If you have ever driven along Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle, you may have noticed something strange: the road winds like a snake, unlike the city’s usual straight streets. And do you know who designed it? A man who came to Seattle for only a few weeks, hurriedly sketched views from a carriage window—and then left behind a plan that would shape the city for the next hundred years.
A Family That Loved Trees More Than Straight Lines
There was once a famous American landscape architect named Frederick Law Olmsted. He designed New York’s Central Park—the one where people ice-skate in winter and go boating in summer. Olmsted believed in one simple idea: a city should not conquer nature; it should live in harmony with it.
When Frederick grew old, his sons—John Charles and Frederick Jr.—continued his work. They founded the Olmsted Brothers firm and began designing parks across America. In the early 1900s, they were contacted by a rapidly growing city in the country’s Northwest—Seattle. The city needed parks, and officials wanted the very best specialists.
One Visit That Decided Everything
This is where the most interesting part begins. In 1903, John Charles Olmsted came to Seattle—but not his father, the company’s founder, and the visit itself was very brief. John Charles spent only about three weeks in the city. He traveled by carriage through the hills, looked out over Lakes Washington and Union, climbed to elevated points with views of the mountains—and spent the entire time making quick sketches and notes.
Instead of simply adding parks inside Seattle’s existing grid of square blocks, Olmsted proposed something bold: connecting all the city’s parks with long, green boulevards that would follow the natural curves of the hills and lakeshores. This was how the famous “Emerald Necklace” plan was born—a chain of parks and roads winding around the city like a piece of jewelry.
As Olmsted himself wrote in one report to city officials: “The value of a park system lies not in its individual parts, but in the continuity of the whole.”
That is why the boulevards turned out to be so winding: they followed the shape of the hills rather than the straight lines of the city blocks that had been laid out before Olmsted’s plan.
Beauty That Is Difficult to Live With Today
More than a century has passed, and it turns out that a plan designed for horses and leisurely carriages creates some genuine challenges in the modern city.
Here are some of the difficulties Seattle faces today:
| Problem | Why It Occurs |
|---|---|
| Snow-removal challenges | Narrow, winding roads are difficult for large snowplows to navigate |
| Conflicts between trees and power lines | The lush tree canopies planted according to Olmsted’s plan interfere with power lines |
| Confusion for drivers | The boulevards do not follow the familiar street grid, and navigation systems sometimes “get lost” |
| Expensive repairs | Historic greenery cannot simply be cut down to widen the road—it is protected heritage |
City services have to balance preserving the historic character with making life convenient for modern residents. Some boulevards have even received official landmark status, meaning they cannot simply be straightened or widened, even if that would make things easier for truck and bus drivers.
But here is what is interesting: despite all the inconveniences, Seattle residents love these winding, tree-lined roads. In spring, when the cherry trees bloom along Azalea Way, or in autumn, when the maple leaves along Lake Washington Boulevard turn golden, people deliberately drive there simply to enjoy the scenery. My personal favorite is the section of boulevard that curves around Washington Park, where the trees are so tall and old that it feels as though you are driving through a green tunnel.
A Lesson from the Past for the Present
The story of the Olmsted brothers’ plan teaches us something remarkable: sometimes the most beautiful solutions are created not through perfect calculations, but by the quick eye of someone who saw a city’s natural character and decided not to damage it, but to emphasize it. John Charles Olmsted came to Seattle for only three weeks, yet his brief sketches shaped the city for a century.
Yes, today the city services have to devise special ways to clear snow and trim trees along these historic roads. But perhaps that is a small price to pay for keeping the city so green, so welcoming, and so unlike a boring checkerboard of straight streets. Sometimes the most valuable things in life are precisely those that are a little more difficult to handle—but bring genuine joy.
