Fascinating story from the Everett Herald:
In 1915, as war raged in Europe, the Liberty Bell came to Everett
The Liberty Bell no longer rang and it wasn't on time, but 100 years ago this month the bronze symbol of American freedom rolled into Everett on a train.
It was 4 a.m. July 14, 1915, when the bell, mounted on an open-top train car, arrived here on its way to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. The Panama Canal had opened in 1914.
It wasn't the bell's first train trip — there had been six others, but none to the West. The 1915 journey that included Everett and Seattle would be its last absence from Philadelphia, where historians believe the bell was rung July 8, 1776, to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
According to Everett Daily Herald archives, a 21-gun salute by local Spanish-American War veterans greeted the Liberty Bell train. It had been scheduled to arrive in Everett just before midnight July 13, 1915, but a delay tested the crowd's patience.
By sunup, people were pressing toward a platform to get a close look or even touch the bell. The train was stopped at a rail siding near a freight depot at the east end of Everett's Wall Street, which was festooned with banners. Before heading south to Seattle and Tacoma, it could also be seen at the Great Northern depot along Everett's Bayside waterfront.
Very cool - never knew that the bell traveled anywhere, let alone to Everett and Seattle.
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