Topic: Roads & Rails
Beloved for its convenience and breathtaking views but derided as an architectual eyesore, the Alaskan Way Viaduct ferried motorists through downtown Seattle for more than six decades before it was to...
The Latona Bridge, built in 1891 for Seattle pioneer and investor David T. Denny (1832-1903), carried the first streetcar line across Lake Union and was the first substantial bridge to cross the lake ...
The Manette Bridge, spanning the Port Washington Narrows, connected the Kitsap Peninsula city of Bremerton with Manette, a town annexed by Bremerton in 1918 and located across the narrows. The Manette...
Romantic tales of bank heists, train robberies, and hold ups were favorites of American newspapers, large and small, in the early part of the twentieth century. Among these is a story set in Ballard, ...
This letter, written in June 1918 by Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson (1874-1940), is a scathing denunciation of Puget Sound Traction, Light & Power, the firm that operated Seattle's electric streetcar sy...
In the first decade of the twentieth century, The Meadows Race Track, located in King County south of Georgetown along the Duwamish River, was the premier venue in the Northwest for horse racing. The ...
Ezra Meeker (1830-1928) was a Washington pioneer, successful hops farmer, merchant, and an influential advocate for preserving the Oregon Trail. With his wife Eliza Jane Sumner Meeker (1834-1909) he f...
The Meridian Street Bridge over the Puyallup River in eastern Pierce County was built in 1925 to shorten the traveling distance between the Puyallup Valley and points north, particularly Tacoma to the...
The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, commonly known as Metro, was designed to provide regional solutions for the problems of King County's fast-growing metropolitan area. In 1958, after rejecting...
Starting in the late 1880s and continuing for decades, the delta where the Puyallup River meets Commencement Bay was dredged and filled to serve the needs of shipping and industry. In 1908 the Milwauk...
In the winter of 1937-1938, in cooperation with The Seattle Times, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway established the "Milwaukee Ski Bowl" at Snoqualmie Pass. The railroad cashed in on the ...
Lee Monohon was one of the original 14 charter members of the Washington State Good Roads Association, and was its last surviving charter member. Born in Oregon, he arrived in Seattle in 1871 at the a...
Seattle's monorail is a mile-long railway that travels between Seattle Center and Westlake Center in downtown Seattle. It opened in 1962 as part of the city's Century 21 Exposition, and shuttled visit...
Mary Phelps Montgomery is remembered for playing a supporting role in the completion of the the Northern Pacific Railroad to its Puget Sound terminus at Tacoma in 1873. Telling the tale years later, M...
The Montlake Bridge spanning the Montlake Cut in Seattle was completed in 1925, the last-built and easternmost of four double-leaf bascule bridges that carry vehicle and pedestrian traffic across the ...
The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust was established by Jim Ellis, Brian Boyle, and Ted Thomsen in 1991 to develop a greenway along Interstate 90 from Puget Sound to the Cascade Mountains -...
Founded on May 23, 1910, the Municipal League of Seattle (now of King County) quickly became a leading organization in the area's Progressive Movement. In the first decades of the twentieth century it...
Municipal ownership or close regulation of essential utilities and urban services was a central tenet of the Progressive Movement from the late 1800s through much of the twentieth century. Beginning w...
This Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Oral History Project interview of Arvid Kangas by Curtis Jacobs took place on July 27, 2000 in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. Arvid Kangas (b. 19...
This interview with Bjarne Andvik, (b. 1923) is part of The Vanishing Generation Oral History Project in the Nordic Heritage Museum. Interviewed by Olaf Kvamme on October 18, 2000, Bjarne Andvik is a ...
Holger Leander Berg, of Finnish heritage, grew up in Ballard and tells tales of his rambunctious childhood: harassing streetcar drivers with his Scout Troop, "creative" fishing around the Puget Sound,...
When the Northern Pacific Hospital in Tacoma was demolished in March 1973, the building represented one of the earliest and most enduring cooperative healthcare plans in America. National programs suc...
The Northern Pacific Railroad played a pivotal role in the development of railroads in Seattle and in the Puget Sound region. The company's decision to locate its Western terminus in Tacoma rather tha...
From 1884 until mid-1887, the Northern Pacific ran a train from Tacoma to Seattle. When the train began to operate on June 17, 1884, Seattleites were ecstatic. Henry Villard (1835-1900) had acquired t...