Colman Dock

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Ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

title: "Colman Dock" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["history-of-king-county,-washington", "piers-in-seattle", "central-waterfront,-seattle", "ferry-terminals-in-the-united-states", "washington-state-ferries"] description: "Ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, U.S." topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colman_Dock" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, U.S. ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox pier"]

FieldValue
nameColman Dock
imageColman Dock 2022.jpg
captionAerial view of Colman Dock during expansion in 2022
official_nameSeattle Ferry Terminal
localeSeattle, Washington, U.S.
typeFerry terminal
ownerWashington State Ferries (WSDOT)
lengthprior dock (1917): 700 ft
widthprior dock (1917): 115 ft
open1882
rebuilt1908, 1966, 2019–23
coordinates
::

| name = Colman Dock | image = Colman Dock 2022.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Aerial view of Colman Dock during expansion in 2022 | official_name = Seattle Ferry Terminal | spans = | locale = Seattle, Washington, U.S. | type = Ferry terminal | maint = | id = | design = | construction = | owner = Washington State Ferries (WSDOT) | mainspan = | length = prior dock (1917): 700 ft | width = prior dock (1917): 115 ft | clearance = | below = | traffic = | open = 1882 | rebuilt = 1908, 1966, 2019–23 | closed = | toll = | map_cue = | map_image = | map_text = | map_width = | coordinates =

Colman Dock, also called Pier 52, is the primary ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, United States. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal, now used by the Washington State Ferries system, is still called "Colman Dock". The terminal serves two routes to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton and has an adjacent passenger-only facility at Pier 50 for King County Water Taxi and Kitsap Fast Ferries routes.

Location

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Colman_Dock_and_Smith_Tower.jpg" caption="Colman Dock from the [[Seattle–Bainbridge Island ferry]], with [[Smith Tower]] in the background"] ::

Originally Colman Dock was located at the foot of Columbia Street, and was immediately to the north of Pier 2. Before 1910, the wharf immediately to the north of Colman dock was used by the West Seattle ferry. In 1910 this wharf was replaced with the Grand Trunk Pacific dock. In 1964 the entire area was used for the much larger ferry terminal dock which exists today.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Seattle_waterfront_circa_1913.jpeg" caption="Colman dock (clock tower on right) between 1912 and 1914."] ::

Pier 52 was historically known as Colman Wharf. The original Colman Dock was built by Scottish engineer James Colman in 1882 for the Oregon Improvement Company's coal bunkers. It burned with most of the rest of the city in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, but was quickly rebuilt. In 1908, Colman extended the dock to a total length of 705 ft and added a domed waiting room and a 72 ft clocktower. This expansion was designed by the Seattle architectural firm Beezer Brothers.

Colman also set up a company, the Colman Dock Company, to conduct the dock's business affairs. Following the merger of the La Conner Transportation Company, headed by Joshua Green (1869–1975), with the Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSN), headed by Charles E. Peabody (1857–1926) the Colman Dock Company, and the Colman Dock itself, came under PSN control. In 1910, PSN was approaching monopoly control over the inland steamship routes of western Washington, with the company's most serious challenger being the Kitsap County Transportation Company (KCTC), headed by Kitsap County businessman Warren L. Gazzam (1864–1961). The rivalry between the two companies became almost a personal matter between Green and Gazzam. In 1910, Green, having obtained control of Colman Dock, and engaged in a rate war with KCTC, ordered KCTC not to land its boats at Colman Dock. KCTC then moved several piers north, to the Galbraith, Bacon dock. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Steamers_at_the_Colman_Dock,_ca.1910-DPLA-b0c27c2e7d40410c04d231548a4eeece(page_1).jpg" caption="mosquito fleet ships]] in the early 1910s"] ::

Colman Dock was seriously damaged when, on the night of April 25, 1912, the steel-hulled ship Alameda accidentally set its engines "full speed ahead" instead of reversing, and slammed into the dock. The dock tower fell into the bay and the sternwheeler Telegraph was sunk. The clock was salvaged, as was the Telegraph, and the dock was reconstructed with a new tower.

In 1917, Colman Dock was owned and operated by Colman Dock Company, with B. P. Morgan as manager. Colman Dock was the terminal of the Puget Sound Navigation Company, the Merchants Transportation Company, and several Puget Sound shipping lines. Colman Dock measured 700 by, with 1400 ft of berthing space. In 1917 an overhead walk (still in existence in 1983) led from the Seattle business district to the waiting room, from which most of the Puget Sound steamship passenger traffic originated. There were also adjustable passenger gangplanks and adjustable freight slips. In 1917 Colman Dock was equipped with a Barlow marine elevator. Colman Dock could accommodate 14 Puget Sound steamboats at one time. There were offices on the north side of the overhead walk.

In the mid-1930s Puget Sound Navigation Company modernized Colman Dock, using an Art Deco style that matched their streamlined signature ferry .

In 1935, Colman Dock became the Seattle terminal for what had been the Alki–Manchester ferry when the dock at Alki Point washed out.

In 1951, Washington State bought out PSNC and took over the ferry system. The state paid $500,000 for the ferry terminal at Colman Dock.

Work on the present terminal began a decade later; there have been several reconfigurations and modernizations since. The very month that the state ferry terminal opened, it was the subject of another accident. The Kalakala, which had recently been voted Seattle's second biggest attraction after the then-new Space Needle, rammed the terminal February 21, 1966. Though dramatic, the damage proved not to be severe. The ferry needed only minor repairs and was back in service the next day. Repairs to the slip cost $80,000 and took two months to complete.

