1.
Seattle
–
Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the major city in the United States. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border, a major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named Seattle in 1852, after Chief Siahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Logging was Seattles first major industry, but by the late-19th century, growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, in 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District, the jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge, archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay, the first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28,1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, after a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, david Swinson Doc Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name Seattle appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23,1853, in 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14,1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of managing the city
2.
Washington (state)
–
It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, Washington is the 18th largest state with an area of 71,362 square miles, and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the states highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States. Washington is a leading lumber producer and its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, the Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. The area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, Washington is the only U. S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U. S. capital, which is named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State, or, in more formal contexts. Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as Washington, calling the nations capital Washington, D. C. or, often, Washington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part, to the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state, from the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains, from the north to the south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 miles south of the city of Seattle and it is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula and these deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. Eastern Washington – the part of the state east of the Cascades – has a dry climate. It includes large areas of steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to 21.2 inches in Pullman, the Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state
3.
Horsecar
–
A horsecar, or horse-drawn tram, is an animal-powered tram or streetcar. These were local versions of the lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of power with the efficiency, smoothness. The first tram services in the world were started by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, fare-paying passengers were carried on a line between Oystermouth, Mumbles and Swansea Docks from 1807. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad carried passengers although its purpose was freight. Many companies adopted a design of a partly enclosed double-decker carriage hauled by two horses, the last horse-drawn tram was retired from London in 1915. Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, the last horse used for shunting on British Railways was retired on 21 February 1967 in Newmarket, Suffolk. In the United States the very first streetcar appeared on November 26,1832, on the New York, the cars were designed by John Stephenson of New Rochelle, New York and constructed at his company in New York City. The earliest streetcars used horses and sometimes mules, usually two as a team, to haul the cars, rarely, other animals were tried, including humans in emergency circumstances. By the mid-1880s, there were 415 street railway companies in the USA operating over 6,000 miles of track, by 1890 New Yorkers took 297 horsecar rides per capita per year. The average street car horse had a life expectancy of two years. In 1861, Toronto Street Railway horsecars replaced horse driven omnibuses as a public transit mode in Toronto, starting in 1892, electric streetcars emerged in Toronto and by 1894 the TSR stopped operating horsecars in Toronto. The first horse-drawn rail cars on the continent of Europe were operated from 1828 by the České Budějovice - Linz railway, Europe saw a proliferation of horsecar use for new tram services from the mid-1860s, with many towns building new networks. Tropical plantations made extensive use of animal-powered trams for passengers and freight, often employing the Decauville narrow-gauge portable track system. In some cases these systems were extensive and evolved into interurban tram networks. Surviving examples may be found in both the Yucatan and Brazil, since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered streetcars following the invention by Frank J. Sprague of a trolley system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. His spring-loaded trolley pole used a wheel to travel along the wire, in late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system in Richmond, Virginia
4.
