Madison Street (Seattle)

Madison Street is the central road running northeast through First Hill.

Madison Street is a major thoroughfare of Seattle, Washington. The street originates at Alaskan Way on the Seattle waterfront, and heads northeast through Downtown Seattle, First Hill, Capitol Hill, Madison Valley, Washington Park, and Madison Park, ending just east of 43rd Avenue East on Lake Washington. From Broadway to Lake Washington, the street is known as East Madison Street, which accounts for most of its length. It is the only Seattle street that runs uninterrupted from the salt water of Puget Sound in the west to the fresh water of Lake Washington in the east.^[1]

Madison street on a 1915 cover

Many notable buildings are located along the street, including the Seattle Central Library and numerous hotels such as the Sorrento Hotel. For most of the run from Broadway to 12th Avenue, it forms the northern boundary of the Seattle University campus.

The Seattle Department of Transportation is studying the implementation of a bus rapid transit route along Madison Street between the waterfront and 23rd Avenue.^[2]

Madison Cable Car

Former cable car house on the south side of Madison near 10th Avenue on Capitol Hill, later the Fine Arts Building of Seattle University.

In 1891, a cable car was opened that connected the ferry terminal on Puget Sound to Madison Park on Lake Washington that ran the entire length of Madison Street. The cable car ran for nearly 50 years (although not always terminating at Madison Park) but was replaced with buses in 1940.

References

External links

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