Riding the Seattle Center Monorail
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
- No trip to Seattle is complete without a ride on the Seattle Center Monorail. This short little transit line opened in 1962 for the Century 21 Exposition. The two trains have traveled over millions of miles in the years since, even though the track is less than a mile long.
In this video, learn about the history of the monorail, how it works, and why you should check it out. We also take a trip on a Seattle Water Taxi, watch fish being thrown at Pike Place Public Market, and add our own wads to the unsavory Gum Wall. This is the Seattle travel video you have been waiting for!
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Date of filming: May 16, 2023
Camera: iPhone 12
Chapters
0:00 Pike Place Public Market & Gum Wall
1:17 Water Taxi on the Puget Sound
2:50 Boarding the Monorail at Westlake Center
5:23 History of the Monorail
7:06 Operations today, top speed
7:45 Arriving at Seattle Center
9:04 Exploring Seattle Center
10:03 How the Monorail Works
12:05 The 2005 Westlake Crash
12:58 Final Thoughts
13:25 Next Week: The Empire Builder 
Авто/Мото
I’ve sold monorails to brockway, ogdenville, and north haverbrook, and by gum it put them on the map!
That reference will be made in my video coming out on Wednesday!
I felt it was a direct reference when he did the "mono meaning 'one"". Was certain the next line would be "and rail, meaning 'rail'".
IIRC he also sold a monorail to Shelbyville. Marge went there to check it out, and she found the monorail a complete wreck, and the town blighted
Did I sit next to the monorail driver in Seattle and sing THIS entire song while she worked? You're damn right I did! That's one item off my bucket list! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
If you have tickets to a Seattle Kraken hockey game, the Monorail (and all other transit) is free.
Great deal!
So the story behind the gum wall at Pike Place Market is that it started in the 1990s after the theater next door became home to Unexpected Productions' Theatresports and the patrons who came to the theater would stick their gum on the wall before they entered. No matter how many times the local authority tried to clean it, the gum has remained, and the authority later decided to keep it and declare it a tourist attraction in 1999. Pike Place Market itself was created in 1907 when a city councilman took advantage of the precedent of an 1896 Seattle city ordinance that allowed the city to designate tracts of land as public markets!
The monorail going through the Museum of Pop Culture reminds me how the WDW Monorail goes right through the Disney's Contemporary Resort with a station inside too! You can see a giant Grand Canyon-themed mural by Mary Blair (who worked on It's a Small World) inside the resort's concourse, and it's known for having a five-legged goat which was done on purpose by Blair to show that nothing can ever be perfect for we are human. The resort was designed with modular rooms constructed off-property and lifted into place by crane between steel frames. It also reminds me of Liziba station on the Chongqing's Line 2 which goes through a 19-story residential building and uses specialized noise reduction equipment to isolate station noise from the surrounding residences. While WDW's and Seattle's systems are tourist attractions, it makes sense for Line 2 to be a monorail because of Chongqing's insane terrain.
The Detroit people mover goes through a few buildings too I believe! And the Tokyo Metro Ginza line!
I was wondering, because I was there in the '80s, and didn't remember the gum wall. No Link either.
At age 14 (yes, I'm old) I rode the monorail from Westlake on the day it opened to the Century 21 Exposition on the day it opened. (I used to drink coffee at the first Starbucks, and I worked at the first REI, too . No, I am not a dinosaur.) I live in Alaska. Your great video was a sweet memory jogger for me. Yours are simply the best vids because they concentrate on simple humanity, not on elitism. I chuckled when I saw that you bought a cool retro-Sprace Needle souvenir from a vending machine. Way to go! You ride in coach on Amtrak and talk about how cool it is, not about how you can't take a shower.. Bravo for Trains Are Awesome!
We’d love you even if you were a dinosaur 😉
If you ever get the chance, take a Washington State Ferry to the San Juan Islands.
I will!