Cable car (railway)
–
A cable car is a type of cable transportation used for mass transit where rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required, the first cable-operated railway, employing a moving rope that could be picked up or released by a grip on the cars was the Fawdon railway in 1826, a Colliery railway line. The London and Blackwall Railway, which opened for passengers in east London, England, the rope available at the time proved too susceptible to wear and the system was abandoned in favour of steam locomotives after eight years. In America, the first cable car installation in operation probably was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in New York City, the cable technology used in this elevated railway involved collar-equipped cables and claw-equipped cars, and proved cumbersome. The line was closed and rebuilt, and reopened with steam locomotives, beauregard demonstrated a cable car at New Orleans and was issued U. S. Other cable cars to use grips were those of the Clay Street Hill Railroad, the building of this line was promoted by Andrew Smith Hallidie with design work by William Eppelsheimer, and it was first tested in 1873. The success of these grips ensured that this became the model for other cable car transit systems. In 1881 the Dunedin cable tramway system opened in Dunedin, New Zealand, both of these innovations were generally adopted by other cities, including San Francisco. In Australia the Melbourne cable tramway system operated from 1885 to 1940 and it was one of the most extensive in the world with 1200 trams and trailers operating over 15 routes with 103 km of track. Sydney also had a few cable tram routes, Cable cars rapidly spread to other cities, although the major attraction for most was the ability to displace horsecar systems rather than the ability to climb hills. Thus, for a period, economics worked in favour of cable cars even in relatively flat cities, for example, the Chicago City Railway, also designed by Eppelsheimer, opened in Chicago in 1882 and went on to become the largest and most profitable cable car system. As with many cities, the problem in flat Chicago was not one of grades and this caused a different approach to the combination of grip car and trailer. After 1896 the system was changed to one on which a car was added to each train to maneuver at the terminals, while en route. On 25 September 1883 a test of a cable car system was held by Liverpool United Tramways and Omnibus Company in Kirkdale and this would have been the first cable car system in Europe, but the company decided against implementing it. Instead the distinction went to the 1884 route from Archway to Highgate, north London, the installation was not reliable and was replaced by electric traction in 1909. Other cable car systems were implemented in Europe, though, among which was the Glasgow District Subway, the first underground cable car system, in 1896. For a while hybrid cable/electric systems operated, for example in Chicago where electric cars had to be pulled by grip cars through the loop area, due to the lack of trolley wires there. In the last decades of the 20th century cable traction in general has seen a revival as automatic people movers, used in resort areas, airports, huge hospital centers
5.
Tram
–
A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. The word Tram-car is attested from 1873, although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
6.
Stone & Webster
–
Stone & Webster was an American engineering services company based in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It was founded as a testing lab and consulting firm by electrical engineers Charles Stone. In the early 20th century, Stone & Webster was known for operating systems in many cities across the United States, examples include Dallas, Houston. Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster first met in 1884, in 1890, only two years after graduating, they formed the Massachusetts Electrical Engineering Company. The name was changed to Stone & Webster in 1893 and their company was one of the earliest electrical engineering consulting firms in the United States. Stone & Websters first major project was the construction of a plant for the New England paper company in 1890. Stone & Webster not only had valuable insight into developing and managing utilities, through the panic of 1893, Stone & Webster were able to acquire the Nashville Electric Light and Power Co. for a few thousand dollars and later sold it for $500,000. Throughout the next ten years, Stone & Webster acquired interest in number of utilities while offering managerial, engineering. Even though Stone & Webster were not a company, their financial and managerial presence meant that they had considerable influence in policy decisions. They would often be paid in utility stock, by 1900, they had controlled and merged eight small rail lines in Seattle, soon after, they also took over the street railway systems of Tacoma and Everett. The Seattle Electric Co. and Whatcom County Railway and Light Co, Stone & Webster took over construction operations and on September 21,1906, Bellingham received power from the plant via a 47 mile long transmission line. Despite the independence allowed its subsidiaries, J. D. Ross, listing 49 companies under Stone & Websters management at the time. Founded in 1886, to form Stone & Webster and Blodgett Inc, in January,1946, the name of the business, was changed to Stone and Webster Securities Corporation. Much of the capacity in petrochemical and plastics development was also developed as a result of Stone & Webster efforts. Americas entry into World War II brought an increase in demand for all types of engineering and construction. According to former Stone & Webster president Allen, Few elements of war production were not impacted in a significant way by Stone & Webster, the company was also called upon to engage in more creative projects. Perhaps the most creative Stone & Webster wartime effort was its involvement in the Manhattan Project, Stone & Webster was involved in creating the facilities and laboratories for the Manhattan Project. Prior to its acquisition it was part of the Maine Yankee decommissioning project
7.
