ABSTRACT
On July 3, 1873, the executive committee of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company telegraphed to its West Coast representatives that their recommendation for the location of “Terminal City” on Puget Sound had been approved. By this action the committee made official a decision that had been a source of much uncertainty among the finalists—Tacoma, Seattle, and Mukilteo: Tacoma was to be the Pacific Northwest terminus of the line that was still under construction from Saint Paul westward to Kalama on the Columbia River and thence north to Puget Sound. The minutes of that same meeting also noted that two members of the company’s board of directors, Charles B. Wright of Philadelphia and Charlemagne Tower of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, “were appointed Committee to lay out and own Terminal City. … The town plan will be made here as soon as topographical map and other data received.” 1 Olmsted Tacoma plan, 1873 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315050409/0f79b137-0e99-4fa3-b4b0-e4576490ab3b/content/fig6_3_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