Monorail is the only transportation in Seattle that cannot be accessed with the app. Which is too bad because as someone who is over 65 all transport in Seattle, buses, Link light rail, Sounder commuter train, and streetcar, cost $1. And you get a major discount on the ferries as well. I took the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia, last April and it was quite a wonderful ride despite the weather being rather rainy.
It’s been years since they said they started working on making ORCA work with the Monorail, but if you have a Reduced Fare Permit, you can show them that when purchasing your ticket for the cheaper price.
Thanks for another informative video. (I have a special fondness for the Seattle Monorail because it’s one day older than I am.)
You're practically twins!
That monorail is beyond cool. I'm going to have to make a really long visit to Seattle/Tacoma. So much great stuff to do and see!
It’s a beautiful part of the country!
I rode the Monorail in 1971 when I was in Basic Training at Ft Lewis!
Orca cards are now (finally!) accepted on the Monorail. We live on Capitol Hill, in the same neighborhood that you filmed those shots of the city skyline. We use the Monorail often, as our second favorite way to get to MoPOP. (Our favorite is route 8 - more direct, but less scenic.)
Happy to hear about this change even though I don't live in Seattle at the moment. I had a friend who lived in Queen Anne and relied soley on transit. She only rode the monorail to her bus transfer if she was running too late to wait for her first bus because it wasn't cost effective for daily use. Hard to justify spending $3.50 (or whatever it was 12 years ago) every day when you already paid for a monthly transit pass.
It always seemed like such a shame and a waste when you saw crammed buses on the streets sitting in traffic going to the same place as the rather empty trains efficiently zoom past overhead. I always found the monorail to be quite charming, and I'm glad to see that it's being incorporated into the transit system, even if the population it serves is rather limited.
Thank you, Thom! I liked the retro feel of the original trains.
Thanks, I like it a lot too!
Interesting. We spent a few days in Seattle after our Empire Builder ride but didn’t know about the monorail! A ride on the monorail is as good a reason as any other to take another Empire Builder ride.
I highly recommend it!
When I rode it to the World's Fair in 1962 I think it cost maybe a quarter. I was in college in Portland and watched them building the Space Needle for a story I was writing for a now defunct newspaper.
What a cool story! How was the fair?
Thanks for bringing back memories of my trip to Seattle in October 2018. Riding the monorail was a fun experience. Thanks providing the historical perspective.
Trains are awesome!
Trains Are Awesome!
The monorail was featured in the 1963 Elvis movie "It Happened at the World's Fair". I saw it when it came out as a 14 year old. My mother was on an Elvis kick after he mellowed out his movies after coming back from the army so I saw several of them. The movie also featured 11 year old Kurt Russell in one of his earliest acting jobs. The monorail is just about the only thing I remember about the movie. In my army career, I was sent to Fort Lewis in Tacoma in 1979 for a two week course and made my way to Seattle on the weekend. Needless to say riding the monorail was a priority! I went to Seattle several times on business after I left the army, and finally got to the top of the Space Needle in the late 90's and even ate at the rotating restaurant.
How fun to ride something you’ve seen in a movie! All I could think about was sleepless in Seattle, since that was one of my mom’s favorites.
I remember riding the mono rail back in the early 70s. It had to be 1976 because they had a laser show at Seattle Center and I remember hearing a song from the first Boston album at the show.
I have never actually been on a monorail but I have seen them on my travels .I remember seeing one in Kula Lumpur but didn't go on it.
I used to take the monorail twice a week because of my job and the high price for the monorail is because of maintenance costs, since the cars are the original ones from when it first opened.
I love that Seattle monorail. I like to ride it when I visit my brother who lives there.
I bet that’s fun to do together!
Seattle is a great city to Visit! When i visited in Washington state in 2017. rode many types of transportation while in the Seattle Area. A ferry boat ride, the light rail and the Monorail of course.
I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as I did!
I'll be using this again when I'm in Seattle in March!