Cable car
–
A cable car is any of a variety of cable transportation systems relying on cables to pull vehicles along or lower them at a steady rate. The terminology also refers to the vehicles on these systems, the cable car vehicles are motorless and engineless and they are pulled by a cable that is rotated by a motor off-board. Cable car transport systems are a transportation system for various situations. Cable-Propelled Transit can be effective as a transit system at a reasonable cost. They are advantageous for transit of mountains, valleys, steep slopes and bodies of water, in an aerial transit system, cabins are suspended and propelled from above by cables. The cable that supports the cabin may or may not be the one that propels it too and this depends on the technology used. It is a two way transport, a mono-cable detachable system has only one cable that does the work of supporting and also propelling. A bi-cable detachable gondola has two cables, one of which supports the cabin and this cable is stationary while the other cable moves and serves the purpose of propulsion. An aerial tramway consists of a suspended from a cable. A tri-cable detachable gondola has three cables, two of which help in supporting and the other in propelling the cabin, a funifor is a type of aerial lift or aerial tramway patented by Doppelmayr Garaventa Group which consists of two guide ropes and a haul rope loop per cabin. The drives of the two cabins are not interconnected with two reversible cabins running on parallel tracks. At the top of each track, the rope for that track loops back to the bottom instead of looping over to serve the other track as occurs with a normal aerial tramway. In other words, a propulsion is not returned to the opposite direction for use by the other vehicle. A funitel is a type of lift, generally used to transport skiers. The name funitel is a portmanteau between the French words funiculaire and telepherique, funitels have not only been used as a means to transport skiers, there is one used to transport finished cars between different areas of a factory. Recently, more and more funitels have been added to ski areas, when used to transport skiers, funitels are a fast way to get to a higher altitude. Funitels combine a short time between successive cabins with a high capacity per cabin, funitels are able to tolerate higher wind speeds than classic gondola lifts because they are clamped to two steel cables instead of one. Pulsed Gondola systems are fixed-grip CPT systems with cabins grouped together in rather than being spaced evenly along the cable
8.
Interurban
–
The interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. They were prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Limited examples existed in Europe and Asia, Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, and the cars that ran on the rails. The interurban, especially in the United States, was a cultural institution. Most roads and town streets were unpaved, and transportation was by horse-drawn carriages, the interurban provided vital transportation links between the city and countryside. In 1915,15,500 miles of railways were operating in the United States. For a time, interurban railways were the fifth-largest industry in the United States, by 1930, most interurbans were gone, with few surviving into the 1950s. The term interurban was coined by Charles L. Henry, a senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes, means between cities, the interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F, Due identified four characteristics of an interurban, Electric power for propulsion. Passenger service as the primary business, equipment heavier and faster than urban streetcars. Operation on tracks in city streets, and in areas on roadside tracks or private right-of-way. The definition of interurban is necessarily blurry, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines following initial construction. In 1905 the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as a railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits. It drew a distinction between interurban and suburban railroads, a suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic. A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to city center. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made frequent stops. The 1880s and saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems, most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague, who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup
9.
Everett, Washington
–
Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, the city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 7th largest in the state and fifth-largest in the Puget Sound area. It received an All-America City Award in 2002, Everett is home to the largest public marina on the west coast of the United States and is the western terminus of the western segment of U. S. Route 2. It is also home to Boeings assembly plant for the 747,767,777, Boeings Everett facility is known for being the largest building in the world by volume at 116.5 million cubic feet. In 1984, Everett was selected as the site of a U. S. Navy Homeport, the Naval Station formally opened in 1992 and on January 8,1997 welcomed the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln is no longer homeported in Everett as of Winter 2011, the aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz has replaced the Lincoln as Everetts homeported ship, as of March 9,2012. Everett is also home to the Port of Everett, a shipping port that brings trade, commerce, jobs. In 2003, Xfinity Arena opened Everett to tourism, the $83 million arena continues to host events, once exclusive to Seattles KeyArena, to the present day. The arenas Twin Masts are a signature of the Everett skyline and it hosts events such as concerts, trade shows, hockey, and high school graduations. The land on which Everett was founded was surrendered to the United States by its inhabitants under the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott. Permanent settlement in the area by European descendants started in 1861 when Dennis Brigham built a cabin on a 160-acre claim on the shore of Port Gardner Bay. Over the next years a handful of settlers moved to the area. On July 17,1890, The steamship Queen of the Pacific left Tacoma for an Alaskan cruise with Henry Hewitt, Jr. during this Fateful voyage initial plans for an industrial city on the peninsula along the banks of the Snohomish river were formulated. On August 22,1890, The Rucker Brothers filed their plat at Port Gardner and this plat was later withdrawn to accommodate the plans of the Hewitt-Colby group. Everett Colby in turn was named for orator Edward Everett, on November 19,1890, the Articles of Incorporation for the Everett Land Company were filed, with Henry Hewitt Jr. as president. On November 26,1890, the Rucker Brothers transferred 434.15 acres of property on the Everett peninsula to Hewitt, the Company bought much of the Ruckers land, taking them in as junior partners. Everett was officially incorporated on May 4,1893, the year the Great Northern Railway came to the town, both Hewitt and the Ruckers had speculated that James J. Hill would make the town the terminus of his railroad. However Hill continued the railroad along the shore of Puget Sound to Seattle, although it succeeded in building the city, the Everett Land Company was a failure for its investors
10.