The clock from the old Colman Dock tower fell into the bay in the 1912 Alameda accident and was reinstalled. It was later removed in the 1936 renovation and stored in pieces at a warehouse for forty years. The clock was rediscovered in 1976 and purchased by the Port of Seattle in 1985; the restored was gifted to the Washington State Department of Transportation and reinstalled on the present Colman Dock on May 18, 1985.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/MV_Wenatchee_arriving_in_Seattle.webm" caption="The MV Wenatchee arriving at Colman Dock"] ::

Redevelopment

The first phase of the new terminal building opened on September 15, 2019. The remainder of the 20,000 sqft main building was opened in November 2022 and can hold up to 1,900 passengers in the waiting area, which has 362 seats and twelve turnstiles. The entry building along Alaskan Way was opened on August 3, 2023, with plans for a grab-and-go retail counter and other vendor spaces to open at a later date. The Colman Dock expansion added 50,000 sqft of new indoor space, which was re-oriented to face the water, and cost $489 million to construct.

The pedestrian bridge, built parallel to Marion Street at the site of the former overpass, began construction in July 2022 and is scheduled to be completed in September 2023. The concrete bridge is 110 ft long and 16 ft wide, supported by a series of Y-shaped columns. The new bridge is expected to cost $6.3 million with funding from WSDOT and the city government. A section of the former bridge along the north side of the Commuter Building was demolished in late 2020 following the opening of a temporary bridge above Western Avenue and Columbia Street.

The plazas at Colman Dock were given indigenous Lushootseed names suggested by local tribes that were approved by the Washington State Transportation Commission in June 2023. The north plaza at Columbia Street, ʔulułali, was named by the Suquamish Tribe for a term meaning "a place of traveling water"; the south plaza at Yesler Way, sluʔwił, was named by the Muckleshoot Tribe for "a canoe pass". Signage at both plazas was installed in March 2025.

Service

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/WSF-unloading-2185.jpg" caption="Ferry unloading at Colman Dock, 2006."] ::

Two automobile ferry routes currently depart from Colman Dock: the Seattle–Bainbridge Island ferry and the Seattle–Bremerton ferry. The terminal building can hold 1,900 people and the outdoor queueing area has space for 611 vehicles.

Two passenger-only ferry systems, the King County Water Taxi and Kitsap Fast Ferries, operate out of a separate facility at Pier 50 on the south side of Colman Dock. The water taxi serves West Seattle and Vashon Island, while the Fast Ferries serve Bremerton and Kingston. From 2017 to 2019, passenger ferries used a temporary passenger-only dock at the north side of Pier 52. The new Pier 50 facility opened on August 12, 2019, with a covered waiting area that can hold 500 people. A pedestrian overpass opened in 2020 that connects it to the Washington State Ferries facility.

Notes

References

  • {{citation | last =Thomas Street History Services | date =November 2006 | title =Context Statement: The Central Waterfront | place =Seattle | publisher =The Historic Preservation Program, Department of Neighborhoods, City of Seattle | url =https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Neighborhoods/HistoricPreservation/HistoricResourcesSurvey/context-waterfront.pdf | access-date =January 23, 2019 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20211229001436/https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Neighborhoods/HistoricPreservation/HistoricResourcesSurvey/context-waterfront.pdf | archive-date =December 29, 2021 | url-status =live

References

  1. (1917). "Frank Waterhouse & Company's Pacific Ports: A Commercial Geography". Terminal Publishing Company.
  2. (December 4, 2005). "Colman Clock (Seattle)".
  3. (May 24, 2000). "Seattle Central Waterfront Tour, Part 4: From Mosquito Fleet to Ferry System at Colman Dock".
  4. {{Harvnb. Thomas Street History Services. 2006
  5. (October 28, 1998). "Beezer Brothers Architecture".
  6. {{Harvard citation no brackets. Kline. Bayless. 1983
  7. (February 24, 2005). "Colman Dock (Seattle) gangplank failure dunks passengers boarding steamer ''Flyer'', injuring 58 and drowning two, on May 19, 1912.".
  8. "Kalakala Timeline".
  9. (March 4, 2001). "Ferry ''Kalakala'' rams new Seattle Ferry Terminal on February 21, 1966.".
  10. Deshias, Nicholas. (August 17, 2025). "WA ferry woodworkers keep century-old Colman Clock ticking". The Seattle Times.
  11. Pilling, Nathan. (September 14, 2019). "New ferry terminal opens at Colman Dock Sunday". Kitsap Sun.
  12. Zhou, Amanda. (November 18, 2022). "Seattle's new ferry terminal at Colman Dock opens with upgrades". The Seattle Times.
  13. (November 18, 2022). "Flagship state ferry terminal building opens on Seattle waterfront – just in time for Thanksgiving travel". Washington State Department of Transportation.
  14. Pilling, Nathan. (August 2, 2023). "Seattle's Colman Dock ferry terminal to open new entry building, plaza after $489M overhaul". Kitsap Sun.
  15. Kroman, David. (August 2, 2023). "Seattle's new Colman Dock ready to open". The Seattle Times.
  16. (August 4, 2022). "Firm foundation forming for new Marion Street pedestrian bridge". Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
  17. Minnick, Benjamin. (July 19, 2022). "City starts new Marion Street pedestrian bridge". Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
  18. Rhodes, Diane. (June 27, 2023). "New flagship ferry terminal restores salmon habitat, honors tribal history". Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.
  19. (June 21, 2023). "Resolution No. 748". [[Washington State Transportation Commission]].
  20. Nevey, Steve. (March 13, 2025). "WSF Weekly Update". Washington State Ferries.
  21. (August 11, 2017). "Water Taxi resumes service following move".
  22. Minnick, Benjamin. (August 13, 2019). "New passenger-only ferry terminal opens on Pier 50 near Colman Dock". [[Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce]].

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history-of-king-county,-washingtonpiers-in-seattlecentral-waterfront,-seattleferry-terminals-in-the-united-stateswashington-state-ferries