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The beleaguered West Seattle Bridge isn鈥檛 there for no reason. It helps move people and cars across a busy industrial waterway far below the bridge and nearly invisible to most drivers and passengers.

While it may be invisible, the author of a new book says Seattle owes its very existence to that waterway, the Duwamish River.

The Duwamish River is thousands of years old, and it鈥檚 been home to indigenous people for millennia. It鈥檚 also the part of what became Seattle where European Americans first settled back in 1851, several months before the better-known Denny Party聽landed at Alki.

is the author of from University of Washington Press called 鈥淭he River That Made Seattle: A Human and Natural History of The Duwamish.鈥�

Cummings says that even though the lower stretches of the river are that empties into Elliott Bay right across from downtown, the Duwamish is also the city鈥檚 most invisible waterway. It鈥檚 far less visible 鈥� and much less known and celebrated 鈥� 聽than Puget Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union, or even Green Lake.

And Cummings should know better than just about anyone.

Cummings is community engagement manager for the UW Superfund research program. She鈥檚 been working on the Duwamish River for more than 25 years, first as , and then as the founding director of , the group that helped secure Superfund listing for the river 20 years ago.

成人X站 Radio met up with Cummings late last month on the west bank of the Duwamish opposite Kellogg Island, which is one of the last unaltered stretches of the old river.

For BJ Cummings, the Duwamish, and all the ways it has been radically reshaped and changed 鈥� and changed again 鈥� is a reflection of the city鈥檚 past and present.

鈥淚t’s really quite simple. Seattle has a hometown river,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淭he Duwamish is our river. It’s our only river. It used to be that the Black and the Green and the White Rivers and the Cedar River and all of Lake Sammamish and all of Lake Washington, even Green Lake, drained out through the Duwamish River鈥� before construction of what鈥檚 now the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and other radical alterations to the landscape were made a hundred or so years ago.

鈥淲e altered not just this five miles of river, but the entire watershed, to the degree that now it’s only the Green River that flows into the Duwamish … it’s a single river system and it goes all the way up into the Cascade foothills,鈥� Cummings said.

Just how different is that watershed 鈥� the lands that drain into the Duwamish 鈥� now?

鈥淚f you are up at Mount Rainier looking at Emmons Glacier? That was originally part of the Duwamish watershed. If you’re running around Green Lake? That was originally part of the Duwamish watershed,鈥� Cummings said. Green Lake was larger in the past, Cummings says, and once drained into Lake Washington via what鈥檚 now Ravenna Creek, and Lake Washington drained, via , into the Duwamish.

It was on that very different earlier iteration of the Duwamish River lived for millennia before Europeans arrived. In her work on the river and in writing her book, Cummings has worked closely with the Duwamish Tribe and Duwamish voices, including James Rasmussen and Duwamish Tribal chair Cecile Hansen, who figure prominently in 鈥淭he River That Made Seattle.鈥�

In 聽produced in 2013 about the history of the river, James Rasmussen told this reporter, 鈥淲hen you ask the question, 鈥榃hat does the Duwamish River mean?,鈥� it鈥檚 kind of like asking 鈥榃hat does your grandmother mean?鈥欌��

Rasmussen鈥檚 point? For Duwamish people, it鈥檚 a fact of life that the river is a beloved and respected family member, and always has been.

For those who don鈥檛 know the Duwamish River as well, Cummings sees it as key to understanding the city鈥檚 identity. She says that it鈥檚 critical for people to know and understand how it鈥檚 been shaped and changed and polluted, and how it鈥檚 still an industrial area, and still being cleaned up.

鈥淭he richness of what this river provides is extraordinary, and that’s a lot of the history that I think we need to understand in order to understand who we are as a city,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淭here would not be a Seattle without the Duwamish River.鈥�

Seattle鈥檚 industrial growth in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century took place, in large part, on the banks of the Duwamish, with industry siting factories there that remain to this day. To better accommodate this industry, the old mudflats were replaced by Harbor Island and the East and West Waterways, and once-meandering channels were shaped into a rectilinear canal.

