established in the Washington territory. The original New Dungeness lighthouse was a 1 ½ story duplex with a tower rising from the roof. The tower stood at 100 feet (30 m) painted black on the top half and white on the lower section.

Over time, the tower developed structural cracks from the artillery at nearby forts. In 1927, the cracks in the tower were so severe that the lighthouse inspector feared that the tower would topple. It was decided that year that the tower would be lowered to its current height of 63 feet (19 m). With the new tower dimensions, the original 3rd order Fresnel lens was too large for the tower. To save costs, the lantern room from the decommissioned Admiralty Head lighthouse was removed and placed atop the shorter tower. The newly painted tower was relit with a revolving 4th order Fresnel Lens.

In the mid-1970s the Coast Guard decided to remove the Fresnel lens and test a DCB airport style beacon. The beacon only lasted a few years until it was replaced by a much smaller AGA-acrylic revolving beacon that provided the same range as the DCB, but with a 150-watt bulb instead of the 1,000-watt DCB bulb. In 1998 the Coast Guard replaced the AGA with a newer Vega Rotating beacon.

In 1994, the Dungeness Lighthouse was one of the few lighthouses in the United States to have a full-time keeper. Michelle and Seth Jackson and their dog Chicago were the last to hold the post of lighthouse keepers. 

In march of '94 the Coast Guard boarded up all the windows at the station, checked all the electrical equipment and left. The station didn't stay boarded up long. Within months, the United States Lighthouse Society started the New Dungeness chapter and were able to secure a lease from the Coast Guard.

The Light Station is now maintained and operated by New Dungeness Light Station Association whose vision is that "The New Dungeness Light Station will be the finest example of historic restoration, preservation and interpretation of the nation."  Membership in the association furthers the mission of the preservation and its members are eligible to become Keepers for a week.  The cost is $350/adult and $195/child for the week and duties include providing tours of the lighthouse.  There are three main bedrooms in the Keepers quarters and it can accommodate 7-9 guests for a week.

For more information on joining the New Dungeness Light Station Association and to book a reservation to become a "Lighthouse Keeper" for a week, click on the following link:

http://www.newdungenesslighthouse.com/index.html

There are also some wonderful photos in the gallery section of the above website.

The Lighthouse is open to the public and tours are available every day, free of charge.  However, be sure to check the Tide Tables for the local Dungeness Bay area before attempting to walk out to the Lighthouse and be prepared for a five hour round trip.  It is quite a walk along the Dungeness Spit.

Marrowstone Point Lighthouse

Marrowstone Point Lighthouse

Photo by: Cherri

Extending from the base of the bluffs on the northeast end of Marrowstone Island is a low, level piece of ground known as Marrowstone Point. The point was so named by Captain George Vancouver for the soft clay visible in the bluffs above the point. Eventually, the entire island became known by this name

The Marrowstone Point Lighthouse is located at the northern tip of Marrowstone Island and forms the eastern entrance to Port Townsend Bay.  Here, the main shipping channel is narrow, making navigation in north Puget Sound difficult and hazardous. Nearby shoals, dangerous rocks, heavy rip-tides and persistent fogs influenced the Lighthouse Board to reserve 10 acres on the point as lighthouse site in 1854, but it wasn’t marked with a light until 1888. 

Finally, after numerous accidents and complaints from the shipping industry, the Lighthouse Service erected a post lantern displaying a red light at a height of 15 feet on the most exposed part of Marrowstone Point. The light was tended by a contract light keeper who rowed to the point every few days to polish the lens, trim the wick, and replenish the fuel supply.  Mounted high on scaffolds, post lanterns had a drum-type lens that produced a bright fixed light. The lantern had a large tank encircling the top of the lens that held enough fuel for eight days.

Usually post lanterns were used only until a more permanent structure could be built. However, the Lighthouse Service didn’t get around to replacing the Marrowstone Point light for 30 years. 

A fog bell was added to the station in 1896, and a one-and-a-half-story dwelling was constructed on the point to house Marrowstone Point’s first station keeper, Osmond Hale Morgan, a sea captain, who came from Whidbey Island with his wife, Frances Elizabeth (Avery) Morgan, and five children. In 1912, the light was placed on the small, concrete structure.

Keeper Morgan served until his passing in 1907, when Nettie E. Race, his daughter, was placed in charge of the light and bell. Axel Rustad was appointed keeper in 1909, and he and his wife, Karen, raised four sons on the point. Water for the station's inhabitants consisted of rainfall that was stored in a 5,000-gallon, redwood tank, enclosed in a shed behind the dwelling.

A woodshed and boathouse were constructed at the station in 1898, and in 1902 a galvanized oil house and a shelter for the lens lantern were added. The boathouse was moved away from the shore in 1904 and converted into a barn.

Mariners complained that the fog bell at the point was often inaudible, so a small, square cement building outfitted with three large trumpets was put into service in 1918, solving the fog signal problem. The light was eventually mounted on top of this fog signal building. 

Shortly after the first keeper took up residence at the station, construction of Fort Flagler commenced on the bluff above. The fort was completed in 1907, and it became the third active fort guarding Admiralty Inlet. Together with the guns at Fort Casey on Admiralty Head and those at Fort Worden near Point Wilson, the batteries at Fort Flagler formed a "Triangle of Fire," to prevent hostile vessels from entering Puget Sound.