Renton, Washington
–
Renton is a city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of downtown Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, as of 2016, the population in Renton is 101,300, up from 90,927 at the 2010 census. Renton currently is the 8th largest city in Washington State, and is the 4th largest in King County, the National Football Leagues Seattle Seahawks have a training facility in Renton. It is the second-largest facility in the NFL at 200,000 square feet, among the first European settlers in the present-day Renton, WA area were Henry Tobin and his wife Diana. The town of Renton was accessed via the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and its location which was home to many coal mines attracted people such as Erasmus M. Smithers, who is credited with the founding and establishment of the town. Smithers discovered coal there and brought in Charles D. Shattuck as the mine operator. Renton was incorporated as a city in 1901 when coal mining, the town was prone to flooding from the Cedar and Black Rivers. In 1916 the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal lowered the surface of Lake Washington several feet which consequently eliminated drainage of Lake Washington through the Black River, the Cedar River was then diverted to drain into Lake Washington instead of the Black River. The culmination of these reduced the threat of annual flooding. The population sharply increased during World War II when Boeing built their Renton Factory to produce the B-29 Superfortress, the game company Wizards of the Coast also is headquartered in Renton. Providence Health System has centralized its administrative offices in Renton, along with Group Health Cooperative, some retail establishments were unwanted though, and the city successfully defended zoning restrictions on pornographic theaters before the U. S. Supreme court in Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. Renton has a unique and well-loved institution in its library, built directly over the Cedar River, designed by Johnston-Campanella & Co. in 1964 and opened in 1966, the Cedar River Library stretches 80 feet across the river, next to Liberty Park. The library was annexed into the King County Library system in 2010, the walkway in front of the librarys entrance forms a deck from which salmon can be viewed as they make their way up the river, particularly during spawning season. In 2011, the building was the center of much controversy, with the City of Renton. Residents wishing to retain the library in its river setting sponsored a petition, on August 7,2012, Renton voters decided the fate of the library with Proposition 1, and found 76% of the voting population supporting the Cedar River location. The library renovation moved ahead with a design by Miller Hull Architects, the newly renovated Renton Library opened on August 22,2015. February 2007 saw the expansion of the Federal Aviation Administrations Northwest Mountain Regional Office across the street from its current headquarters, a new branch of the Federal Reserve Bank now calls Renton home, beginning operations in the spring of 2008 on the site of the former Longacres horse-racing track. To date, myriad development of retail, residential, and revitalization projects are amidst planning, in construction
11.
