← Maps

Rand McNally Tallies Seattle's Last Private Ferry Era

1940 · Chicago, Illinois

Download original↓

Background

Plate number **454001** sits in the lower-right margin of this Rand McNally downtown Seattle sheet, which annotates six ferry and steamship lines across Elliott Bay — among them the Northland Transportation Company, which closed in 1948, setting the upper bound for the printing date.

Rand McNally & Company of Chicago printed this as a standalone folded city map — the kind sold at hotel desks and filling stations. The copyright line and plate number in the lower-right margin are consistent with the company's mid-century commercial production.

Two ferry labels are the sharpest dating tool. The "Northland Transportation Company" — listed here as "Northland Transit Co., Steamers to Alaska" — ran Seattle–Southeast Alaska routes from 1923 until its parent company shuttered it in 1948. The "Coleman Ferry" designates the terminal of the Puget Sound Navigation Company (also known as the Black Ball Line), which Washington State bought out on June 1, 1951 to create Washington State Ferries. Both appear as active services, placing the printing in the early-to-mid 1940s.

Other annotated services in the Elliott Bay margin include:

  • Alaska Steamship Company passenger and freight routes to Alaska (discontinued passengers in 1954, closed 1971)
  • A Canadian National Railway port terminal on the central waterfront
  • Passenger and auto ferry routes to Victoria and Vancouver, B.C.
  • Auto ferries to Bremerton and Manchester on the Kitsap Peninsula

The American Can Company plant — a 1917 tin-can factory that served the Pacific Northwest salmon canning industry — is labeled near the upper-left corner at the foot of Clay Street. The street grid covers roughly Pike Street south to Dearborn, and from the waterfront piers east to about 12th Avenue.

Researched with claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on May 24, 2026. AI-assisted — verify before citing.

Highlights

  • The title box reads 'DOWNTOWN SEATTLE / Scale [bar] 1 miles / Copyright by Rand McNally & Company / Chicago, ILL — Lithographed in the U.S.A.', identifying publisher and origin.
  • Plate number '454001' is printed in the lower-right margin, a standard Rand McNally production code.
  • The label 'NORTHLAND TRANSIT CO. STEAMERS TO ALASKA' extends westward into Elliott Bay — this company ceased operations in 1948, providing a terminus ante quem for the map's printing.
  • 'COLEMAN FERRY' marks the Puget Sound Navigation Company's Colman Dock terminal, still labeled as a private concern rather than the state ferry system it became in 1951.
  • A compass rose is positioned in the upper-left corner, with north oriented roughly toward the top edge of the sheet.
  • Numbered points of interest are distributed across the street grid throughout the right two-thirds of the map; the explanatory legend key is not visible in this scan, suggesting it appeared on another panel of the folded sheet.

Further reading