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Seattle's Underground Past
Seattle's Underground Past
levyj413


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: National Geographic II (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: Challenge Entries (most)
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM for Nikon
Location: Seattle, WA
Date: Jun 28, 2011
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/2s
Galleries: Cityscape, Urban
Date Uploaded: Jun 29, 2011

 Taken on a tour of the Seattle underground. If you're in Seattle, I highly recommend it!

Seattle was built on a tidal mud flat that flooded with high tide twice a day. That, combined with horses and carts churning up the dirt roads, led to "chuckholes" in the streets so wide and so deep that a child once drowned.

To fix the problem, they built up the roads so you'd come out of a shop, climb a ladder to get up to the street from the sidewalk, cross the street, and climb down a ladder to the other sidewalk.

Eventually, they built a new sidewalk connecting what was then the 2nd floor of the buildings to the street, leaving the original sidewalk buried. So the "underground" is actually at ground level and what people think is the first floor is actually one floor up.

This is a shot looking up at a skylight. People above us walking past the skylight thought they were walking at ground level and seeing pieces of glass embedded in the sidewalk. Here's the view from above.

Shot by kneeling and bracing myself against the wall. Shot at 10mm, then cropped a bit. Someone else's image shows how narrow the space is.

Statistics
Place: 43 out of 117
Avg (all users): 6.0149
Avg (commenters): 7.4000
Avg (participants): 5.8148
Avg (non-participants): 6.1500
Views since voting: 728
Views during voting: 301
Votes: 134
Comments: 8
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 01/25/2012 11:05:45 PM
Hey, just saw this, Jeff. Funny, I have been in Seattle for 21+ years and have not been to the underground. My wife really wants to go. I am wondering how much (non-flash) photo ops there are on the tour?

Great image, btw. Reminds me of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. But then most things remind me of a PotA movie. ;-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/08/2011 06:29:10 AM
I could see this in Nat'l Geographic a lot sooner than many of the shots above you. Great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
07/07/2011 09:32:13 AM
Nice grit and grime
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/06/2011 10:54:07 AM
There were a couple of images vying as my favourite, but this is the one I kept coming back too.

The amount of detail in the shodows is amazing, the composition I find interesting and the detail astonishing.

Love this shot, hope you do well!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/06/2011 03:52:38 AM
Odd location, and it could be used in a story about the cities underground, quite a flavour of the month in television atm. I just feel that an urban explorer replete with mining helmet, a rope and a torch ala Indiana Jones needs to be in this image. i.e. The human subject of the article should be in this image to complete it, make it more engaging.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/02/2011 10:39:43 PM
Great atmosphere and the composition really works
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/01/2011 08:48:39 PM
Like an archeological dig. Wonderful light.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/01/2011 08:58:29 AM
Very interesting!
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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