FIRST - Commercial Monorail in America - Seattle, Washington - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

The Alweg Monorail, the first commercial monorail in America, 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. The coordinates are at its Northern Terminus.

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

FIRST - Classification Variable: Item or Event Date of FIRST: 01/01/1962 More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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