Chapter Notes: Seattle (Destination Unknown) · 4:18am Feb 11th, 2022
Seattle! Home of the Space Needle and lots of coffee, not to mention the home of Boeing. A good place to tour for a bit, a good city for a pony to be in.
Special thanks to AlwaysDressesInStyle for prereading, and also a special thanks to penguincascadia for suggesting things to do and places to go in Seattle. There were a lot of suggestions, more than could possibly fit in one chapter, and since I got a boatload of links, could be y’all will get a virtual tour of Seattle blog here in the near future!
The ‘sound garden’ that Sweetsong mentions is not the Seattle Sound Garden, nor the band named for it; rather it’s the ‘artists at play’ playground. I don’t know if my words alone can fully describe the brilliant weirdness of the park; luckily enough, I found a video of someone doing a walkthrough!
Seattle has a monorail, just like Disney World, Osaka, and even North Brockway. In Seattle’s case, it was built for the Century 21 Exposition in 1962, and has been a part of their public transit system ever since.
The original Alweg trains are still operating, carrying about 2 million passengers a year. It’s powered by a third rail (since it’s a monorail, I suppose that would actually be a second rail). Interestingly, the trains were built in Germany and shipped to New Jersey, where they were carried by train to Seattle. Alweg also built the Disneyland monorail.
Like the Eiffel Tower, the monorail was supposed to be disassembled some time after the end of the Exposition, but it was instead sold to the city.
While most of us would think of a monorail as one where the train is supported on a beam which runs underneath it, usually elevated, there are ones that hang from an overhead beam, much like a cable car does. Those are uncommon, although a few do exist. Most likely when you picture one, you picture a straddle-beam arrangement, like the Disney monorail (and the Seattle monorail). These days the majority of them (or all of them, I don’t know) are electric-powered, but historically there were steam-powered monorails, and diesel- or gas-powered monorails existed for industrial/construction uses. In fact, there was a British company who made monorails that could be used at construction sites to move materials around . . . Tom Scott did a video about them.
The three points of contact safety rule is not just a railroad rule; you’re always supposed to use that to prevent falls. Two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand. Or in Sweetsong’s case, at least three hooves on the ground for maximum safety . . . although she’s got a good argument that it’s harder to fall when you can fly.
The southern terminus of the monorail is the Westlake Station, which is a shopping area/downtown mall. Penguincascadia suggested that Sweetsong might like Pike Place Chowder, and there happens to be one in that area, near Rachel’s Ginger Beer. As far as I can tell, Rachel only sells ginger beer, whereas Pike Place Chowder has more on offer than just chowder (which you can get hot or frozen). Also for the linguists/non-native English speakers, their online menu in is seven languages!
Wings over Washington is Seattle’s Flying Theatre, so you’d think that they’d welcome a pegasus. However, their seats do not look pegasus friendly, and she probably falls under the 42” (106cm) minimum height requirement, depending on where they measure.*
As best I can tell, it’s basically a theatre with moving seats, and it actually looks really cool. I’ve never been on anything like it; the closest I’ve come is an IMAX theatre.
Here’s a video review of it. If you don’t watch through it, the reviewer mentions that most of the video is drone footage; imagine what you could get if you strapped cameras to a pegasus. Anybody who wants to use that for a Not-A-Contest submission, go for it!
_________________________________________________________________
*Real equines are measured at the withers, the high point of the front shoulders.
While some of us think of ferries as obsolete, in fact in many waterfront cities, they’re a very viable form of transportation, often quicker than taking a road route, or a bridge—if one even exists. For example, Bainbridge Island can be reached from Seattle by car, so long as you’re willing to drive down to Tacoma, then around back up. About 83 miles by car (134km), or eight miles by ferry (13km). Whidbey Island has no bridges to it, but two ferry routes. In fact, State Route 525 is partially on a ferry, and that’s not the only state route around Puget Sound that has a ferry as a part of it.*
Burrito Express is a food truck that regularly appears on Cloverdale St., which is across the water from Boeing Field. I’ll be honest, I don’t exactly know how food trucks work; I assumed that they drove around like ice cream trucks, hoping to entice customers with fresh tacos or whatever (and I’ll be honest, if a taco truck came cruising by playing mariachi music, you can bet I’d be running out there to get a taco), but I think that they tend to live in a parking lot and customers come to them. Or maybe there’s more than one kind . . . anybody who lives in a city big enough to have them, feel free to tell me how they work in the comments.
