These passageways were once at street level, it now forms part of the Seattle underground tour started by Bill Speidel in 1965
These passageways were once at street level, it now forms part of the Seattle underground tour started by Bill Speidel in 1965. The Seattle Underground is a network of underground and basements in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States that was ground level at the city's origin in the mid-1800s. After the streets were elevated these spaces fell into disuse, but have become a tourist attraction in recent decades. In 1965, local citizen Bill Speidel realized there might be interest (and profit) in the subterranean ruins. He established "Bill Speidel's Underground Tour" and took customers on a tour of what was left underneath Pioneer Square, paying rent to the building owners for the privilege of doing so. He peppered his tour patter with tall tales from Seattle's history (some more factual than others), giving the tour an amusing counterculture feel that made it an "underground" tour in every sense of the word. Over the years the tour has become more popular, and the underground structures have been steadily refurbished to be more visually appealing. The tour remains a popular attraction for visitors and locals alike. In 2004, the Underground Tour organizers began the adults-only Underworld Tour, incorporating discussions of prostitution, the opium trade, and other less family-friendly elements of Seattle's early history. In 1907 the city condemned the Underground for fear of pneumonic plague, two years before the 1909 World Fair in Seattle (Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition). The basements were left to deteriorate or were used as storage. Some became illegal flophouses for the homeless, gambling halls, speakeasies, and opium dens. Only a small portion of the Seattle Underground has been restored and made safe and accessible to the public on guided tours.
Size: 3336px × 5084px
Location: The Seattle Underground, under Pioneer Square, downtown Seattle, Washington, USA
Photo credit: © John Gaffen 2 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: attraction, basements, bill, city, facade, history, passageways, pioneer, seattle, speidel, square, tour, tourism, tourist, underground