Though automated in 1962, the station still remains fairly intact. The station was transferred in 1972 from the Coast Guard to the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for use as a scientific research facility. The keeper’s dwelling now serves as a guest house for scientists visiting the Marrowstone Marine Field Station and the short, squat structure housing the lighthouse and fog signal still stands at the water's edge. Research in marine ecosystem health and marine fish health is conducted at the station.

Fort Flagler is now Fort Flagler State Park and includes a military museum.

The Lighthouse Friends website has additional information about this site and some excellent information the island, the lighthouse keeper, Fort Flagler and some shipwrecks that occurred off the  island.  Here is a link to that site:  http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=109

Seattle's Painted Traffic Control Boxes 33

Photo by:  Cherri

Sorry about not finishing the series on traffic control boxes until now.  Starting in November I was very busy with making paperdolls for my web based business @  http://www.JustLikeMePaperdolls.com .  The last two painted boxes created by Todd Lown and Jesse Brown are this one above and one more on Capital Hill that I will post next week.  

This painted traffic control box is located on the SE corner of Broadway and Denny and like the others on Capitol Hill is sponsored by the Broadway Business Improvement Asso.  It is also sponsored in part by the GSBA.  This organization is the Greater Seattle Business Association.  Per their website their mission statement is, "To combine business development, leadership and social action to expand economic opportunities for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community and those who support equality for all."  They are now celebrating 31 years as an organization.  Here is a link to that website:  http://www.thegsba.org/

One more note:  there may be more painted traffic control boxes further south on 4th street in the Sodo or Georgetown neighborhoods.  I'll check these out in the next few weeks to see if there are more that I missed.

Edmonds-Kingston Ferry

Photo by:  Cherri

As Bruce and I started out on our mini-vacation, we headed over to the Olympic Penninsula from Edmonds to Kingston on the ferry, Spokane.  Above is a shot of the Puyallup Ferry heading back to Edmonds, taken from the car deck on the Spokane. 

Since 1951 the only ferries employed on the route have belonged to the Washington State Ferry system, currently the largest ferry system in the United States.  On Labor Day 1969, the San Mateo became the last steam ferry on the West Coast of the United States and it made its final run on this route.  

Currently, the two regularly scheduled ferries on the route are the Puyallup and the Spokane.  In general, it takes 30 minutes to go from one terminal to the other.

Point No Point Lighthouse

Photo by:  Cherri

Bruce and I took a tour of the Juan de Fuca Strait on the Olympic Pennisula searching for photos of other Washington Lighthouses.  The first one we came to was Point No Point Lighthouse on the west side of Puget Sound, near the point where Admiralty Inlet ends, near the small town of Hansville, Washington. Point No Point Light is the oldest lighthouse on Puget Sound.

Photo by:  Cherri

It is located on a low finger of land that the local Native American tribes had given the name Hahd-skus, meaning long nose.  The Point No Point Treaty was signed on the spit in 1855 by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens and the leaders of Chimacum, Skokomish and S'Klallam tribes, ending the Indian wars.   Here is a photo of the plaque commemorating this treaty.  

Local residents wanted the lighthouse located further north on Foulweather Bluff. When the Point No Point location was agreed upon, the owners of the land were reluctant to sell. Finally, the owners agreed to sell 40 acres for $1000. Construction of the lighthouse began in April 1879. The first light used was a kerosene lamp. As 1879 drew to a close, the lens and a glass for the lantern had not arrived, so the first lighthouse keeper J.S. Maggs, a Seattle dentist, hung a canvas over the south window openings to break the wind and keep the kerosene lamp from blowing out.  The lighthouse has been in continuous operation since that time in December 1879.

Upon completion of the light station in February 1880, the lantern room held a fifth-order Fresnel Lens. The original masonry structure was 27 feet high. The present 30-foot brick and stucco tower is square and situated between the office and fog signal building. A fog signal, formerly used at New Dungeness Lighthouse was installed in April 1880. 

There were no roads to the Point No Point Lighthouse for the first 40 years, so supplies had to be brought in by boat.  J.S. Maggs wife arrived at the station when it was completed in February and was pregnant at the time.  A cow was ordered to supply milk for the expected baby.  The bovine arrived by schooner, was lowered over the vessel's side using a sling, and then swam ashore.  The first baby born at the station was a girl, in July of 1880. 

The point itself was named by U.S. Navy Lt. Charles Wilkes, who commanded the United States Exploring Expedition in 1841. As he approached the spit of land, he thought it was a substantial point. When he realized it was much smaller than he expected, he named it Point No Point.

Lightning struck the lens in 1931, cracking a prism. The tower was also damaged which required patching and replacing the copper tubing.

In 1975, a 90-foot radar tower was built on the west side of the lighthouse. The tower is used for the Vessel Traffic Safety. In 1977, the Point No Point Lighthouse became fully automated, and only required one man to be assigned to the station. In 1990, the fog bell was replaced by a Daboll trumpet. The lens in the tower was changed to a fourth-order Fresnel Lens, which is still in place today.

Lighthouse Keeper's House

Photo by:  Cherri

Beach in front of Lighthouse Keeper's House

Photo by:  Cherri

In 1997, the last U.S. Coast Guard personnel left Point No Point and it stood empty until the Coast Guard leased the property for Kitsap County Parks and Recreation.  Today, the lighthouse keepers house is used as a vacation rental.  For more information on renting this facility, click on the following link:  http://www.uslhs.org/vacation_rental.php

There are some really cool photos on this link of the lighthouse at dusk, with a ship directly behind the lighthouse and of an eagle sitting on a flagpole.  It also shows view of the inside of the keeper's house.