Did you always want to know why the criminal world is also called „The Underworld“? The answer is buried in Seattle. 
Here we go: Seattle was built some, hmm, let’s say 150 years ago. It became big because the first steam-powered sawmill in North-Western America was opened there. Seattle was picturesque with a nice harbour and steep hills. But these hills were a bit problematic when Seattle was growing. What to do?

The citizens of this proud city decided to simply cut of the hills, make then smoother and to fill the uneven gap with dirt. And, once we talk about filling up things, they also decided to use the sawdust from the immensely productive sawmill to make the Earth flat.

This proved to be a minor mistake when one house burnt down. One house is not really a problem, you would say and so did the Seattle people. The fire was extinguished quickly and live could go on. Or couldn’t it?

Within the next couple of days, the city burnt down. Smouldering fires in the sawdust ground quickly made their way through the wooden city. 

Seattle was a little fed up with wooden buildings by then and decided to build the new city out of stone – at least the first floor of each house. The started immediately and somehow forgot to install a proper canalization. This became sort of a problem when the city was growing, so in the middle of the street they started to install waste-pipes. They were pretty high, some two metres or so, and people had to climb over them we they wanted to cross the street. After each block they installed stairs so that people could climb over. This worked fine and most men were very excited to help the ladies with their multiple skirts to climb up the steep stairs or ladders. Some drunks fall to death and sooner or later the citizens felt somewhat uncomfortable with the situation.

The city agreed to install the new street level on the level of the second floor of the houses. Dancing halls moved down there, prostitution followed and during the prohibition town the city was partying down there. The underworld was born.


Today Seattle is a nice city, very clean, few homeless people and good restaurants. I was lucky that I met Melissa who should me around and made me climb the remaining hills from where you can see the charming skyline. Long live couchsurfing!