A Monorail on a 'Bicycle System': The 1892 Plan to Ride One Rail from Seattle to Tacoma
A company promised a thirty-mile elevated railway — cars balanced on a single steel rail, steadied by rubber wheels on an overhead guide — running across the tide flats and reaching Tacoma in forty minutes.
Arrangements are being completed for the purpose of building a rapid transit road between Seattle and Tacoma, to be completed in one year. The right-of-way has been located through the country and the route finally adopted. The road will run on an elevated track, kept on a level on the tide flat, and run due southward. There are two routes that may be adopted for a few miles — both are similar, and cross Kellogg's Island and the river, one running up the east bank and crossing at the first bend, the other across the island and along the west bank.
By the route to be taken, the road will ascend to the summit of the ridge between the river and the Sound, and run along it in almost a straight line through Sunnyvale valley, about a mile east of Des Moines and past Steele's lake. It will descend from the heights to the Puyallup reservation near the Indian school, cross the Northern Pacific road on a high bridge near the Indian mission, and then run west into Tacoma. The total length of the road will be between twenty-nine and thirty miles, and the maximum grade will be slight, while along the ridge it will be dead level almost the whole distance.
There will be two tracks, each of a single line of steel rails. A timber will be laid on the ground across the width of both tracks at intervals of twenty feet, and across these, lengthwise of the track, 10x12 inch stringers will be laid, to which the rails will be spiked. To each end of the ties will be bolted upright timbers eighteen feet high, with 4x6 inch braces. These uprights will be connected overhead by a cap, which will support a 4x6 inch wooden guide rail, directly above each line of rails. The cars will run on wheels under their center on the single line of rails and, when running on straight track, will be held upright by their own impetus. When rounding curves, however, the cars will be held upright by two rubber wheels affixed to their roofs and running one on each side of the guide-rail, while a third rubber wheel will revolve against the under side of this rail, pressing against it and keeping it in position. It is intended in the course of a few years to replace the timbers with a steel superstructure. Steam power will be used, but ultimately electricity will be the motive power.
It is intended to run at least ten passenger trains each way every day, and probably the number will be increased to twenty. Local trains will make the trip between the two cities in an hour to begin with. These trains will not run right through, but a train will start simultaneously from each end of the road. The two will meet midway, transfer their through passengers and return. Fast trains will run right through without stopping and make the trip in forty minutes.
Another road on the bicycle system is being built from Chicago to Aurora, Ill., a distance of twenty-three miles.
“The cars will run on wheels under their center on the single line of rails and, when running on straight track, will be held upright by their own impetus.”
In 1892 boosters promised a forty-minute trip between Seattle and Tacoma on an elevated single-rail line steadied by rubber wheels; the single-rail 'bicycle system' was never built, but the drive to shrink the distance between the two cities endures. Sound Transit's Link light rail, a century later, is only now completing the connection the promoters swore would be done in a single summer.
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