A Look Back to the Future: Seattle - Everett Interurban Electric Railway by Will Murray
A Southbound Siemens-built S70 car Artist concept of Shoreline South/145th Station to be completed 2025 and presently under construction. Courtesy of Sound Transit At the turn of the 20th Century Broadview residents worked on farms, fishing or in lumber mills and a roundtrip to downtown Seattle was a grueling 8 hour buggy ride. Automobiles were scarce, and trains were plentiful when Seattle commuters were tempted to try the Puget Sound Electric Railway: “Hourly service… Baggage Checked Free… Low Rates.. Fast Time.. No Cinders… No Smoke”. Then in 1910 a commuter could board an electric rail car at 5th and Pike and be whisked sixteen miles north to Forest Park [now Lynnwood] in 45 minutes for 40 cents! The Seattle - Everett Traction Company’s Interurban train cars slowly traversed Westlake and Phinney Ridge until North of 85th St where it reached speeds exceeding 60mph through old growth stands of Doug Fir and tiny communities such as Groveland, Bitter Lake, Ronald and Forest Park. The I...