The monorail and the Space Needle were the entire reason I road tripped in 2016 to Seattle in my Smart Fortwo from Edmonton and I was not disappointed by either attraction. Seattle always seemed like the city of tomorrow and to some degree it still is, even if it's a weathered version of itself in the 2020's including the Cinerama... The other major attraction for a Mid-Century Modernist nerd such as myself... Also very impressed by the fairly respectful redux of Key now Climate Pledge Arena (presented by Amazon) and how they managed to lure an NHL team to the place in record time and potentially a rebirth Sonics in the NBA too! Now if only Boeing could get its groove back, maybe the city would be firing on all cylinders again...
For Boeing to find their groove back they’ll have to start putting all the bolts in the grooves where they belong lol
This is making me feel so old. I was born in 1962. I am 61 years old. The monorail and the Space Needle are the same age as me.
A good family to belong to!
Another great TRA video! Brought back fond memories when I rode it as a kid (11 years old) in 1962 when my family attended the World's Fair; and again, as an adult in the mid '90s.
I’m sure the fair was amazing!
The original Westlake station stop for the monorail was about a block father south, right next to Bartells drug store where you could stroll over to the lunch counter, sit down and order a chocolate soda, or hand-made milk shake.
Sounds delicious
I returned home from a visit to Seattle just a couple of days before you shot this video. The monorail was always a relaxing ride and useful when my feet needed a break from all the walking. I can't remember which, but one of the two trains (red or blue) was out of service during my week there. I had no idea they collided back in 2005! Thanks for an informative and nostalgic video.
How funny, we could have almost bumped into each other!
@@Thom-TRA Would have been hilarious if I had seen myself somewhere in the background in the video. 😀
The weather looked gorgeous.
It was everything people never say about Seattle lol
When the monorail was new in April, 1962, it was operated by the Seattle Transit System. In 1973, STS became Metro Transit and Metro operated and maintained the monorail until it was privatized. (That was an expensive mistake, but I won't discuss that.) I drove after 1993; it was a high seniority bid. I was the last driver to operate those trains at 60mph (caught hell for it, too), and the second to last to drive one before it transferred ownership. I made over 2000 trips in the time I drove it. It was designed to run during the fair and then was to be dismantled. As such, it was not designed to change tires (easily). That process takes about three hours and two mechanics. Because it was kept, the businesses along 5th Avenue sued the city for loss of business - and the businesses won their case. That is a significant reason it was never extended to SODO or outside the Center area.
Wow, three hours to change tires! How cool to have an actual operator comment!
This Monorail was really awesome!!! I think it was well worth the money to ride on such a unique and historic train. I’m thankful it’s still exists and would love to ride it someday. Awesome!!!
I have lived in the Seattle area for close to 20 years now and I still haven't ridden the monorail...
When I went to Seattle for SakuraCon, I actually went up into the Space Needle. Great views, but I couldn't stand for long on the glass floor segments.
I’m sure the glass floor is kinda scary! I’ve been on them in other towers
Monorail in LA! Yes on options 1, 2, or 3!!
I think most people (myself included) would prefer a real metro
Super pretty video!!! I love your editing. I feel like you are channeling aesthetic travel vlog
Wow, thank you so much! Just imagine what I can do in DC
@@Thom-TRA oh man I can’t wait. I’m on the edge of my 7k seat pulling into L’Enfant
It is amazing that this monorail is still running. A similar monorail in England was demolished due to safety concerns. If you think about it, if a monorail car breaks down, then the passengers can't get out! Thanks for uploading.
They have used ladders to evacuate or cranes to haul the trains. But, because of regular maintenance, they haven’t really broken down much at all.
Totally awesome my guy 💯
Great video, glad you had seemingly great weather. That Puget Sound boat looked great.
It was a wonderful stay
Super interesting!
Thank you!
I kinda like the art deco look. Although I’m fed up with it on other trains.
Let’s keep our history looking historic and our transit looking modern!
I enjoy the video👍👍
I'm glad!
