Seattle’s Link light-rail boasts an average of 115,900 passengers per day as stated by Sound Transit, now ranking it second among light-rail systems and eighth among all rapid transit of the United States in terms of daily ridership. As one of the fastest growing transportation systems within the United States, according to the American Public Transportation Association, the network extends from Lynnwood to Federal Way in the west and from Redmond to South Bellevue in the east. With 48 stations and over 200 vehicles, the Link provides transportation for tourists and residents, including Lakesiders, 31% of whom take the light-rail once or more a week.
Sound Transit continues to expand, unveiling one of its grandest projects yet: the world’s first rail system over a floating bridge. Set to open on March 28, the 2 Line extension will connect Seattle to Bellevue, a juncture that Sound Transit predicts will add another projected 1 to 2 million monthly riders to the network.
Although this growth in itself is impressive, what makes this achievement so astonishing is the rate at which the Link has been developing. Other comparable light-rail projects, such as San Francisco’s Muni Metro or the San Diego Trolley, originated in the 1980s, and heavy rail networks like the New York City Subway or Boston’s T date all the way back to the early 1900s. In contrast, Washington’s Link first opened in 2003 in Tacoma, and service in downtown Seattle began in 2009. Yet, the recent revival of rail-based transit masks a century-long struggle for railways, roads, and the people of Seattle.
On September 8, 1883, the final spike of the Northern Pacific Railway was driven in Gold Creek, Montana, completing the first transcontinental railroad of Washington. Railways had been a popular method of transport in the United States for half a century at this point, but only now could they cross from ocean to ocean. Spanning from Saint Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, the line condensed a journey of what used to be several months into just a few days.
Within 20 years, data from Washington’s census shows the population increased from 75,000 to 518,000. Eager immigrants flooded in from across the country hunting for coal, lumber, and other economic opportunities. Rails carried hundreds of thousands of people into the West Coast and hundreds of thousands’ worth of resources out. Wherever a track was laid, a new city would flourish.
At the same time, trolley and electric streetcar lines ran across the city, carrying locals to and from work. Railways of the late 1800s were the foundation of the entire Pacific Northwest, allowing thousands of towns and communities to finally blossom. However, declining infrastructure, worker strikes, and poor management in the 1910s saw the gradual fall of the rail industry. From its ashes rose a method of transport whose existence would redefine the American land and people entirely.
The first automobile drove through Seattle’s streets on July 23, 1900 to mixed reviews. Loud and dangerous, it was considered to be nothing more than a toy for the upper class. Yet by the 1920s, car mania had swept across the nation like a deadly plague. Technological advancements had vastly improved the functionality of automobiles while lowering costs, and new marketing reframed the car to emphasize individualism and anti-elitism.
From 1910 to 1930, car ownership had increased by 9 million, according to the Federal Highway Administration, an explosion which demanded millions of miles of asphalt to quell. Plagued by car mania, thousands rallied behind the “Good Roads” movement, which oversaw the creation of safer and stronger roads. The resulting highways propelled car usage and encouraged more and more people to migrate away from large urban cities into the modern manufactured houses that lined the streets of new suburban neighborhoods.
As the middle class travelled further from city centers, so too did the funding, leaving cities in a dilapidated mess of traffic and congestion. The abandonment of cities furthered the desire for motor vehicles and suburbs, leading America into an endless cycle of car dependency. By the 1950s, production of automobiles was significantly outpacing road construction while ownership had climbed to 50 million. A cure was desperately needed.
President Eisenhower’s Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized $25 million, equivalent to $300 million today, for the construction of 41,000 miles of highway, making it the largest public works project in American history, according to the Federal Highway Administration. To call the proposal ambitious would be a disservice to both the history and effects of the law.
From the moment the interstate highway was birthed, it revolutionized transportation. Millions of jobs were created in manufacturing, engineering, and trucking, road safety greatly improved, and a century after the first transcontinental railroad, the nation was once again united by a network of movement.
It was for this reason that, for decades, a rapid transit system could not be established in Seattle. The automobile, a representation of freedom and individuality, had become so intertwined with the American identity, and voters couldn’t justify spending such large sums of money for rails. However, transit still remained an issue among Seattleites.
Since its conception in the 1950s, the interstates had torn through thousands of neighborhoods and endangered environments and ecosystems across the country, yet traffic and congestion could not be worse. In Washington specifically, Interstate 5 was planned to be the primary highway for the state. Despite being built off projections for traffic demand in 1975, miscalculations in car demand meant by opening day in 1969, the roads already were overflowing. It was at this point that many realized car mania was not a plague but rather an addiction.
Thousands of miles, tons of concrete, and billions of dollars poured into roads and car infrastructure couldn’t quell America’s dependency on the automobile because billions more would be spent on vehicle production. As car ownership climbed above 200 million in 1995, the web of roads that once connected the land would grow to consume and divide it.
For the half a century after the death of Washington’s railways, the state sought to install a new transportation network to no avail. Bill after bill was shot down by voters in favor of highway expansions. Even after the Sound Move ballot, which first proposed the $4 billion plan for the Link, was passed in 1996, the city still faced delays, overspending from inexperience and miscalculations, and regional resistance. With every bill and vote, Sound Transit fought simply for the right to exist.
In the Link’s competition with the automobile, a network of compromise was born, each decision a delicate balance between funding, functionality, and public approval. Light-rail was chosen over heavy rail to reduce expenses and increase flexibility. Integration with bus routes and building park and rides were emphasized to raise accessibility. Underground Link tracks in central Seattle used preexisting bus tunnels to avoid the costs of excavating new ones.
When some riders voiced concerns that buses would be forced to return to the crowded city streets, new plans were drawn to accommodate both types of vehicles in the tunnel. When University of Washington students remarked that the vibrations of the light-rail would disrupt the measurement of electromagnetic fields, new rubber pads were added under the tracks to dampen movement. The resulting transit system was one that was built and shaped by the needs of the community and its people.
Just as the Northern Pacific Railway had joined the Atlantic to the Pacific 150 years ago, and just as Interstate 90 had joined Seattle to Boston 70 years ago, Sound Transit will soon join the two sides of Lake Washington. In the next few decades, Sound Transit has plans to add another 60 miles of rail, bridging the network to Everett, Ballard, and Kirkland.
Ever since Washington’s establishment, transit has functioned as the foundation for its community, a legacy the Link carries into the future. Transportation has always been more than just a means of movement; it is a reflection of the world and its people. As car dependency and urban sprawl continues to increase within America, the Link serves as a reminder that transit is able to connect people just as easily as it can divide them.