❖ STEAM FERRIES ON LAKE WASHINGTON

Steam ferry LINCOLN
580 tons, 147.3' x 43' x 12.6'
Built at Capt. John Anderson's
Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, WA.
Original photo from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

"The automobile ferry, which was to eventually replace the passenger steamboat fleet of Puget Sound, first became a familiar sight on Lake Washington, where a comparatively heavy population and the early construction of connecting roads on both sides of the Lake made the development of this type of water transportation a natural. 
      The steel steam propeller ferry LINCOLN was built at Houghton for operation by King County on Lake Washington with the WASHINGTON of 1908. The LINCOLN was placed on the Madison Park (Seattle)-Kirkland route.
   

Steam ferry ISSAQUAH 
288-ton double-ended vessel 
114.4' x 38.2' x 8.9'
Click image to enlarge. Unknown photographer.
Original photo from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

      The Anderson Steamboat Co. followed the same year with the construction of the steam propeller ferry ISSAQUAH at its yard on the Lake. Designed by Capt. John Anderson, with several new features incorporated, including double runways for automobiles and teams on the lower deck, and an adjustable loading apron. The ferry was placed in service between Leschi Park and Newport, making a stop en route to Roanoke, Mercer Island. At Newport the ferry connected with the new state highway to Lake Sammamish, Fall City, Issaquah, North Bend and Snoqualmie. Following her successful trials, during which she was in charge of Capt. Anderson, she was commanded by Capt. Fred Wyman. The ferry steamer was equipped with a hardwood dance floor and made moonlight excursions on the lake after her regular scheduled crossings during the summer months. The operation of ferry vessels on the lake, frequently at a loss which was underwritten from tax revenues, by King County and the Port of Seattle, was rapidly making a private operation of passenger and ferry steamers economically unfeasible. The ISSAQUAH and the little steamer DAWN were the last vessels built by Capt. Anderson for his own use and the ISSAQUAH'S career in the Northwest was brief, being sold in 1918 to Klatt & Hanford as the first vessel of the Rodeo-Vallejo Ferry Co. operating across Carquinez Straits, CA. Later she was operated in conjunction with the pioneer Puget Sound ferry steamer CITY OF SEATTLE by the city of Martinez."
Above text from H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Editor, Gordon Newell. Superior Publishing. 1966