Eugene Semple

This detail from a 1911 map shows the Seattle's Industrial District (after the construction of Harbor Island). A portion of Semple's attempted canal can be seen at lower right, running east–west; north of that can be seen the large city blocks that characterize the former tidelands.

Eugene Semple (June 12, 1840 – August 28, 1908) was an American politician who served as the 13th governor of Washington Territory and the unsuccessful Democratic candidate to be the first governor of Washington State.

Early life Eugene Semple was born in Bogotá, Colombia, on June 12, 1840, to then minister to the Republic of New Granada, James Semple. The older Semple later served as chief justice to the Illinois Supreme Court and as U.S. Senator.

Work began July 29, 1895. Within 10 months nearly of tide flats had been filled. At that time, Burke managed to get a court injunction challenging the constitutionality of the 1893 law. A December 1898 decision went in Semple's favor, but the delay had put his company into financial difficulties. Semple scored some other legal victories and did well with the state government, but Burke ultimately won. Semple's activities affected railroad lands, giving Burke further opportunities for injunctions; Burke won over the Seattle city government (and ultimately the federal government) to the northern canal route. By May 1904, Semple's incomplete project was dead. The former Elliott Bay tidelands filled in by his attempt at building a canal soon became the basis of Seattle's Industrial District.

Some opponents of the project considered Semple's canal project a complete boondoggle. The Seattle Mail and Herald wrote in an unsigned article published June 8, 1904, "It is named the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway Company, but its promoters never for a moment intended to create a waterway between Seattle's harbor and Lake Washington. The very name of it is a fraud and was created with intent to deceive. Under the guise of building a canal, it only aimed to fool the land owners into letting it disfigure the landscape, while it took dirt enough from them at condemnation prices to fill in the tide lands, for which service it is allowed over 18 cents per square yard and is secured by a preferred lien upon the land it fills."