![\"seattle-waterfront-1952-compressed\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/seattle-waterfront-1952-compressed.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The Seattle waterfront in the early 1950s was a world of cargo ships and fish-packing companies, not the promenade for tourists that it is today.<\/p>\n The influx of people created a necessity for more freeways. Construction of the I-90 bridge began in 1940 and was paid off by 1949. In 1990, the bridge sank<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n On November 11th, 1957, a break in a huge brick and quick sand sewer caused a cave-in. The hole measured 60 feet deep, 120 feet wide and 200 feet long. The total cost of repairing the cave-in was $2 million. The work took two years to complete<\/a>.<\/p>\n Construction began on the Alaskan Way Viaduct on Monday, February 6, 1950, when a power shovel ceremoniously scooped the first dirt from a muddy bank on the east side of Western Avenue near Battery Street. But according to HistoryLink,<\/a> before long, the power shovel got stuck in the mud, and a tractor and crane had to yank it out. It was not a glamorous start to the project, but work proceeded, and by July 1951, the first segment of the viaduct (from Battery to Pike Street) had been completed.<\/p>\n Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The total population of Washington state in 1950 was 2,378,963, an increase of 642,772 (37.02 percent) from the 1940 count of 1,736,191, reports HistoryLink<\/a>.\u00a0After the 1950 count, the Census Bureau began taking more interest in social and economic statistics, including a vastly more detailed count of various racial groups and increased emphasis on the extent of poverty in the nation.<\/p>\n Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n A wet winter wiped out five homes on the bluff overlooking Elliot Bay.<\/p>\n Photo: Seattle Public Library<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n According to Paul Dorpat<\/a>, for more than 35 years the Moscow Restaurant was a fixture for the Russian-American community that settled on the western slope of Capitol Hill. It opened in 1923, serving borsht, beef stroganoff, jellied pigs\u2019 feet, Turkish coffee and Russian pancakes. In 1958, the construction of the I-5 freeway unfortunately put them out of business.<\/p>\n George Kinnear was a prominent real estate developer in Queen Anne. He built this stately mansion in 1888. After George Kinnear\u2019s death in 1912, his son Charles moved into the mansion, remaining there until his death in November 1956. The mansion was demolished in 1958, and Bayview Manor was built on its site in 1961.<\/p>\n The Aqua Theatre was constructed in only 67 days on the south shore of Greenlake in 1950 at a cost of $247,000, according to HistoryLink<\/a>. On opening night, a sellout crowd of 5,200 came to see water ballet, comedy, dancers, singers, and high divers plunging from two towers flanking a stage adorned with evergreen trees. The night concluded with a magical a fireworks finale.<\/p>\n Beacon Hill was nicknamed \u201c<\/span>Boeing Hill\u201d<\/span> in the 1950s and 60s due to the number of residents who worked in the nearby Boeing airplane factory.<\/p>\n Photo: Seattle Muncipal Archives\/Flickr\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nI-90 Floating Bridge, 1959<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\nPhoto: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThe Great Ravenna Boulevard Sinkhole, 1957<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nAlaskan Way Viaduct under construction, 1951<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\nPhoto: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nHouses on 30th Avenue S. near King Street, 1957<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nHouse damaged in Perkins Lane landslide, 1954<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nMoscow Restaurant, February 1952<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nKinnear Family Mansion, 1951\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\nPhoto: Seattle Public Library<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThe Aqua Theater under construction, 1951<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\nPhoto: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nBeacon Hill, 1955<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\nPhoto: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nDowntown Seattle skyline as seen from Marine Hospital, 1954<\/b><\/h2>\n
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