"Alweg Monorail - Seattle, United States" Waymark

Long Description:
The Alweg Monorail was constructed for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair to carry visitors from the fairgrounds into downtown Seattle. It runs 5th Avenue and can reach speeds of up to 50 mph, the fasted of any full sized monorail in the United States. The cost to build the monorail in 1962 was 3.5 million dollars and during the 6 months of the fair carried 8 million people. Current ridership is about 2.5 million annually.

During its years of service the monorail has had 3 accidents. In 1971 the brakes failed and the car smashed into the girder at the Seattle Center Station, injuring 26 people. In 2004 a fire broke out while 150 riders were in the cars. Five passengers were hospitalized, although no one was burned. Most recently in 2005 two trains collided when passing on a tight curve. The door was sheared of one of the trains, but no one was injured. The accident was blamed on poor design and driver error. The train did not reopen until August of 2006.

The Seattle Center Monorail operates daily. It departs every 10 minutes from the station at Seattle Center enroute to Westlake Center Mall, at Fifth and Pine Street, Downtown Seattle. Each trip takes two minutes to cover the approximately one mile route.

Round-trip fares are $4.00 for adults, $1.50 for youth ages 5-12, $2.00 for senior 65+, disabled

Original Name of Structure (during fair): The Alweg Monorail Current Name of Structure: Seattle Center Monorail Fair Name: Century 21 Exposition Location: Seattle, United States Year of Fair: 1962 Theme of Fair: Science Architect/Designer: Not listed Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
To help give a different perspective and to better the waymark for future visitors please tell us about your visit and upload a favorite photograph you took of the waymark. Although visiting this waymark in person is the only thing required of you to receive credit for your visit, taking the time to add this information is greatly appreciated.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   8/2/2009 Hawaiian Ninja visited it 3/28/2009 RoGoBliss visited it 3/26/2009 TheBeanTeam visited it 2/16/2009 intolerable visited it 12/14/2008 Moun10Bike visited it 7/24/2008 Rose Red visited it 4/11/2008 3Bobs visited it 12/22/2007 grossi visited it 8/31/2007 NorStar visited it 8/27/2007 Shorelander visited it 6/18/2007 CacheSafari visited it 5/12/2007 Navy72 visited it 4/7/2007 Hikenutty visited it

View all visits/logs