File:East-facing view of Seattle and the Alaskan, 1888 (MOHAI 9510).jpg

Seattle in the 1880s was a rapidly growing city, aided in no small part by the 1883 connection with the Northern Pacific Railway Company. Lumber and coal were the primary industries, but the growth of fishing, wholesale trade, shipbuilding, and shipping also contributed to the town's economic expansion and population growth. The Seattle City Census of 1888 records population at 19,116, and although 1889's Great Fire leveled 116 acres in the heart of the city's business district, by 1890 the city's population actually grew to 40,000 inhabitants from the influx of people helping to recreate the city. This view of the lower portion of Seattle was taken from the outer end of the coal bunkers on Elliott Bay, looking East towards First Hill. The steamship Alaskan, a sidewheeler which operated from 1884 to 1889 on the Columbia River and Puget Sound, is docked in front of the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad's (C&PS RR) city dock at the foot of Jackson Street.

Signs in image: Seattle Hardware Co.; The Arcade, W. P. Boyd & Co; Drugs, S. Stewart & Co.; Squire's Opera House; San Francisco Store, Dry Goods; New England Hotel; Eureka Lodging House; W. D. [Wilbur] Scott & Co., Shipping and Commission Merchandise Caption information source: https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/seattle-facts/brief-history-of-seattle

• Subjects (LCTGM): Business districts--Washington (State)--Seattle; Piers & wharves--Washington (State)--Seattle; Steamboats--Washington (State)--Seattle; Waterfronts--Washington (State)--Seattle