Boeing Field (King County International Airport) was Seattle’s primary airport until Sea-Tac was constructed. These days, while it has some scheduled passenger airline flights, it’s mostly used for general aviation (little airplanes) and cargo. Boeing also uses the field for final delivery preparations, including paint, and I assume that they often fly the aircraft out of there to their final destinations, although I don’t know that for sure. They’ve got a number of buildings around the airport.
There is also a flight museum there.
Also, although not particularly germane to the story, airport numbers are based on magnetic compass headings . . . Boeing Field had runway 13/31 until 2017; due to magnetic headings shifting, it’s now got 14/32.
FBO stands for Fixed-Base Operator, a company that is based inside the airport perimeter and provides aeronautical services. Many of them provide (as Wikipedia calls it) “basic auxiliary services to pilots, flight crew, and passengers, such as restroom facilities, telecommunication services, and waiting areas.” I’ve been in a few for one reason or another, and they range from pretty nice to leftover from the last war, often depending on the airport and what kind of passengers/crews they’re expecting to serve.
I was going to put the monorail song from the Simpsons, but that didn’t feel quite right. Close, but not quite there . . . especially since unlike in the Simpsons, the Seattle Monorail is successful and safe. Then I got to thinking about Soundgarden . . . that’s thematic, after all:
Like many good things, the song’s been around for a while, first recorded in 1956. The smokestack lightning is referring to sparks coming out of a steam locomotive’s stack; I can tell you from personal experience sometimes sparks come out of a diesel locomotive’s stack, too.
*After 9/11, with most of the bridges closed, the normal ferries as well as many other boats who could helped to evacuate half a million stranded New Yorkers in a matter of hours—approximately 150 boats of all types converged following a radio call from the Coast Guard asking for ‘all available boats.’
As docking facilities weren’t available for the vast majority of them, they simply nosed up to the seawall. The Staten Island Ferry specifically carried more than 50,000 people, taking civilians away from Manhattan and returning with rescue workers.
It’s not the most famous sea rescue; Dunkirk is the top of that particular list . . . but for all that, the Manhattan Boat lift evacuated more people in less time, and is in fact the largest sea evacuation in history.
If you haven’t seen the short documentary, you really should:
Don't forget the miracle on the Hudson. Ferries showed up to rescue passengers of the downed plane pretty rapidly.
I was sad when the sci-fi museum closed in Seattle.
I take a ferry to work everyday.
Food trucks, as far as I know, can’t work like ice cream trucks. I assume it would be dangerous to cook while moving. The ones I’ve seen use propane in their cooking.
They park in a location on the street, often because there’s an event nearby. For example, about 20 trucks come to Gen Con each year and feed people who would rather not eat convention center food.
You can get some insight into the business by watching The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network.
"Bainbridge Island can be reached from Seattle by car, so long as you’re willing to drive down to Tacoma, then around back up."
The ferry from Tacoma actually goes to Vashon Island, a nice place for a daytime from either Seattle or Tacoma.
Thanks for the mention!
The only way I can see a food truck being able to move around like an ice-cream truck is if they were selling something that was already prepared and wrapped, like breakfast tacos, sandwiches, pizza slices, tamales, etc. and only needed to be kept warm (or cold) rather than being actually cooked on-site. I've never seen one like that, but I suppose it's possible.
The food trucks I've encountered typically operate more like the traditional street vendors in places like New York City -- they find a suitable spot where customers are likely to pass by, and set up shop for some period of time. (Usually breakfast and/or lunch.) Many of them will also make arrangements with hotels, convention centers, and performing-arts spaces to set up in the parking lots when events are being held; not only do the attendees get some options other than the hotel's own restaurant, but it keeps the hotel's own facilities from getting overwhelmed when two thousand convention attendees all decide they want lunch at the same time.
Some office complexes also make arrangements for food trucks to come out and set up in the parking lot during lunch. (One of the places I used to work had a setup like that; it was a rotating arrangement with several different trucks, so each day of the week would be a different vendor.)
I knew that the numbers on runways were compass headings, but (for some reason) I thought they were absolute, rather than magnetic. I guess that early aircraft moved through variance lines so quickly there was no point (or time) to do corrections, and they just went by local magnetic headings. Nowadays, with computerized navigation, the runway numbers are probably only of use to small craft still using magnetic compasses.
