South Tacoma Way, 1936. Rain

Its a yellow light on a turning signal at 56th and South Tacoma Way in 1936. There is a southwest wind blowing the rain into the windshields and people are wearing winter overcoats and snug hats that stay on your head when your hands are tucked into your pockets. This was Highway 99 before the freeway, the main interstate route headed toward Oregon and California. The dense commercial district with it’s bakeries, butcher shops, one cook cafes and drug stores served the surrounding neighborhoods of hand made bungalows and family homes for railroad shop workers. These were the solid plumb jobs for generations of working Tacomans- steamfitters and heavy metal craftsmen that built and repaired the biggest steam locomotives in the world. The vast Northern Pacific yards filled the valley just to the west(right) of this highway view, massive sturdy brick shop buildings the size of football fields, belching steam and flickering day and night with the sparklight from open forges, blow torches and arc welders. By the late 1930’s the once powerful NP railroad was faltering and the big repair sheds were dimming as the Pacific Northwest’s big passenger depots became empty and the highways filled with cars and buses. The last of Tacoma’s streetcars were ending their runs in the 30’s, the overhead catenary lines were being re-rigged with streetlight wires and the rails were being torn up for smoother rides in the air cushioned Ford sedans and long Hudson towncars. Along South Tacoma Way, car dealerships appeared just as the railroad shops faded, like one actor replacing another in a roadside melodrama for the motor age.