Alaskan Way

Seattle's waterfront lies on top of what was once a gravelly beach at the bottom of a steep, forested bluff. It doesn't look much like that today, but it still offers amazing views west over Elliott Bay.

The shoreline was developed for very practical uses. Loading and unloading ships and transferring cargo - to wagons, to trains, and to trucks. Before Alaskan Way, there were several rail lines paralleling the shore on trestles over the beach, but these were later filled in, the seawall was constructed, and the current version of the road took shape. Highway 99 and it's gray, double-decked viaduct came later, not because it served the waterfront, but because it was a convenient path for a highway through the city.

Decades later, the waterfront has evolved, as has our collective vision of what an urban shoreline should look like. The viaduct is still a quick way through town, and I'm not the only one who has enjoyed wonderful views of sunsets over the Olympics while stuck in northbound dinner-hour traffic, but it's ugly, it's noisy, and it cuts off the city from it's spectacular waterfront.

And then, in 1989, came the pictures of the Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland after the Loma Prieta earthquake and we learned that the same thing might happen here. Since then, we've seen other cities tear down waterfront freeways and create beautiful, vibrant public spaces. It takes money. And engineering. And a few mistakes. But by early next year it will be gone. Traffic will flow in a new tunnel underground and over the next few years, Alaskan Way will be transformed into something really special.