With Starliner Boeing has become kind of an aerospace joke and devourer of government funds.
About monorails: fun fact, there was once a turbojet monorail hovertrain. It had a peak speed of 430.3 km/h (267.4 mph) and broke some speed records, but ultimately failed to find commercial success because most places preferred to upgrade existing tracks rather than replace them with a monorail system.
Of course, being essentially a jet airliner without wings, it was also too loud
Is that Monorail in the top picture supposed to have a psychoticly happy face on it?
5635452
People naturally see faces on anything vaguely resembling a face.
The Cape May-Lewis ferry from New Jersey to Deleware is a godsend. It costs $50 if you have a car, but to avoid I-95 traffic through Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC entirely, it's worth every penny.
"While some of us think of ferries as obsolete"
...What? People do that?
Also, did I miss something (If so, sorry. Also, between the chapter and now, I was distracted by some train videos.)? Where's the boat lift?Oh, in the comments, after the tags. :D
And thank you, as usual, for the interesting and informative blog post (and comment; I don't recall hearing of the Manhattan Boat Lift before). And for the chapter, of course!
5635325
They did; I think some of them were racing out of port within moments of the airplane actually landing. Honestly, that’s one thing that I’ve always respected about sailors; about 90% of them will immediately head for people in trouble.
I didn’t even know there was a sci-fi museum in Seattle. That would have been a fun place to go, too.
5635327
I would think more people than I expect do, honestly. There are a lot of big cities built near natural harbors and ferries can go where bridges do not. Heck, there are a number of inhabited islands in Michigan and while most of them probably don’t have daily commuters, there’s a good chance Mackinac Island does. Even the horses take the ferry.
5635332
In hindsight, that makes a lot of sense, but that’s not how I imagined them operating.
Now I’m trying to remember if there were any at Bronycon. I don’t remember seeing any, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t around.
Maybe I will, or at least clips of it on YouTube (no cable)
5635337
Looks like you could ferry from one to the island, drive its length, and then take a ferry to the other. I was honestly surprised--although I shouldn’t have been--at how many ferry routes there were out of Seattle.
Thanks for all the help!
5635345
Upon further study, that does seem to be how they work. I also found out that some places they have to have an operating permit to be on-site as I was doing research on the next chapter and accidentally found the link to the permitting page. From just skimming Google Maps, some of them seem to have their own regular spots, and probably others are more roving, going to events rather than one ‘home’ location.
I live in a town far too small to support a food truck, but when I’m in Lansing, I sometimes see either them or food trailers or some dude cooking BBQ with whatever he could fit in the back of his pickup, but I’m not there often enough to have discerned any pattern for who’s where and when.
That would make a lot of sense for a big office. Heck, that’s something a pony could get in on, too . . . that’s a pony on Earth fic I’d like to see
5635357
I would guess that buried back in the regulations somewhere is the requirement that they be magnetic, even though these days there’s no need for them to be. Most small airplanes have more sophisticated navigation equipment than just a magnetic compass, and if you’re following a VOR beacon in or whatever the more precise tool is (can’t remember) it really doesn’t matter what the runway is numbered, so long as it can’t be confused for anything else.
Honestly, based on some accident reports I’ve read, it might be more beneficial if parallel runways had different numbers, rather than just “R” and “L.” But I guess that the system we’ve got is the one we’ve got. . . .
5635362
Eh, I still think they’re better at building airplanes than the current iteration of Lockheed-Martin. Although I’ll give Lockheed credit, their F35s do finally fly.
5635367
Just because you could, doesn’t mean you should . . . someone also made a jet-powered railcar (probably more than one someone, but I can’t be bothered to look it up). And you can get faster than that with a TGV or a Japanese bullet train anyway. And yeah, it’s usually cheaper to upgrade existing track structure than build a whole new monorail, which is another thing to consider.
The costs of going fast. They could have done it nearly silently with linear induction motors, basically made a rail gun that carries passengers.
I think that’s actually supposed to be a trolley bus, and like 5635483 said, I think that’s just what the equipment on the back looks like. I don’t know for sure, haven’t seen a trolley bus in decades.
5635577
I could see that being a huge advantage, honestly. I’ve never driven that particular highway, but I’ve driven in that area a few times for Bronycon and there were times it was really awful.