As usual, I found this to be quite an informative video! Now, I know more about the Seattle Center Monorail, from the strange gauntlet track to the fact that one of the stations is also a maintenance center for the two cars.
Thanks for the video!
It’s definitely very different from most other transit systems!
I always ride the monorail from downtown to Seattle Centre for events, I always stay at the Warwick as it's cheap and has a good view. I live in Eastside.
That’s great!
13:13 The irony is that because the monorail is still running, they were technically right.
True
Next time you should go up on the space needle is really fun. I have been to the top of the space needle, sears tower, Eiffel Tower, and gateway arch and they are all fun.
Fun video! At first I thought you had a big typo or misspoke; ALWAC vs ALWEG. Nice piece of trivia!
Both companies were named after their founder! Just different variations
Great job! I really liked this. Hopefully someday I can go there.
I hope so!
The Monorail is also the only public transit system in Seattle that is paid for solely out of farebox revenues though the city has on occasion paid for some major maintenance and upgrades.
I love this monorail, been on it several times
I would ride the Mono-rail when I would come to Seattle.It cost .35¢ to ride in 1980. I loved it.
It would have been amazing if they extended it like originally planned. By the 1970s it would’ve been running all around downtown Seattle.
Can you imagine? It would have been very cool
I've been to Seattle 3 times. One of my best friends lives there. Glad you liked. Did they try and push the chocolate pasta on you at the market? They do that every time I'm there!
We just tried a ton of their free samples!
@@Thom-TRA I love love that market. Last time I discovered the lower levels. So great
That looks like the coolest monorail system I’ve ever heard of. I like everything about it now that I know such as the way passengers have to enter/exit at some stops and the seating just like the sound transit. I think it’s cool how there’s doors at some of the stations and there’s a short walkway to get on the train. I never knew there was such a thing.
It seems like the redid the seats. At least, I remember there being hard plastic seats when I rode the monorail in 2003. Although I could just be remembering wrong since it was over 20 years ago now.
I actually managed to record the bridge extending and retracting in my Shorts
Nice
Awesome work 👏👍
Thank you!
Pretty neat, really! I recently rode the Monorail on my way to see Oppenheimer at the Boeing IMAX (in Pacific Science Center)! Very strong mid-century vibes that evening from both the movie and this historic transit segment!
That is a great combination!
It makes me giggle that the one piece of rail infrastructure that we have in the Seattle metro area with fare gates and boarding screen doors is the 62 year old Monorail
lol true. Though did i hear light rail is finally getting them?
@@Thom-TRA some of the busier downtown stations are getting fare gates. But (as of now) there are no plans for boarding screen doors.
I dream of the other world, where Seattle decided to run with its monorail---extended it and made it part of the full transit system. Ah, well.
It would certainly have been the most unique system in the US!
That was very interesting. Thank you
10:05 “Mono means one, and rail means rail.”
AT&T made a short film about the Century 21 Exposition called "Century 21 Calling" that was featured as a short on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film follows a young couple as they ride the monorail and take in the various exhibits at the expo, but the main focus is on AT&T's exhibit on the "telephone of the future." They were demonstrating some of the technology that the first electronic switching system, the 1ESS, would make available for customers, such as call waiting. It's entertaining on its own, but the MST3K riffing is also pretty good.
Thanks for the tour. As always, enjoy your music beds on your videos (the "carnival" type in the gift shop-!) About the monorail crash: when Westlake Center- the mall and office tower that replaced the original terminal- was built, they narrowed the beam placement, building them closer together so they would take up less street and sidewalk space. An unfortunate decision, because two trains cannot pull up next to each other, as they can at Seattle Center.
I was under the monorail when they collided! Had to dodge a door as it slammed on the ground!
Really?
Glad you went to Seattle in May, that’s a big part of why you had a nice time! October through April has miserable weather
The weather was so beautiful. I’m very glad about the timing.
