Seattle Washington Ballard Locks Government Canal Construction 1914 Real Photo Postcard

The Government Canal visible in this early 20th-century postcard depicts a significant phase of construction on the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Ballard, Seattle, Washington. This ambitious civil engineering project, undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, aimed to connect Puget Sound with Lake Union and Lake Washington, providing a navigable waterway for commercial and naval vessels and regulating the water levels of the lakes. The image showcases the heavy earthmoving operations, likely involving a temporary railway and trestle for transporting excavated material, characteristic of the project's intensive early stages.