Underground Tour

Scratch the Underground Tour off of our "to do" list! We did this one yesterday!

The Underground Tour does exactly that... it takes you into the underground of the Pioneer Square area of Seattle. Back in the 1800's when Seattle was first settled, the main commercial hub was built on tidelands that was filled in with sawdust from the local sawmill. This meant the ground was always muddy, uneven and smooshy. When a fire destroyed most of the city in the 1880's, local city officials grabbed at the chance to rebuild the city on a higher ground. Their idea of higher ground was to literally build on top of the existing structures. What you see now as Pioneer Square is actually the 'new' ground floor built on top of the 'old' ground floor. Below Pioneer square, in the basements of many of the buildings, are remnants of the original city. Only a small portion has been restored so the public can down and take a look-see.

Our guide, Dan, was good, but not great. He was a good speaker, but I felt he didn't go in chronological order of what happened and so I was confused on how they built the new ground floor, and what the old ground floors were used for. All in all, an interesting tour though. The 'sets' reminded me very much of Disneyland though. They seemed so fake even though I knew they were not. Or, I guess, you can say maybe Disneyland seems so real!