Around Seattle: Seattle Monorail

Take a trip back to the future on the Seattle Monorail. Built to provide riders with a majestic and futuristic entry into the Century 21 Exposition, also known as the 1962 World’s Fair, this railway moves passengers on a speedy track between Seattle Center and downtown. Riding public transit can feel like a chore, but the Seattle Monorail makes it fun with its space-age design and unforgettable views. The elevated track weaves through skyscrapers, providing a unique close-up look at the city’s architecture. The highlight of the route is riding through MoPOP, the Museum of Pop Culture, formerly known as the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, via an iridescent tunnel designed by Frank Gehry. Cosplay shoot location, anyone?

The Seattle monorail's blue train, white and silver with blue highlights, emerges on its elevated track from the blue and gold organic curves of the Museum of Pop Culture under a blue summer sky with wispy white clouds.
Photo © Megan Ching, Seattle Monorail Services

The Monorail travels between two stations, one at Westlake Center, a downtown shopping mall located a six-minute walk from the convention center where we are hosting the Worldcon, and the other at Seattle Center, the 74-acre home of the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Chihuly Garden and Glass museum, and many more rich and picturesque locations that now populate the old Century 21 Exposition fairgrounds. With the Seattle Monorail, one can experience past, present, and future in one harmonious trip.

The Seattle monorail's blue train passing through the Museum of Pop Culture, a bright blue flat wall to the right reflecting the wavy, organically curved shiny gold overhanging wall to the left, with Seattle skyscrapers visible in the distance.
Photo © Megan Ching, Seattle Monorail Services