Get Me to the Fair!

Getting the 4,000,000 visitors to the A-Y-P site on the UW campus from downtown Seattle may have been one of the city’s greatest challenges. With about 2,000 automobiles registered in the state in 1909 and with horses and carriages the conveyors of the rich, public transportation was the way to go to the fair.

According to the Seattle Times of June 6, 1909, there were three easy ways to get to the exposition: cable cars, trolley cars and boats.

Separate cable cars lines ran on Madison Street, James Street and Yesler Way from downtown to Lake Washington. The Yesler Way line dated from September 28, 1887, while both the Madison and James Street lines date from the 1890’s.

At the lake, visitors to the AYP took boats of the Anderson Steamship Company to the landing just east of where Hec Ed stands today. 

This advertisement on the last page of the program for Taft Day, September 30, 1909, has all the details for getting to and from the grounds by steamer. A neat wooden bridge got you over the Northern Pacific train tracks (now the path of the Burke-Gilman Trail) up to the grounds. 

The trolley cars were another good way to get from downtown to the fair. Powered by overhead electricity lines, the trolleys were owned by Stone & Webster, a national utility holding company based in Boston. Its local affiliate known as the Seattle Electric Railway company won a 40-year city franchise in 1900, and that firm built the lines to the A-Y-P. Stone & Webster* owned many streetcar companies across U.S.A. Out-of-town ownership of Seattle’s trolley lines meant more money for new routes and conformity with national patterns of development even in the far west. Before the A-Y-P, lines were generally laid out to encourage the sale of real estate owned by the car companies along the routes.

According to the June 6 Times, three trolley lines could get you to the A-Y-P. One ran from the Union Depot on Third Avenue where you could board the Wallingford Avenue and Eastlake Avenue cars directly to the Expositions grounds.

Another Seattle Electric Company car line ran from Occidental Avenue and Yesler Way along Twenty-Third Avenue. The third street car ran from Madrona Park on the Madrona Park line.

Finally, the Times reported that the Electric Transportation Company operated automobile and boat service via Lake Union.

*Stone & Webster also invested in development of electric interurban lines linking Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett. These holdings were ultimately consolidated in the Puget Sound Power, Light & Traction Company, forerunner of Puget Power.