Seattle is full of visual surprises. Near the Federal Building on Second Avenue stands a stone arch. At first glance, it appears to be just another monument to some famous building. Looking up from the interior side, modern skyscrapers stand juxtaposed behind this ancient arch to help put Seattle’s history into perspective.

Many modern buildings in North America stand on the ruins of once humble settlements that just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Seattle grew from a small gold rush community with rutted mud roads, bad plumbing, and a brothel on every street corner into a major point of entry and transportation hub in little more than a century. The Alaska Gold Rush, the Great Northern Railroad, and Washington’s timber industry propelled Seattle into a thriving metropolis. Later came Boeing, Starbucks, Microsoft, and other international corporations. How long before the next economy builds upon their ruins?

‘Historical Perspective’ was photographed on Arista EDU 400 film and developed in Acufine at par. The camera was a Nikon N80 fitted with a 24-85mm f/4.5 Nikon lens.

Tags: monochrome, monuments, history, filmphotography

Or it used to be, until this once mighty transportation giant was acquired by the Burlington Northern Railway in the ‘70s. Under James J. Hill, known as the ‘Empire Builder,' it was the principal railroad running from Chicago to Seattle over the Great Plains before passing through the Rocky and Cascade Mountain ranges. GNR just couldn’t compete with Burlington Northern’s intermodal transportation system.

Great Northern Relic

I found this caboose, sporting the Great Northern Railway logo, in Deer Lodge, Montana. It sits on display unlikely to ever ride the rails again. The irony of this image is that the once ubiquitous caboose is a relic itself having been replaced by modern electronics. I wonder if we will ever see vestiges of Microsoft or Boeing preserved in such a manner once they have succumbed to market pressures too onerous for them to overcome?

Photographed on Arista EDU 400 with a Nikon F100 camera mounted onto a 24-85mm f/4.5 Nikon AF lens.

Tags: railroad, filmphotography, monochrome, railroad, history