December 7th, 2007 @ 12:36 am by Cliffe | Sorted Past Post
These days the Seattle Monorail only moonlights as a symbol of modern times, opting instead to spend its days
colliding with itself. Be that as it may, this vintage postcard set features the Alweg Monorail in its glory days. You know, the days when it carted around 8 million people a year (now just 2.5 million). Let’s be clear though, this monorail was
an accomplishment for the city and there were some bragging rights that came along with it. So check out these 1960’s era postcards showing the Alweg Monorail and Downtown Monorail Terminal. As you can see, the terminal used to stand a block further south than it does now and was much larger. This changed in 1988 when Westlake mall was redesigned. Do we have any Vintage Seattle readers who rode the monorail during the ‘62 World’s Fair? Tell us about it in the comments. As always, these images are clickable for more detail.
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Front: Alweg Monorail.
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Back: Two symbols of modern times. The sleek Alweg Monorail, first of its kind in America, swiftly whisks visitors to the Seattle World’s Fair grounds and back to beautiful downtown Seattle. Like a sentinel watching, stands the 600-foot Space Needle. Color photo by Morley Studios.
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Front: Downtown Monorail Terminal.
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Back: Monorail Terminal in Seattle’s Westlake mall. The first high-speed Monorail system in the U.S.A. This sleek vehicle of the future whisks visitors from downtown Seattle to the World’s Fair grounds — over a mile away — in 96 seconds and is being eyed by other metropolitan cities of the country for the solution of their mass transportation problems. Photo by Max R. Jensen.
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December 8th, 2007 @ 10:27 am
Wow, it’s nice to see a picture of the Westlake Mall area before the 80s threw up all over it!
December 8th, 2007 @ 10:54 am
I need to get my ass on a moonrail just so I can have that experience.
December 13th, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
I’m glad we never built the monorail… Look how little respect the monorail station pays to its surroundings. It covered all the public space and cast awkward shadows everywhere. Look how little respect the track paid toward the historic buildings it went by?
If that thing got built, it would have been the biggest eye sore this city ever saw.
It is amazing though. I can barely see how the westlake mall overlays what was in those pictures. I guess what makes it confusing is where the road met the station is now part of the mall, right?
December 20th, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
Yes, the portion of Westlake Ave between the intersection of 5th Ave and Olive Way and Pine St. was vacated and Westlake Center now covers it. The Bartell Drug store in the photo is where the fountain is now in Westlake Plaza. The monorail tracks were “straightened” at the point where the monorail train is in the photo so they now continue south on 5th Ave instead of following the vacated portion of Westlake.
Westlake used to connect to 4th Ave at Pike St. The pedestrian plaza in the photo (between the photographer and the monorail station) was formerly street. I don’t know when it was closed to vehicles.
I was born in 1960 and I remember the original monorail station. My main memory is of how dark it was under the station along Pine St. Those covered tube-like structures at the sounth end of the station are long ramps that allowed access to the station without stairs (there were also stairs not visible).
Other than the Bartell Drugs and the redeveloped Westlake Center, most of the buildings in this photo survive. The small brick triangular building barely visible to the east of the station is gone (now part of the Westlake Center property). The Seaboard building that fills the right border of the photo was redeveloped as high end condos in 2000. The light-colored building immediately east of the station with the red banners was at the time Nordstrom Best (original name of Nordstrom) and after that I. Magnin.
I’ve written to Paul Dorpat several times over the years asking him to find and publish photos of the original monorail station because I couldn’t remember it clearly. Thanks for the postcard!
March 31st, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
I love this postcard and I do wish the monorail had been built.
April 1st, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
Thanks for preserving a little piece of the Seattle Monorail history. It’s great to find the old stuff like this when we’re doing research for www.monorailmovie.com
-Shannon M