report #2

I consulted two maps. They are the topographical map that shows the elevation, and the railroad map shows the long-distance train around university district and Seattle.
I first looked at the elevation map, and it indicates that the area around the UW was very flat. This area may be relatively early developed since the landscape allows the development to be done easily with limited technology at that time. With such technology,city development highly relies on the structure of the original landscape. As the professor and the book mentioned that the transportation has a very intimate relationship with the development, so there must be railroads around. This hypothesis was proven by the second map. It shows that there was a railroad around Seattle. There isn't any map that describes the railroads in specific blocks, such as university district area, but only the ones containing bigger scope like cities. I also learned from pictures that the deforestation has already started by 1900s. Trees may support the construction of this area.

As the area developed more, the trees were less. There was almost no trees in some university district area, while there were some trees left in the University of Washington area. There was no waterway in my block, but there is a lake called Lake Union close to my block. The Lake Union may have a positive effect to the city development because it enables the city drainage. By 1900, the forest in this area was almost gone for the purpose of city development because this landscape of this area was sufficient for urbanization. The environmental effect is that the flat landscape and lake close by motivated people to develop the city and to cut the trees. This area was not hillier since the map says that the elevation is constant.

As I went to visit, I found that my block contains a kind of wooden electrical pole, which also appeared in the picture of university district in 1900. It is very possible that this pole is made from the trees that grow before the urbanization. I also found the trail of water and a sewer at the end of the water trial. The sewer may be connected to the Lake Union, and the route of water may be similar to the pre-urbanization ones.