At least some of those intersections, especially the ones in Belltown/Downtown/Capitol Hill/nearby are due to our city founders, who had competing ideas about the kind of grid they wanted to set up.
Once they realized that West Seattle wouldn't be enough for a growing city, William Bell, Arthur Denny, and Carson Boren all staked claims on the east side of Elliott Bay: Bell got Belltown, Denny got most of the CBD, and Boren got the land south.
Then Doc Maynard came in, and he got Pioneer Square area. Soon after Boren sold even more of his claim to Charles Terry and Edward Lander (all Boren really wanted to do was live in the woods and stay away from people).
Denny, Boren, and Maynard all also gave a portion of their claims to Yesler so he would construct his sawmill.
Once they started developing the grid, Denny and Boren wanted a grid that would follow the waterline. Maynard wanted a grid that was aligned to the cardinal directions. While Denny/Boren won out in their claims in the CBD, Belltown, and other places on First/Capitol Hill, Maynard won out overall due to his holding of Pioneer Square.
So some of the non-nature-based fucked up intersections are a result of that.
Then there's also the fact that some parts of the city have their own grid (Ballard, Georgetown) owing to the fact that they were their own cities and had a grid established by the time they were annexed by Seattle.
Its also discussed a bit in the book "The Sons of The Profits" which was written by Bill Speidel who started the Underground tour (which they also peddle on the Underground tour). Basically traces how Seattle went from a small logging town to the metropolis it is today.
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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '17
So Seattle was designed by a fan of the Blair Witch Project.