Tacoma offered two miles of waterfront to the Northern Pacific Railroad in exchange for the railroad building its terminal here. We can walk along Commencement Bay on old wharves or newly-laid sidewalks and watch seals for a good five miles.

Tacoma in the 1870s when and where my YA book is set. The building in front of the ship was a hotel and out of sight at the back right was where the Chinese lived.