Thea Foss Waterway, summer 2005
Photo by Barb White

Next time you are in the MOG Grand Hall, take a moment to look out the window. What do you see? For many of us, the view beyond the promenade is a very familiar vista. We see boats; we sometimes see Mount Rainier; we see a lot of rain; and we see an important part of Tacoma’s historic working waterfront, the Thea Foss Waterway.

Over 100 years old, the “City Waterway” was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between the years 1902 and 1905. Originally a small inlet off Commencement Bay, the waterway was engineered to aid maritime traffic (primarily sailing vessels) by expanding the arm in a direction that utilized the prevailing winds. The width of the waterway was plotted to accommodate the turning radius of the average cargo-bearing ship. The 1.5-mile inlet housed a thriving industrial area with numerous mills and marine activities and connected to the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Perhaps one of the most famous inhabitants of the original inlet was a feisty blond Norwegian immigrant, Thea Christiansen Foss, who came to Tacoma with her husband and children in 1889. Andrew, a seaman carpenter, built his family a float house (a house on logs) on the harbor near the 11th and 15th Street bridge.

Thea Foss began what was later to become the Foss Maritime Company by purchasing a rowboat for $5, sprucing it up and selling it for $15, while Andrew was out of town on a carpentry job. With her profits, she bought more rowboats and sold them for even more profit, and by the time Andrew came home she had the seeds for a rowboat rental business.

The company, based out of her waterfront houseboat, originally owned four rowboats, which were available for transport anytime of the day or night. Thea’s fleet grew, expanding to 200 rowboats. Bigger boats were soon added and by 1913, the family had a thriving business, Foss Launch and Tug Company of Tacoma.

Thea continued to be an active participant in the company and was known both for her business acumen and her hospitality within the community. Her funeral in 1927 drew so many visitors that it inspired Norman Reilly Raine to write the Saturday Evening Post’s Tugboat Annie series, which became a movie in 1933 and a TV sitcom in the 1950’s. In 2005, Thea Foss became the focus of a documentary, Finding Thea. Thea’s historical legacy is remembered in the renaming of the City Waterway to the Thea Foss Waterway.

For more information on Thea Foss and Finding Thea go to the following websites: www.daughtersofnorway.org/dnThea45.html and findingthea.com