The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is a public transit tunnel for buses and light rail trains in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It runs north–south through Downtown Seattle, connecting five stations on 3rd Avenue and Pine Street. It is the busiest section of Sound Transit's Link light rail network, with an average of over 10,000 weekday train boardings at the four stations served by light rail. The $469 million tunnel was planned in the late 1970s and built between 1987 and 1990, using tunnel boring machines and cut-and-cover excavation. Between 1990 and 2004, the tunnel was exclusively used by dual-mode buses that ran on overhead wires; they were later replaced with hybrid electric buses using batteries within the tunnel. After a two-year renovation, the tunnel reopened on September 24, 2007, and light rail service began in July 2009, sharing the platforms with existing buses. Planned expansion of the light rail system, along with the closure of one station, will necessitate the removal of buses from the tunnel by 2019.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Seattle_Transit_Tunnel

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1645:

English Civil War: Royalists under the personal command of King Charles I suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of Rowton Heath. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rowton_Heath

1841:

The Sultan of Brunei granted Sarawak to British adventurer James Brooke. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sarawak

1957:

Barcelona's Camp Nou, currently the largest stadium in Europe with a seating capacity of 99,354, opened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Nou

1992:

Oba Chandler was arrested three years after he committed a triple murder in Tampa Bay, Florida, U.S., when his neighbor identified handwriting samples that police had placed on local billboards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oba_Chandler

2007:

During the Saffron Revolution in Myanmar, the largest anti- government protests in 20 years took place in Yangon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffron_Revolution

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

rainbows and unicorns: (idiomatic) A wonderful (but often unrealistic) scenario. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rainbows_and_unicorns

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.   --Horace Walpole https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Horace_Walpole