Tacoma, Washington
–
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washingtons Puget Sound,32 miles southwest of Seattle,31 miles northeast of the capital, Olympia. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census, Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of activity for the South Sound region. Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Takhoma or Tahoma and it is locally known as the City of Destiny because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacomas neighboring deep-water harbor, by connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacomas motto became When rails meet sails. Today, Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of trade on the Pacific Coast. Like most central cities, Tacoma suffered a decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization. Neighborhoods such as the 6th Avenue District have become revitalized, tacoma-Pierce County has been named one of the most livable areas in the United States. In 2006, Tacoma was listed as one of the most walkable cities in the country and that same year, the womens magazine Self named Tacoma the Most Sexually Healthy City in the United States. In contrast, Tacoma was also ranked as the most stressed-out city in the country in a 2004 survey, Tacoma gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname Galloping Gertie. The city of Tacoma and surrounding areas were inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, predominantly the Puyallup people, mcCarver, who named his project Tacoma City, derived from the indigenous name for the mountain. Tacoma was incorporated on November 12,1875, following the merger of Old Tacoma, the transcontinental link was effected in 1887, but the railroad built its depot on New Tacoma, two miles south of the Carr-McCarver development. The two communities together and joined. The population grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890, rudyard Kipling visited Tacoma in 1889 and said it was literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest. George Francis Train was a resident for a few years in the late 19th century, in 1890, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish line, in November 1885, white citizens led by then-mayor Jacob Weisbach expelled several hundred Chinese residents peacefully living in the city. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground, the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898 led Tacomas prominence in the region to be eclipsed by the booming development of Seattle
12.
Trolleybuses in Seattle
–
The Seattle trolleybus system forms part of the public transportation network in the city of Seattle, Washington, operated by King County Metro. Originally opened on April 28,1940, the network consists of 15 routes, as of spring 2016, the system carries riders on an average of 73,200 trips per weekday, comprising about 18 percent of King County Metro’s total daily ridership. In Seattle, a trolleybus is traditionally referred to simply as a trolley, of the five trolleybus systems currently operating in the U. S. the Seattle system is the second largest, after the San Francisco system. The first trolleybus to operate on Seattles streets was in 1937 and it was brought to the city for a demonstration to gain public support for a plan to replace the debt-ridden streetcar and cable car system with a trackless trolley system. The demonstration was a success, but still reeling from the impacts of the Great Depression, in 1939, Seattle received a federal loan that allowed the city to retire the debts from the streetcar and cable car system. Management of system was turned over to an independent commission and renamed the Seattle Transit System, the commission immediately began construction on overhead wire and ordered 235 new trolleybuses, the first of which started arriving in March 1940. The first trolleybus went into revenue service April 28,1940, ridership reached an all-time high 130 million riders in 1944. After the war, ridership on the system declined as many American families began purchasing automobiles. The citys aging trolleybuses were spiffed up, and the overhead wire expanded in 1962 to serve the Worlds Fair, one year later in 1963, the commission retired 175 trolleybuses and tore down the overhead wire in the north end of the city and West Seattle. Citizens protested the abandonment of the routes with an initiative to voters in 1964. By the end of the 1960s, the system had been reduced to just 59 coaches operating on 30 miles of overhead wire. By 1970 the Seattle Transit System was facing mounting financial problems, leading voters to eliminate the commission, the new Metro Transit began operation on January 1,1973, and immediately began working on a plan to rehabilitate and expand Seattles trolleybus network. On January 21,1978, the system was shut down, and while passengers rode diesel-powered coaches, crews began installing new overhead wire, switches, and a new power distribution system. During this time Metro also placed an order for 109 AM General trolleys, the first routes were back in trolley service on September 15,1979. Over the next two years, more routes were placed back into service as construction was completed and new coaches delivered, by the summer of 1981, the entire trolley system was back up and running. As the Metro retired the 1940s trolleybuses, a group of its employees founded the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association to preserve, restore, in the years since the group has added additional trolley and motor buses to the historic fleet. Sixty-foot-long articulated trolleybuses were added to the fleet in 1986–87 and these were the first articulated trolleybuses in North America, other than single experimental vehicles or manufacturer demonstrators on loan, and they began to enter service in April 1987. The construction of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel under 3rd Avenue beginning in 1986 forced many of the routes to be rerouted to 1st Avenue for several years
13.
