Madison Street: Seattle's Only Street From Salt Water to Fresh

Madison Street 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. It starts at Alaskan Way on the 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 the lake. From Broadway to the lake, which is most of its length, it is East Madison Street. [1]

Along the way it passes the Seattle Central Library and hotels including the Sorrento, and for most of the run from Broadway to 12th Avenue it forms the northern boundary of the Seattle University campus. [1]

From 1890 to 1940, cable cars ran on all or part of it. The Madison Street Cable Railway built and operated the line, and its original powerhouse, which drove the cables running under the street, stood between 21st and 22nd avenues. The service ran as two lines, west from the powerhouse to downtown and east to Madison Park, and together they covered the whole street. The western line opened in spring 1890 and ended downtown at a turntable on West Street, now Western Avenue, near the ferry terminal on Puget Sound. The eastern line, to a terminus called 'Lake Washington and Madison Park,' opened in June 1891. [1]

The lake end went first. In 1910 the line east from 21st Avenue closed and electric streetcars replaced it. A new powerhouse was built near 10th Avenue, the downtown line was cut back to there in 1911, and the section between 10th and 14th was restored in 1913. That left a 1.2-mile line from the waterfront to 14th Avenue that could not be converted to streetcars, because some of its grades were too steep for them. It ran for the last time on April 13, 1940. A former cable car house on the south side of Madison near 10th Avenue later became Seattle University's Fine Arts Building. [1]

Electric streetcar service on East Madison, route 11, ended on January 10, 1940. Motor buses filled in until April 30, 1940, when trolleybuses began running on route 11, and the Seattle trolleybus system has served Madison Street ever since, mainly on routes 11 and 13. Route 11 was converted to diesel buses in 1965, and route 13 was renumbered 12 in 1984. Today King County Metro's route 11 serves Madison east of 16th Avenue East, trolleybus route 12 runs from downtown to 19th Avenue East, and the RapidRide G Line runs along Madison between the waterfront and 27th Avenue. [1]