Fremont Cut


The Fremont Cut is a canal that is part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal that links Lake Washington to Puget Sound through Seattle, Washington. The Fremont Cut connects Lake Union to the east with Salmon Bay to the west. It is long and wide. The center channel is wide and deep.

History

Work first began on the cut when the Lake Washington Improvement Company contracted in 1883 to dig out Ross Creek which at that time was Lake Union’s fresh water outlet to Salmon Bay. The total amount of material excavated was about 2 million cubic yards. Up until the Chittenden Locks were completed in 1917, the Fremont Cut’s eastern end near the Fremont Bridge was separated from Lake Union by a low wooden dam, a small wooden lock, and a spillway.

Environs

Named for the neighborhood lying just to the north, the cut is spanned by the Fremont Bridge, a bascule drawbridge that connects Fremont with Queen Anne to the south via Fremont Avenue North. South of the cut is the 456’ high Queen Anne Hill while to the east is the Aurora Bridge, a cantilever truss, suspension structure that carries old US 99 over the west end of Lake Union. Various high tech companies are located just north of the cut in the Fremont area, notably Adobe Systems, Tableau Software and Google.