In 1929 the 5,400-foot-long timber seawall protecting Alki Beach was rebuilt with 18-foot lengths of interlocking steel imported from Germany. Beginning in the early 1960s this steel seawall was reinforced first with a 3-inch-thick gunite face and later by a layer of riprap.

A second book, "A Narrative History of the Engineering Department," lends evidence for this "restraining date" of 1914. The public-works history quotes from the 1921 annual report of the Seattle Streets Department that "the sheet piling bulkhead along Alki Avenue, built in 1914, was attacked by teredos (wood-boring worms) and sand fleas despite its creosoted facing. These destroyers, together with the action of the undertow ... have so weakened the bulkhead that extensive repairs were necessary."

In 1920-21 the weakest parts of the timber seawall were reinforced, and two years later the graded fill behind them was paved, creating what was promoted then as "the finest and longest saltwater view drive in the Northwest." In our "Then" picture, we have none of that seawall or smoothed drive. However, our muddy and rutted road is crossed, in the foreground, by tidy-looking trolley tracks.

These rails may be the intended subject of the unidentified photographer. They may also help carry us to our date. The trolley line was extended south of Alki Beach in 1908 as far as the South Alki Station on Beach Drive. Now add this: "Along Alki Beach, 1908" is penciled lightly on the back of my original print for this scene. These two bits of evidence might have settled this uncertainty about time - except that the writing is in my own hand, and my memory of what authority I copied has faded with the print.

Still I will trust my forgotten source and stick with late 1908.

Vol. 1 and a new edition of Vol. 3 of Paul Dorpat's books, "Seattle Now & Then" are $19.95 each from Tartu Publications, P.O. Box 85208, Seattle, WA 98145.