Heck, I wrote Fence Post in its entirety while in stopped traffic on the highway outside Baltimore . . . an asphalt truck tipped over and besides the wreck, they had to clean up an unintended speed bump, and that took a while.
I’ve considered taking the ferry to Milwaukee for Ciderfest rather than drive around the bottom of Lake Michigan and back up; problem is that Ciderfest is at the very end of their operating season (or after it), and of course whether they run or not depends on the weather.
5638093
I kinda do, to be honest. Even though I know I’m wrong, it just feels nineteenth-century to take a ferry rather than a car.
You’re welcome! I didn’t hear about the boat lift until fairly recently; I don’t think it really made much news at the time, although it should have.
5638377
In fairness, they didn't know that at the time.
The hovertrain preceded the TGV, and the early generation shinkansen lines didn't go that fast yet at that point.
5638371
Well, our office wasn't particularly big, as such -- but what made it worthwhile for both the tenants and the food trucks was that the complex was in kind of an awkward location and there was very little in the way of restaurants in the immediate vicinity. The only eateries within a couple of miles was a barbecue-and-smokehouse place (which was good, but pricey, and you can't have that for lunch every day), and a somewhat-dodgy shop tucked into a strip center which seemed to change owners and cuisines with a frequency that did not inspire confidence, to put it mildly. If neither of those appealed to you, then it was a good five miles up the highway to find anything good. So even though it was only a modestly-sized office complex, as such things go, the trucks did land-office business just by virtue of being something we didn't have to spend half our lunch hour just driving there and back.
For something like a BronyCon, whether or not they would have food trucks (or whether the trucks would even want to come out) would probably depend on things like how many other restaurant options are within easy walking distance of the venue, and how the hotel or convention center feels about "outside" food being purchased and consumed on the premises. Some of them can be real sticklers about not wanting any competition for their own on-premises restaurant or snack bar...
5638386
In fairness, they didn't know that at the time.
Okay, fair point.
That’s also a good point . . . and honestly, it wasn’t a terrible idea (aside from noise).
5638391
As long as you could get the business, that would be a decently appealing food truck model. And good for the employees, who can stay closer to work and get a variety of different food during the week. While it’s not food trucks, we get tool trucks . . . currently only Snap-On, since the Matco guy retired (we’re supposed to get a new one next month).
Without actually knowing, I suspect that at Bronycon the lack of nearby parking plus the other options all around made it less desirable for a food truck, if they were even allowed. Whereas at Trotcon, if you don’t want to eat at the hotel restaurant, you’re driving somewhere.
5638381
Huh. But... almost no cars can, uh, cross water? I mean, without a bridge? And a ferry is still going to be better than an amphibious car in most cases most people are likely to encounter, I'd expect?
:)
I am kind of surprised by that; I'd think it'd have been more publicized.
5640275
So am I, to be honest. But I guess sometimes when you do a thing well and when there’s a bunch of other stuff going on, it just kind of passes by without anybody really noticing.
5641562
Aye. Maybe more people will learn about it over time, at least?
5638371
It depends on the kind of traffic they get. Both of the small settlements on the way to town have food trucks. However both are on major highways and seem to be popular with truckers.
5641639
I hope so, it’s a great story.
5642440
I suppose potential traffic would be an important choice of site for a food truck. They do have an advantage that they can park wherever and if that doesn’t work out, try somewhere else the next day.
5642938
There was a food place (I can't call it a food truck as it had no wheels) up the road from where I worked for a while that made the best hot chips I have ever tasted.
Unfortunately mid 2019 was a bad time to start a business. After the first COVID lock down here a lot of the customers never really came back.
5643700
Sorta a food shack?
Your comment got me thinking, since I do plenty of pony on earth and ponies seem to love traditional markets/portable stands, that ponies would really embrace the idea of food trucks, although they’d sell whatever out of them.
Yeah, in hindsight that was not a good time to open a food place. But who could have known?
5644083
Yeah. It didn't help. Although what finally finished the place off was that it was too much work for two people but there wasn't enough revenue to employ a third person to assist. I do miss seeing the little Kei truck they used for deliveries zipping around.
5644115
That’s a tough spot to be in. For a while our auto shop was in the same situation—we had a little too much work for the people we had, but not enough to justify another person on payroll.
Now we can justify another person on payroll, but we can’t find a suitable candidate. So we’re just overworked.
5635316
It is hard to compare the evacuation of New York to Dunkirk because Dunkirk happened under attack.