Brilliant video, looks like Lyndsey enjoyed herself too lol. That gum Wall, Street, eww!
I saw a woman nearby throwing up! Don’t know if it was related or not
Ewwww lovely lol.
Great Video ! Road the Monorail when I went up athe Seattle Space Needle ! They must extend the Monorail to make it more useful ! tjl
Thanks! I wish the monorail would go farther too
Ferry provided excellent views. Monorail was short buy worth it
IIRC, the monorail is a souvenir of the 1962 World's Fair, as is the Space Needle.
Yes it is. As I spend the bulk of this video explaining.
@@Thom-TRA I know, now. Commnet was made at the very start of the video. Thank you for the very clear and complete coverage.
So they trains did swap tracks once. Before the 2005 incident, the red and blue trains were on the opposite tracks. A crane literally picked them up and swapped them.
Nice technical explainer towards the end!
It happens as you uploaded this today I spoke to a Yokohama native about Chiba City having a monorail (better than some Tram-only U.S. cities).
Chongqing's 2 Monorail lines total 96 KM in route length, including the Liziba station situated in the middle of an apartment building!
I haven’t been on the Chiba monorail but I have been on the Shonan monorail!
I'm a lifelong Washingtonian and still have yet to ride the monorail. Would love to someday. I'm 3 1/2 hours from Seattle though. Also want to ride the Empire Builder at some point.
I can highly recommend both!
You can transfer from other Metro and Sound Transit with an Orca card. The Monorail will accept Orca now.
Thanks for that. I last rode the Seattle monorail in 2019. I have also ridden other monorails, including the Sydney one now demolished. It was notable from your video how bumpy the ride was.
The Sydney one was of limited use, as it had a very low passenger capacity of only 48, easily handled by a city bus. It went around a one-way loop, and at the time was quite expensive to ride.
It was provided by Von Roll, a Swiss manufacturer which went out of business many years ago. There was a similar shorter monorail on Queensland's Gold coast, also by Von Roll, and now demolished. Both Australian monorails suffered reliability problems as they aged, and spare parts became more difficult to acquire. On more than one occasion, passengers were stranded above the streets and it was necessary to call the fire brigade to evacuate them. Despite having a local provider, I think it quite notable that monorails were never installed in Switzerland as serious public transport. I think Seattle was quite sensible to resist the temptation to extend their monorail line any further, and indeed may have retained sufficient capacity to get by with only one train on a single line.
I had never even heard of the Sydney monorail before!
Building Beautifully did a great vid on the Sydney Monorail! But yeah, it was just a touristy line that didn't really go anywhere except downtown. Like the Detroit People Mover (although the DPM was meant to be part of a bigger plan connecting different lines)@@Thom-TRA
seattle has really good food
Yes they do
Surprised you didn't go to the top of the Space Needle, that is definitely worthwhile, you can usually get a combo ticket of Space Needle and Chihuly Museum for a discounted price, the Chihuly museum is also well worth visiting (and you'll immediately start recognizing Chihuly works in other art museums since they're that distinctive).
I lived in Queen Anne close to Seattle Center and worked in Old Town so often would take the monorail to get to city center then walked the rest of the way. So why am I posting this? The cost to ride the monorail was 25 cents.
Honestly that gum wall is the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen.
Then you have lived a blessed life!
More native knowledge about Seattle: Did you know some people actually use the monorail as a means to go to work? There are many office buildings near Westlake Center and some use it to get there due to a lack of bus availability or to transfer to the tram. Oy, I’ve been to the gum wall too and felt queasy as well. The pike place market fish throwing was something I tried as well even though I don’t work for the vendors. They sometimes let visitors try it. As with the ferries, I love the WA state ferries, took it a few times and it was kind of satisfying. Haven’t rode the west Seattle ferry.
Every concert I've gone to at the Seattle Center area, I take the Monorail. I'll park near the airport or stadium and that the light rail into town and transfer to the Monorail. Your Orca card is good for both so the Monorail ride is kinda free. Well its cheaper than paying for parking at the concert hall and dealing with traffic getting out.
