A news segment on KOMO TV 4 in Seattle yesterday showed a diver at the Ballard Locks picking coal off the very clear and sandy bottom of what is, I presume, the water right under the BNSF Ballard Lift Bridge ( Bridge 4 ). No telling when or where the underwater footage was actually shot, as the waters in Ballard Locks are quite murky right now with all the spring run - off. Also to be considered is that, before the RR there was an extensive coal barge operation in Puget Sound waters. In fact, the first railroad in Seattle was built to portage coal over the hill from Madison Park on Lake Washington to downtown Seattle. No telling how long that coal has been sitting on the bottom, or from what mode of transport it came.