Topic: Roads & Rails
This people's history, contributed by Richard Hall, consists of an eight-page letter written by his great grandmother, Annie Hall (1869-1921) in late November 1900. She boarded a Spokane-bound Norther...
Brock Adams represented Washington for 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and six in the U.S. Senate, and also served as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the Carter administration. H...
In Washington, a national leader in both farm production and international trade, agricultural exports played a key role in development from the early years of non-Indian settlement. As steamboats car...
The ledge of level land on Seattle's central waterfront owes its existence to the Alaskan Way seawall, extending from just north of Broad Street south to Washington Street below Pioneer Square. The so...
This is an interview with Governor Daniel J. Evans (1925-2024) concerning Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct. The interview was conducted in January 2012 by Dominic Black.
This is an interview with Mike Fleming concerning Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct. Mike Fleming was born in Seattle in 1941 and grew up in Yesler Terrace. He worked in banking for many years and has had...
This interview with Mike Peringer concerning Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct was conducted under the Western Avenue exit of the viaduct in January 2012 by Dominic Black.. Peringer was a reporter present...
This is an interview with Alaskan Way Viaduct Program Manager Ron Paananen. Paananen oversaw the viaduct replacement project for six years, from 2005 through 2011. The interview was conducted in Janua...
Seattle's steep hills and the city's hourglass shape created by Lake Washington and Puget Sound on either side of the central business district have posed difficulties for overland transportation sinc...
Congested city streets, a deteriorating waterfront thoroughfare, and vehicle registration rates rising exponentially each year led city officials to begin looking for routes to bypass Seattle's centra...
After a protracted planning period that spanned nearly two decades, work commenced on the Alaskan Way Viaduct on February 6, 1950. The project, jointly constructed by the City of Seattle and the state...
When it opened in 1953, the much-maligned Alaskan Way Viaduct, State Route 99's route along the Seattle waterfront, offered the first route around Seattle's congested central business district. The ex...
Kent resident Michael C. Atkins submitted this retrospective on the Allentown Covered Bridge (built 1903, burned down 1956), which spanned the Union Pacific rail line. The bridge was replaced by the C...
The Appleway Bridge, also known as the Old I-90 Bridge, spanned the Spokane River near Stateline, Idaho, on the Washington side of the Idaho-Washington border. It was built in 1939 at a cost of $118,2...
Seattle's Ballard Bridge carries 15th Avenue NW across the Lake Washington Ship Canal at Salmon Bay, connecting the Ballard neighborhood north of the canal with Interbay to the south. The Chicago-styl...
The Barstow Bridge, a surplus military bridge, was placed across the Kettle River in 1947, after floods damaged several earlier bridges. The bridge is located in Northeast Washington on the border bet...
The Bellingham and Skagit Interurban was an electric railway that operated on a picturesque 27-mile route between Bellingham in Whatcom County and Mount Vernon in Skagit County for 18 years between 19...
Duane Berentson served for 18 years (1962-1980) as a Washington state legislator representing Burlington, Skagit County, and specializing in transportation issues. In 1981, he became the first non-eng...
Bill Newby (b. 1935) was born in the Seattle City Light community of Newhalem on the Skagit River. He worked for City Light starting in 1955 as a laborer, digging ditches. He retired in 1996 as Direct...
By Russell H. Holter & Jessie Clark McAbee Gorham Printing, Rochester Washington Hardcover 538 pages Over 400 photos, maps, line drawings and historical advertisements. 3 appendices and bibliography I...
William Arthur Bulley served as Director of Highways for the Washington Department of Highways from 1975 to 1977. In September 1977 when the Legislature created the Washington State Department of Tra...
The Burlington Northern Overpass, originally known as the Great Northern Overpass, was an integral part of U.S. Route 99, the West Coast's main north-south highway during the middle decades of the twe...
Charles Fletcher left the following account of his work on the Seattle, Renton and Southern Railway in the 1920s and 1930s. This electric interurban connected downtown Seattle with Renton along Rainie...
Scottish-born James Murray Colman arrived in Seattle in 1872 at the age of 40 to lease and operate Yesler's sawmill. Colman was a prime mover in organizing the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad after...