@@momoore5826 oh yeah feels good with the orca card
I didn’t know they let visitors throw the fish!
@@Thom-TRA some will let you try if you ask. I must have gotten lucky or they probably found out I’m a native. lol was wearing a mariners hat
ever since they enabled the free transfer from downstairs all my Krakhead friends use it to get to games. admittedly i miss the old terminal a bit tho
I believe ALWEG also proposed a system for LA back in the day; can you imagine?
And now they’re trying to relive those days with the sepulveda line lol
Great video as usual. I wonder if the original monorail cars will be replaced when they finally wear out, or if it will be shut down. Perhaps they will be replaced by a fully automated system.
I really hope if that day comes they’ll replace them
@@Thom-TRA Me Too!
did you tour the Seattle Underground? i was only in Seattle overnight when I went. (I was changing from the Coast Starlight to The Empire Builder).
I'm surprised Boeing didn't put in a bid to construct it, as the major local employer and they were toying with all sorts of side projects at that time
Yeah that is surprising
Pike's Place Market is basically built on the hut of Princess Seattle. Who's father Chief Seattle, once ruled that area before Settlers arrived.
Edit: Kikisoblu / Princess Angeline
Interesting
I actually used the Monorail to commute to work...once. I lived in Lower Queen Anne and worked on Second and Pine. It was kinda fun to be able to say that I commuted on it but I really wouldn't recommend it. The Metro was much easier.
Still a cool story to share
some people still dont know about salmon fish or geoduck until now sir
Once, out of pure boredom, i decided to walk the entire lenth of fhe track.
How often did a train pass you during that process?
@@Thom-TRA about four times if I recall correctly
It has the same door chime as the buffalo metro rail, which is cool. I wonder why they chose the single-platform design at westlake though, I’m assuming it’s for space or money reasons.
I think it’s for space reasons
You should have gone to Vancouver to ride the Skytrain
That was not realistically possible at the time
The monorail precedes its Westlake terminal by a good half century but no one thought to design a sign for the stairwell that accesses it? That’s the sort of stupidity I’d expect here in SF (see the entry to our new Union Square station with its fair-weather shiny smooth floors, and a single stair 4’ from the bottom of the escalator that originally had no warning)
I didn’t realize a German company built the monorail. I hoped they recouped their investment. Love Seattle. Hope you had a chance to go to the International District and visit Uwajimaya!
The owner was Swedish but the company was based in Germany!
So you linked the LINK video with a link? 😂
Click the LINK
4:02 Lol you should come to San Diego to find the biggest rip off. $8.50 (advertised as $8) for a 5 min ferry ride from the convention center to Coronado island on a very subpar boat. I tried to justify it by bringing my bike, but there was no storage area...
Your username made me laugh so hard when I first saw it
Though it wouldn’t be an awesome train in the end…if they made the decision to permanently end the monorail I wonder if they ever considered using the elevated track to somehow hang a suspension bridge pedestrians could use to walk from one side of the zoo to the other. Surely that steel structure is capable of supporting an elevated walkway.
There actually already is a walkway parallel to it!
Wall of Gum, you say? Hooe you brought hand sanitizer
Tons of it
will u ever on a freight train
Thanks for spending the $14 guys. You couldn't go and not ride this!
It was more than worth it!
Why did you pay for the monorail? Did y'all not have a Day Pass on your Orca? An $8 day pass covers rides up to $3.50 each, which includes the monorail.
Because I wanted the souvenir ticket
*DID YOU SAY MONORAIL!?*
Come to think of it, please tell me you went to Dick's hamburgers on your Seattle visit?! I go multiple times when I visit seattle. The only true old-school American hamburger joint still around
We did! We were staying just a few blocks away from it
All right, I'm looking, for 3 entrepreneurs.
Wait $7? I could’ve sworn it was $3-5
Nope