In 2009 Seattle will finally have a light rail train that
will run from Sea-Tac airport to downtown Seattle. The train will track
through the Seattle Bus Tunnel that was built back in the 1990s. It's now
being called the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.
Many visitors to Seattle don't realize a tunnel runs under downtown, at
some points, deep under downtown. This would seem to be a tad unsettling
in an area known to have earthquakes. Supposedly the bus tunnel is built
to withstand an 8.0 quake. I'd rather be on top of the Space Needle for
such an event though.
The Seattle Bus Tunnel makes it real easy to get around downtown. There
are 5 huge stations, themed to their location, like the International
District Station is Chinatown themed. The Pioneer Square station is Old
Seattle themed. The University Street Station is sort of High Tech themed.
Westlake Station is the biggest. There are entries from the Westlake
Station to several department stores, like Nordstrom's flagship store and
to Westlake Center, which is one of Seattle's vertical malls and is also
the downtown terminus for the Monorail.
It is free to use the bus tunnel to get around downtown
Seattle. In the video below, that I took a month ago, on August 7, you'll
see how well used the Seattle Bus Tunnel is.
|
