On Monday night just before midnight the very train in the world to traverse a floating bridge rolled slowly out of the Mercer Island tunnel and down towards history. The single train car was loaded with onboard staff, monitoring equipment, and two operators – one for each direction – when it trundled past a few observers, including me! So what was it like to up close for the test?
The first thing you noticed pulling into the pre-test meeting location – the Mercer Island Park and Ride – was that every single person was excited. There was electricity in the air, and as the crowd of safety orange continued to grow, that excitement continued to mount. Things began to feel even more real when we all signed into the station, which itself is absolutely stunning.
A freeway median station is something that’s generally pretty functional, but this station is beautiful: ferns and other greenery line the tracks and the walls are covered in vines. The living walls and floor give the whole station a secret garden feel, especially late in the evening when the traffic on the road is relatively light.
Adding to the drama was the specific entrance we used, which was all the way down the platform from the evening’s star of the show: LRV 219, lit up against the night with test train on all screens, which got more and more exciting as we got closer to it.
After multiple safety briefings, it was time to meet the crew and get ready to roll. Link trains are double ended, so while the westbound operator did the pre-trip checks I spoke with Yann, who would be operating the train back in the eastbound direction. In what is an absolutely incredible coincidence, it turns out back in 1990 he was also one of the first people to drive a bus through the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.
From there, it was onto the approach ramp, where after only a few short minutes we got work that the train was on the move, and seconds later it was there! Compared to the sound of passing traffic, the whoosh of the train was almost completely silent, and we watched transfixed as it descended down the approach and slowed to make the first trip over the flexible track bridges that connect trains from fixed to floating bridges.
Then we went back to work! Some of the observers moved to different locations and I joined our photographers racing down the walking/biking trail on the side of I-90 to set up for the next pass, before eventually relocating across to the I-90 overlook to check in with the watch party that had gathered to witness the train take its first few laps.
Rail transit across Lake Washington was first presented to voters in 1968 and has been studied and hoped for and planned for for over half a century – and now it’s almost here! What a privilege to have seen that first test up close.
Henry Bendon 