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Opening of Lake Washington Ship Canal and Chittenden Locks

Lake Washington Ship Canal and Chittenden Locks open after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowers the level of Lake Washington by nearly nine feet. The Sammamish River becomes a slough and effectively no longer serves as a commercial waterway. However, the lowering of the lake creates some thirty feet to the Kenmore shoreline, where businesses devoted to lakeside leisure-time activities began to appear.