King County Metro
–
King County Metro, officially the King County Department of Transportation Metro Transit Division or Metro for short, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington. It began operations on January 1,1973, but can trace its roots to Seattle Transit, founded in 1939, Metro is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in the United States, carrying an average of 395,000 passengers each weekday on 215 routes. Metro employs 2,716 full-time and part-time operators and operates 1,882 buses, there is limited Night bus service between 1am and 5am. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, was created by a referendum in 1958 authorized to manage regional wastewater and water quality issues in King County. After two failed attempts to enable it to build a rapid transit system, it was authorized to operate a regional bus system in 1972. The bus system was known as Metro Transit and began operations in 1973, in the early 1970s, the private Metropolitan faced bankruptcy because of low ridership. King County voters authorized Metro to buy Metropolitan and operate the mass transit bus system. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle was overseen by a board of elected officials. Its representation structure was ruled unconstitutional in 1990, in 1992, after gaining approval by popular vote, the municipalitys roles and authorities were assumed by the government of King County. The municipalitys transit operations was a department within the county until 1996. After completion of the downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel project, attention was again to developing a regional rail system. Today, King County Metro operates more than 200 routes, providing local and regional transit service, primarily within its jurisdictional boundaries. For almost 40 years, until 2012, most of downtown Seattle was designated as a zero-fare zone, intended to encourage transit usage, improve accessibility and encourage downtown shopping, the zone was created in September 1973 and was originally called the Magic Carpet zone. It was later renamed the Ride Free Area, the RFA extended from the north at Battery St. to S. Jackson St. on the south and east at 6th Avenue to the waterfront on the west. It also found that unloading outbound coaches once outside the RFA took additional time, on September 29,2012, the Ride Free Area was eliminated. All riders boarding in downtown must now pay as they board, Metro combines service patterns typical of both city and suburban bus networks. The city network, was descended in part from the Seattle Transit system of converted streetcar routes. Most service is operated in a hub-and-spoke pattern centered either on downtown Seattle or the University of Washington, the suburban network typically operates on major streets between the regions employment and population centers
14.
Seattle Streetcar
–
The Seattle Streetcar is a system of two modern streetcar lines operating in the city of Seattle, Washington since 2007. Both routes offer frequent service, with streetcars arriving every 10–15 minutes most of the day, the streetcar lines are owned by the Seattle Department of Transportation and operated by King County Metro. The South Lake Union Streetcar is a 1. 3-mile, seven-stop line serving the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle and its route goes from the Westlake transit hub to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in South Lake Union. The South Lake Union Streetcar connects with Link Light Rail, the Seattle Center Monorail, the line opened to the public in 2007. The First Hill Streetcar is a 2. 5-mile-long, 10-stop line that connects Pioneer Square and Capitol Hill via Chinatown, Little Saigon, Yesler Terrace, the First Hill Streetcar connects with Amtrak and Sounder Trains and Link Light Rail. The line opened to the public in January 2016 and it will serve popular downtown destinations like Pike Place Market, the Seattle Art Museum, Colman Dock and Pioneer Square. The two existing lines would overlap within downtown, increasing frequencies, and the streetcars would operate in a transit lane. The project is expected to increase ridership on the Seattle Streetcar Network to 20. The project is scheduled to begin construction at the beginning 2018, the Broadway Streetcar project is currently on an indefinite hold, although design work has been 90% completed. The project would extend the First Hill Streetcar a half-mile further north on Capitol Hill into the core of Broadway with two stops near Harrison Street and Roy Street. The extension of the line also include extending the protected bike lanes to Roy Street. The plan was put on hold in December 2016 due to a lack of support from businesses for the design and the financial plan, which would involve taxing properties located along the alignment
15.
