Topic: Roads & Rails
Thomas Burke, chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, arrived in Seattle in 1875 at the age of 25. A lawyer, he began practicing law, and within a couple of years was elected probate judg...
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...
This slideshow chronicles the history of the Chief Joseph Dam Bridge, a 308-foot-long highway bridge that carries Pearl Hill Road over Foster Creek ravine at Bridgeport in Douglas County. Its name com...
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...
The Columbia River Interstate Bridge is actually two closely adjacent bridges, though they are commonly referred to as one. The first bridge opened in 1917, the second in 1958. Each has three lanes an...
The City of Connell is located in Franklin County, about 35 miles north of Pasco. Connell is known for its parks, school district, corrections center, and neighborhoods. The town, originally called Pa...
The first bicycle arrived in Washington Territory in 1879 on a steamer from San Francisco and within a decade, Washington, along with the rest of the nation, went bike-crazy. Innovative developments s...
John R. Fahey, the author of this essay, was born and educated in Spokane. He graduated from Gonzaga University and went to graduate school in journalism and political science at Northwestern. During ...
Health care reformer, public transportation advocate, politician, civil servant, businessman, inventor, environmentalist -- Aubrey Davis affected the lives of Northwesterners for more than half-a-cent...
One of the earliest concrete reinforced arch bridges in Washington was the Washington Street Bridge over the Spokane River, built in 1907 and 1908. This formidable span was the first of many in Spokan...
Arthur Denny and Mary Ann Boren Denny were members of the Denny Party, arriving at Alki Point (West Seattle) on the schooner Exact on November 13, 1851. They were among Seattle's first ...
In 1851, soon after crossing the Oregon Trail from Illinois with the Denny Party, David Denny and Louisa Boren settled at Alki Point (West Seattle). They were among the first EuroAmerican settlers in ...
Following World War I, the Seattle Garden Club worked with veterans organizations to plant some 1,400 elm trees along Des Moines Memorial Way S, dedicating each one to a fallen veteran. In a separate ...
In this People's History, Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011) recalls the time her father, riding from the Green Lake neighborhood to downtown Seattle to look for work on January 5, 1920, was in...
In this People's History, Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011), resident of Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood, remembers the neighborhood before and after Interstate 5 cut through it during the 1...
Joni Earl (b. 1953) was the executive director and CEO of Sound Transit from 2001 to 2016, responsible for rescuing Puget Sound's massive rapid transit agency from disaster. When she joined Sound Tran...
Madison is one of Seattle's most storied streets. From an ageless game trail, to an ancient Indian path, to a pioneering wagon road, to a major arterial, its evolution mirrored the development of the ...
The Ebey Slough Bridge in Snohomish County is one of four bridges built between 1925 and 1927 to link Everett and Marysville and complete the last section of the Pacific Highway in Washington state. U...
The City of Edgewood (informally known as North Hill) is located 30 miles south of Seattle in north Pierce County, just north of Puyallup. It borders Puyallup and unincorporated Pierce County to the s...
The Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) was created by Initiative 41 on November 4, 1997. In that initiative, a 53 percent majority of Seattle voters called for construction of a 40-mile elevated sy...
Elmer Yates (b. 1917) was raised in the Rainier Valley and graduated from Franklin High School in 1934. He went to sea and became a ship's captain. In about 1996, he wrote to the Rainier Valley Histor...
From 1893 to 1923, the City of Everett was serviced by a network of electric streetcars. The development of this system began before Everett had incorporated and continued through the rapid period of ...
The ferry Martha S of Keller was launched on Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake in 1948 and transported vehicles and passengers across the Columbia River between Ferry and Lincoln counties at the Keller Ferry...