thumb|The locomotive A.A. Denny
thumb|Driving the first pile for the Seattle and Walla Walla
thumb|Looking east from the C&PSRR docks in Seattle, 1882
thumb|Railway curves along the shore south of Downtown Seattle, 1881
The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad (earlier Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and Transportation Company) was a narrow gauge railroad and was the first proper railroad to serve Seattle, Washington, preceded only by horse-drawn rail vehicles and by a coal train making the very short haul from Lake Union to Pike Street. After being sold to Henry Villard's Oregon Improvement Company in 1880 it was renamed the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad.
History
Seattle and Walla Walla
When the Northern Pacific Railway chose nearby Tacoma as its western terminus (1873), many thought that this would condemn Seattle to, at best, a secondary role on Puget Sound. While most of the other towns that were passed over in favor of Tacoma simply accepted their fate, Seattle did not. Its founding trustees were Arthur Denny, John Collins, Franklin Mathias, Angus Mackintosh, Henry Yesler, James McNaught, J. J. McGilvra, J. M. Colman, and Dexter Horton. They ventured to Walla Walla, where they were given a warm welcome, but that city lacked Seattle's concern for the project: they already had land transport to Portland, Oregon, not to mention access to the Columbia River. Colman brought in labor contractor Chin Gee Hee, who organized cheap Chinese labor to continue the construction. (Chin would eventually become a railway entrepreneur in his native China.)
Despite Walla Walla's lack of interest, construction began on May 1, 1874, Twelve miles of track had been completed by October of that year, entirely through volunteer labor by the men of Seattle. and regular commercial runs commencing October 15.
On January 18, 1878 ultimately of railway with five locomotives, two passenger cars and sixty freight cars, November 25, 1880, and renamed it the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad. The sale was quite profitable for the line's owners, but still did little to connect Seattle to the national land transportation grid.
Columbia and Puget Sound
The Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad Company (C&PSRR), successor to the Seattle and Walla Walla, was incorporated November 26, 1880, the day after the purchase.) around May 1893.), leading in theory to the Northern Pacific's main terminal at Tacoma, but the Northern Pacific largely declined to operate the line. There were various degrees of accommodation at various times, but it would not be until 1902 that a genuinely amicable agreement was reached with Northern Pacific, with details finalized in 1903.
The Great Seattle Fire in June 1889 destroyed C&PSRR's Seattle station, shops, roundhouse, coal bunkers, all of its wharves, four freight cars and a locomotive. The railroad was up and running again by the end of the year. The Panic of 1893 severely impacted the Oregon Improvement Company, which went into receivership in 1895, emerging in 1897 as the Pacific Coast Company,
C&PSRR upgraded to standard gauge, work that was completed in November 1897. (later Alaskan Way).
In 1909, following up on a 1906 agreement,