鈥淭he city was built on the resources of this river, kind of on the backs of the river鈥檚 own interests in a way,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淎nd the river was straightened and deepened and stripped of those resources human and natural resources in order to create the city of Seattle.鈥�

鈥淲e don’t know who we are unless we know the Duwamish,鈥� she added.

It鈥檚 not too late to get to know the Duwamish River, of course. One way is to read Cummings鈥� book. Another is to visit the one part of the Duwamish River that鈥檚 the least changed.

Kellogg Island is the one remaining natural river bend left on the Duwamish River in Seattle. The island and the narrow curving channel that separates it from the west bank survive because Cecile Hansen and others took a stand back in the 1970s.

Nearly 50 years ago, the Port of Seattle had cleared an area along the west bank of the river in preparation for development of a freight terminal or marina. When evidence of an ancient Duwamish village was discovered, work was eventually stopped. The project was delayed, and the Port of Seattle ultimately scrapped plans to build a freight terminal 鈥� to be known as Terminal 107 鈥� at the site.

It鈥檚 at this spot, and inadvertently memorializing those scrapped plans, where the magic of Kellogg Island聽still comes to life, and where Cummings stood and described the odd juxtaposition of industry and nature.

鈥淲e have this beautiful natural riverbend and that gives us a little bit of a glimpse of what the Duwamish looked like before white settlement, and just off the shore we have an island with stretches of mudflats on the north side and lots of foliage, a little mini forest on the south side,鈥� Cummings said.

鈥淭hat island and the mud flats in particular are the only remaining original habitat on the river,鈥� she continued. 鈥淲e destroyed over 98% of the habitat here, and the only natural habitat that remains are those mudflats on the north part of the island.鈥�

Though surrounded by heavy industry across the river, as well as upriver and downriver, Kellogg Island remains 鈥� or, has become 鈥� habitat for wildlife.

鈥淲e’re seeing flocks of birds flying around over there,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淵ou get eagles and herons and kingfishers and shorebirds here, and often we鈥檒l see both harbor seals and river otters in this stretch as well.鈥�

The natural history of the Duwamish River can be understood by examining what鈥檚 there now, and the industrial history of straightening the channel can be divined from old photos and nautical charts.

For instance, what鈥檚 now the Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown, Cummings says, was once a separate city built along the banks of the Duwamish. With straightening of the channel west of Georgetown, 鈥渢he river was literally pulled away,鈥� Cummings said, and the part of the old Duwamish that had flowed through Georgetown for perhaps thousands of years was filled in.

Cummings says that the straightening and industrialization of the river is well-documented. What鈥檚 harder to find, she says, are the stories of the people who were living along what had been a pristine river.

鈥淭he histories that were being written at that time and shortly after that time in the late 1800s and first part of the 1900s do not mention human beings at all,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淎s far as [those earlier authors] were concerned, the people who were here were either invisible or irrelevant. So you just don’t see mention of the cultural resources here. You don’t see mentions of who they had to remove in order to industrialize this river. You see lots and lots and lots of history 鈥� 聽the incredible engineering work that was done 鈥� and it stops there.鈥�

But the human history never stopped, of course, and BJ Cummings says that in addition to indigenous Duwamish history, there are now seven generations of settler history with Germans, Irish, Mexican, Vietnamese and East African immigrants.

She says these stories are important, too, and hopes 鈥淭he River That Made Seattle鈥� will helps fill in some of the gaps in the history of the city鈥檚 most invisible waterway.

Cummings also says that the Port of Seattle is embarking on an effort to rename places like T-107 Park to better reflect the history 鈥� and to hopefully make those parks and other places to come face to face with the Duwamish River sound much more inviting.

BJ Cummings will be taking part in a series of free virtual events over the summer, including at the Duwamish Longhouse on Saturday, July 11 and a panel discussion聽 with James Rasmussen and others on Thursday, August 20.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle鈥檚 Morning News and read more from him聽here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks聽here.