File:Downtown Seattle from Beacon Hill, 1914 (MOHAI 12951).jpg

English: Seattle's Beacon Hill blocked easy access for people and goods between the downtown commercial area of Seattle and the more agricultural Rainier Valley. Starting in 1906, a series of regrades cut through Beacon Hill, first at Jackson Street and a few years later at Dearborn Street. Here, standing on Beacon Hill, the photographer looks northwest over Chinatown (now the Chinatown International District) towards Smith Tower, completed in 1914. In the foreground, dirt is still piled along the unfinished Dearborn Street. To the left of Smith Tower, the towers of Colman Dock, King Street Station, and the Grand Trunk Pacific Dock, as well as the smokestack of Seattle Steam can be seen in the distance. The Grand Trunk Pacific Dock burned in July 1914, destroying the tower.