Topic: Roads & Rails
The Fremont Bridge, the first double-leaf bascule drawbridge spanning the Lake Washington Ship Canal, opened June 15, 1917, 19 days before the Government Locks at Ballard were officially dedicated. Th...
Jacob Furth played a pivotal role in the development of Seattle's public transportation and electric power infrastructure, and he was the founder of Seattle National Bank. As the agent for the utiliti...
Few entrepreneurs have been more important to the development of Spokane and the Inland Northwest or involved in a broader range of endeavors than Jay P. Graves. Arriving in Spokane from Illinois in ...
The Great Northern Tunnel is a one-mile-long tunnel that runs beneath downtown Seattle from Alaskan Way (below Virginia Street) on the waterfront, to 4th Avenue S and Washington Street. The Great Nort...
Engineer Homer M. Hadley designed several unique concrete bridges throughout the state of Washington during his lifetime, including many early American applications of the European innovation of concr...
Hanford's Southern Connection rail line is a 12-mile section of railroad through Richland in Benton County, completed in 1950 in order to provide a second, and more secure, railway line into the Hanfo...
Julia Butler Hansen was one of the most powerful female legislators in Washington state history, amassing a long list of "firsts." She served nine years on the Cathlamet, Washington, Town Council, 21 ...
James J. Hill, nicknamed the Empire Builder, embodied the archetypal American story of success, rising from poor dock clerk to multimillionaire railroad magnate. In time, Hill had gained control of th...
Joel E. Ferris, a Spokane banker, wrote this article on the life of the railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill for the Winter 1959 edition of The Pacific Northwesterner. It is here edited by David Wilma ...
Samuel Hill made the Northwest his home for a little more than 30 years, leaving a legacy of philanthropy, monuments, and highways still visible in the twenty-first century. He made a small fortune in...
A century-long tradition of songs that feature lyrics (and sometimes musical sound effects) associated with driving automobiles attests to the fact that songsmiths have found the topic of fast cars to...
The Inchelium-Gifford Ferry -- also called the Gif -- is operated on Lake Roosevelt by the Colville Confederated Tribes on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The run connects Inchelium with State...
The Inland Empire Highway was a state highway route through central and eastern Washington, authorized and named in 1913. It linked the small communities of Virden, northeast of Cle Elum in Kittitas C...
Electric interurban railways played a major part in defining early twentieth century transportation routes and growth patterns in King County. Early roads were primitive and before the development of ...
Former Seattle resident John M. Leggett offers this account of participating in the Junior Safety Patrol during the 1930s while attending Seattle's Loyal Heights Elementary School. Called the Schoolbo...
George F. Kachlein Jr. was a Seattle attorney who volunteered tirelessly for many civic organizations. He was active in the Washington Good Roads Association, the Washington division of the American A...
Kalama is a small city located along the Columbia River in Southwest Washington's Cowlitz County. Non-Indian settlement in the area began by the 1850s. The town became the Cowlitz County seat in 1872 ...
Edward C. Kilbourne, a Seattle dentist, was the key developer of Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and a leading promoter of electric power utilities in Seattle. In order to bring interested potential ho...
King County Library System (KCLS) mobile outreach service began with a single bookmobile bringing books to rural patrons in 1944. The fledgling library system had only a few small libraries and many r...
King County Metro Transit, originally named simply Metro Transit, has operated King County's bus and transit systems since its creation in 1973. This new agency took over the Seattle Transit System's ...
Seattle's King Street Station was built between 1904 and 1906 adjacent to reclaimed tideland south of the city's downtown. The imposing concrete, granite, and brick structure was financed by James J. ...
What is now State Route 142 in South Central Washington was built by Klickitat County in the mid-1930s to connect Lyle, on the Columbia River, with the county seat at Goldendale, some 24 miles east as...
This is a tour of Seattle's historic South Lake Union neighborhood, including the Cascade neighborhood and portions of the Denny Regrade. It was written and curated by Paula Becker with the assistance...
The Lake Washington Ship Canal's opening was celebrated on July 4, 1917, exactly 63 years after Seattle pioneer Thomas Mercer (1813-1898) first proposed the idea of connecting the saltwater of Puget S...