Most don’t know this, but once upon a time there were two Montlake cuts. People who see photos from around 1900 that show a canal linking Union Bay to Portage Bay often assume that it is what we now know as the Montlake Cut. One of those photos was included in a “now and then” article in the May issue of Stroll Laurelhurst & Windermere. It shows logs flowing down a channel, but it wasn’t where today’s Montlake Cut is located. There was an earlier cut.

In the late 1800s logging was widespread long the shores of Lake Washington and it was widely recognized that there was a need for a canal to transport logs from the lake to Lake Union. In the 1860s a fellow named Harvey Pike had attempted to dig a log canal in the area, but his efforts failed. More successful efforts resulted in the completion of a log canal in 1887. It was dug in the area along what is now the northern edge of Highway 520 and it extended along the southern edge of the former Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) building.

It was basically a log chute that could carry logs down from the higher level of Lake Washington descending about seven feet into what is now called Portage Bay. Late 19th and early 20th century maps had those waters designated Lake Union because it was considered the eastern end of that lake. It wasn’t called Portage Bay until the U.S. Government named it that in 1913. Historians believe the canal probably followed the route of the trail used by Natives to portage their canoes across the land. On its western end the log canal had a fork the northern side of which was a small lock passable only by the very smallest of boats.  The south side had a gate that opened onto an aqueduct then a waterfall into the bay.

Digging what we know as the Montlake Cut began took place between 1909 and 1916 and it was related to the extensive project that created the Lake Washington Ship Canal, connecting Lake Washington to Puget Sound. Before digging began there was no canal or stream where the Montlake Cut now exists. It was high and dry. The Montlake Cut opened to boat traffic in 1916. Car traffic over the Cut wasn’t possible until 1925 when the Montlake Bridge was constructed.

The greater ship canal project included construction of the Hiram Chittendon Locks, also known as the Ballard Locks, which, when opened in 1916, allowed the higher lake water to be lowered to the lower level of Salmon Bay. When that happened, the lake was lowered by nine feet and waterfront landowners had new waterfront property. Before the Locks were completed, the lake drained at its southern end through the Black River, which connected to the Duwamish River, the mouth of which drained into Elliott Bay. Lowering Lake Washington by eight feet was the end of the Black River, which quickly dried up – much to the astonishment and consternation of the Natives who had lived along its banks for centuries.

Part of the the confusion with photos of the log canal are captions describing the scene as the Montlake cut or canal. One photo in MOHAI’s collection describes an early photo as the “Montlake Canal, Seattle circa 1900.” Another photo has the caption, “Logs in Montlake canal, Seattle, 1908.” They might better be described as the “Union Bay/Portage Bay log canal.”

Equally perplexing are the large reproductions of early maps placed on the Spur Apartment building on Northeast Blakely Street. Diagonal lines where the log canal existed are labeled “Montlake Cut completed in 1916.” One map also tells us that Portage Bay was so named because logs were portaged across the Montlake area before construction of the Ship Canal. However, logs were transported through the now long-gone canal, not overland.

And worse yet is a timeline on Wikipedia that tells us that construction of today’s Montlake Cut started in 1860!

It’s all very confusing, but now you know.