Despite these concerns, in 1870 Jay Cooke (1821-1905), a Philadelphia financier, pledged his fortune to the construction of the Northern Pacific. Crews immediately began laying tracks. One Northern Pacific line reached west from Duluth and the other faced east from Kalama, Washington Territory, on the Columbia River. This burst of activity soon came to an end, but not before the Northern Pacific had snubbed Seattle as its Western terminus in favor of Tacoma. This July 14, 1873, decision came after a series of generous offers from fledgling Seattle. The city offered Northern Pacific 7,500 town lots, 3,000 acres, $50,000 in cash, $200,000 in bonds, and a 30-foot-wide strip along its waterfront. It was enough to move the town onto the company's short list along with Mukilteo and Tacoma -- then barely a village on the shore of Commencement Bay.
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