South Lake Union Streetcar
–
The Seattle Streetcar—South Lake Union Line is a 1. 3-mile streetcar line, covering a total 2. 6-mile route, connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to Downtown Seattle, Washington. Service began on December 12,2007 and it is one of two lines in the developing Seattle Streetcar system. The line was built by the Seattle Department of Transportation and is owned by the City of Seattle, the line is popularly known by its nickname, the South Lake Union Trolley, which is used on unofficial merchandise sold by South Lake Union businesses. The Seattle Electric Railway and Power Company laid streetcar tracks on Westlake Avenue, along which the present service primarily runs, after heavy lobbying by South Lake Union businesses, including Vulcan, the Seattle City Council approved the development of the neighborhood into a biotechnology and bio-medical research center. Included in that plan was funding to investigate a 1. 3-mile, the line was approved in 2005 at a cost of $50.5 million, with $25 million paid by property owners along the streetcars route and the remainder paid by federal, state, and local funds. The final cost was $56.4 million, additional costs were mostly utility work needed after the line opened, the majority of property owners along the alignment supported the project, despite being asked to pay increased taxes to fund its construction. Only 12 of 750 affected property owners objected to the proposed Local Improvement District tax. The project was modeled after the Portland Streetcar, a similar system that had opened in Portland, Oregon. The city council gave approval to the project in March 2006. Some local residents and business owners opposed to the claimed that it was originally called the South Lake Union Trolley. While there is no evidence that this name was used as an official name. Service was inaugurated on December 12,2007, and until the end of the month, streetcars run every fifteen minutes, seven days a week. The line uses three 2007-built Inekon 12-Trio three-section articulated streetcars, one red, one orange and one purple, internally numbered 301,302 and 303, respectively. In 2009, election candidates in local Seattle politics, including almost all for city council, in late 2012, as mitigation for its new high-rise campus in the Denny Triangle area, Amazon agreed to fund further improvements on the line. The internet retailer purchased a fourth streetcar for the line and will pay its costs for 10 years. The car was purchased alongside the vehicles for the First Hill Streetcar and was delayed for years, car #407, an Inekon Trio Type 121, finally went into service in late 2015. In early 2016, the Seattle Department of Transportation converted two lanes of Westlake Avenue along part of the route from mixed-traffic to transit-only. The lanes are expected to improve reliability and speed along the line, the lanes went into service on March 21,2016 and weekday headways were reduced from 15 to 10 minutes on March 28,2016
16.
First Hill Streetcar
–
The Seattle Streetcar—First Hill Line, commonly called the First Hill Streetcar, is a 2. 5-mile modern-streetcar line operating in Seattle. The line connects the Capitol Hill, First Hill, and the International District neighborhoods in central Seattle and it is one of two lines in the developing Seattle Streetcar system. Construction of the began in April 2012, and was completed in June 2014. First Hill is considered a destination due to its concentration of major medical facilities. It was to be served by a deep-bore Link light rail station as part of the North Link project, due to high construction and engineering risk, Sound Transit removed the station from the North Link preferred route in July 2005. The First Hill Work Program did a study to evaluate alternative transit options to connect First Hill to the transit system. Neighborhood residents, institutions, and business owners strongly preferred a streetcar, Sound Transit plans to have 10 stops on the line. The $134 million line is funded as part of the Sound Transit 2 mass transit expansion ballot measure approved by voters in November 2008 and it was approved by the Seattle City Council in December 2008. Sound Transit developed an agreement with the City of Seattle for the City to design. Construction began in late April 2012, and the line was scheduled to open in 2015. There had been a debate on the routing of the First Hill streetcar line. A community group petitioned the city of Seattle to run the streetcar down 12th Avenue,2 blocks east of Broadway. The First Hill Improvement Association, however, wanted the streetcar to run down Boren Avenue, turn right on Seneca Street, the City selected a route on Broadway. The line opened with a launch on January 23,2016, with 2 weeks of free rides until the grand opening on February 13. The streetcars are being built by Inekon Trams, of the Czech Republic, the vehicles are based on Inekons bi-directional 12-Trio model, but are a variant that is designated as Trio model 121. The First Hill Streetcar line will require six streetcars for the initial segment, the Broadway extension will require at least one additional car in order to maintain the desired service frequency. Of the initial six cars, three were assembled at Inekons facilities in the Czech Republic and the three were assembled locally in Seattle by Pacifica Marine. Production fell behind due to design safety as well as component supply issues
Media related to Seattle Street Railway at Wikimedia Commons
