The City of Seattle and Sound Transit hosted a groundbreaking event on Monday to mark the beginning of construction for the much-awaited First Hill Streetcar. The event took place at the site of a future streetcar station that will serve Seattle University, Swedish Medical Center and the growing First Hill residential neighborhood. Mayor Mike McGinn was joined by Congressman Jim McDermott, State Senator Ed Murray, King County Executive Dow Constantine, King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, City Council members Tom Rasmussen and Sally Clark, former Mayor Greg Nickels and former Councilmember Jan Drago during the ceremonial turning of dirt.
Seattle University President, the Reverend Steven Sundborg, and Swedish Medical Center Vice President Dan Dixon, also addressed the crowd and participated in the ceremony.
As an important link in the regional transit system, the First Hill Streetcar Line will connect the diverse and vibrant residential neighborhoods and business districts of Capitol Hill, First Hill, Yesler Terrace, Central Area, Chinatown ID and Pioneer Square, while also serving major medical centers (Harborview, Swedish, and Virginia Mason), institutions of higher learning (Seattle Central Community College and Seattle University) and major sporting event venues (CenturyLink and Safeco Field).
See what the Washington Bus Blog had to say about the groundbreaking here.
Streetcar operations will begin in Spring 2014.
Learn more about the First Hill Streetcar by visiting the project website at http://www.seattlestreetcar.org.
