MyNorthwest

News

Opinion

Sports

Tools

Connect

Latest Local and Pacific Northwest News

Local News

This 1949 road map shows the route of Highway 99 through Seattle, on surface streets including Fourth Avenue and Westlake Avenue, before the Alaskan Way Viaduct was built.

This old "US 99" highway sign is still in use in downtown Seattle at First and Columbia. It's well over 50 years old.

In 1951, Highway 99 through Washington was designated a Blue Star Memorial Highway as part of national movement by garden clubs to honor World War II vets. This sign is just north of the Woodland Park Zoo.

This 1920 road map shows a very different layout of north-south thoroughfares in Seattle. There is no Aurora Bridge, no Highway 99 and no Interstate 5.

This plaque, dedicated in 1947, marks the spot along East Marginal Way South north of Stacy Street where Seattleite John McLean invented the automobile service station in 1907.

The monument to Seattle's role in inventing the service station is in the shadow of what's now Starbucks headquarters.

Roadside artifacts whisper of Seattle’s phantom highways