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Perenially_behind t1_is7kx9h wrote

Reply to comment by pala4833 in Port Townsend this evening by BKlounge93

The platting is one of many similarities between Port Townsend and Seattle. There are sections platted at different orientations and where they meet, roads change directions and confusion ensues.

PT also has its own Pike/Pine: Taylor and Tyler are right next to each other.

I didn't realize how completely the town had been platted out until I went to the JeffCo History Museum research center and looked at old road atlases that were based on plats rather than reality. Huge numbers of roads that don't exist. City of Dreams is right.

Agree about the road maintenance. I've bicycled on all the decent roads here, most of the indecent roads, and a number of the downright obscene roads.

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BarnabyWoods t1_is83oqr wrote

>Huge numbers of roads that don't exist.

But many of those are now public trails, so all those 19th Century dreams left a nice legacy.

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Perenially_behind t1_is9512n wrote

Yeah, that was a pretty slick move to keep the Rights-of-Way active so that developers can't get them vacated.

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pala4833 t1_isb15cg wrote

Unfortunately the city has a nasty habit of vacating ROW in conjunction with simple SFR building permits. The Non-Motorized Committee has done a good job with the public trails program, but it's a shame the city throws away such a blessing that a lot of other jurisdictions struggle to plan around.

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BKlounge93 OP t1_is8nroh wrote

Oh yeah there was a stretch for a while where they thought PT was gonna be the big city in the area, around when both PT and seattle were about the same size. Could have been totally different.

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Perenially_behind t1_is94po0 wrote

Yeah, Port Townsend and Port Angeles were duking it out to be the major city. Then Teddy Roosevelt created Olympic National Park and Port Townsend entered a state of arrested decay for decades.

We're sure not in that state now though.

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pala4833 t1_isb1h9r wrote

The arrested decay really resulted from the Alaska Gold Rush. Seattle became the outfitting center and the railroads gave up on reaching the peninsula.

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