When I was a college student, devouring books so I could one day become a writer, I joined the student newspaper staff. My first story was due in a week, and the doubts crept in: I was too young. I had zero training. I was no good. Still, I had to take the first step. I had planned a road trip to Seattle that week—why not write a travel story? Like a good traveler giving in to new surroundings, I threw myself completely into telling the story I found, about underground cities in Washington and Oregon. Looking back, I’m surprised at my determination, and that the story turned out decently. This is what I wrote: “Seattle’s Pioneer Square hasn’t changed much since it was threatened by the wrecking ball in the early 1960’s. An old metal awning protects tourists from the rain, sailors in uniform mingle with midday crowds, and drunks doze on benches nearby. Below, a subterranean city attracts travelers in search of Seattle’s eccentric, buried history. Bill Speidel, a dubious local historian, whose book Sons of the Prophets tells the story of the ‘mistakes, sins, sewers, and scandals’ that built the Seattle underground, began giving tours of the interred neighborhood in 1965 to save Pioneer Square from destruction. Since then, the area has become an historic neighborhood, and Speidel’s Underground Tour Company still operates off of First Avenue in the center of the square. With deprecating humor, underground tour guide Terrylin gives a brief history lesson before leading a group of visitors around Pioneer Square and underneath it. In a prime example of what she calls ‘Seattle determination,’ the city was built on 1600 acres of swampland: ‘Even if it’s a bad idea, you stick with it,’ she says. The City was plagued with floods and sewage leaks until a fire destroyed 25 square blocks of the old downtown in 1889. City officials then mandated that new construction take place over the old ground level. Ground floors became basements, and new sidewalks were built next to second-story windows. Speidel’s company has a flair for the scandalous. Flyers announce ‘Dirt! Corruption! Sewers!’ and Terrylin interrupts her tours with anecdotes about the sordid history of the port city’s underworld. In recent memory, however, the most shocking event to take place beneath the streets was a marriage. ‘One of our guides got ordained to perform ceremonies, and we put an ad in the back of an alternative weekly,’ Terrylin says. ‘Some people took the bait.’ Two-hundred miles to the south, Portland’s underground consists of tunnels once used to transport victims of systematized kidnappings called ‘shanghaiing.’ Unwary bar patrons would disappear underground so that merchant ships could snatch them up and work them without pay. The Shanghai Bar on Ankeny Street near the waterfront is partly built into one such tunnel. Over Tom Petty blaring from speakers, bartender John Sherman explained the origin of the bar’s name. ‘Back in the day this was a basement, and there were trap doors right here,’ he says, pointing. ‘Whoever was left at the end of the night, wasted, they’d pull the trapdoor, the guy would fall down, they’d take him through the tunnel, and sell him as slave labor on a ship bound for Shanghai.’ Tours of the Portland tunnels are available through the Cascade Geographic Society. ‘The tunnels are completely different than those in Seattle,’ Michael P. Jones, who works for the society as a curator, says. ‘Ours took place because of shanghaiing and vice.’ Jones mentions that the Shanghai tunnels rank 10th on the History Channel’s list of most haunted places in North America—he believes they are full of ghosts. While he has researched the history of the tunnels all his life, first exploring them at age seven, for the last 14 years he has worked with volunteers on preservation and restoration projects. He says the tunnels are impacted by construction above, and it's possible they will one day disappear. ‘Never take history for granted,’ he says. ‘It is important to preserve all aspects of it.’ Back in Seattle, Terrylin has practical advice for incautious travelers: ‘Don’t get lost in the gift shop. You’ll need a map to get out.’"