End of the Line by Ilan Averbuch represents the golden spike at the end of the railroad tracks and indeed the South Tacoma Station at South 54th and Washington Streets was the end of the Sounder line for a while. The artwork stands 6′ tall. While I was there, the Sounder came by, so I took that photo too 🙂
I’ve been past Union Station at 401 South Jackson Street, Seattle, many a time, but today I actually went inside. It was lovely and reminded me of large stations in Philadelphia and New York City. Constructed in 1911 as a train station, it looks much the same today. The property ceased being a train station in 1971, was placed on the Historic Register in 1974 and was renovated in the late 1990s. The hall can be rented out for events.
One of the workers saw me snapping some photos and said that she loved working in such a beautiful building. Of course to off set that nice moment, some guy asked me for $0.50 to make a phone call!
When we first moved to Tacoma over 20 years ago I remember visiting the Camp 6 Logging Exhibit in Point Defiance Park. Then, as in now, I love that this little slice of history had been preserved. Since that first time, I’ve gone back a couple of times a year, often seeing deer and once a fox. Once we took my young daughter on the Santa Train, which basically went into the forest a ways and then out again with, of course, Santa. It is an interesting, peaceful place. So it saddened me to learn that the exhibit might not reopen from its winter hiatus this year.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_logging_museum.html
The Camp 6 Logging Camp’s website states “Our mission is to preserve and present to the public a portion of Washington State’s history from the 1880’s through the 1940’s as it pertains to the “Steam Era of Logging”. With photographs, paintings, artifacts and equipment displays, Camp 6 takes the visitor back in time from when horse and ox teams hauled out the timber up through the last days that steam powered “Donkeys” and Railroads worked the woods. Visitors will see first hand what life in the logging camps and woods of Western Washington was like.”
Update 5/9/2011http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/09/1658977/point-defiance-parks-camp-6-closed.html Looks like they are closing for good. It’s a shame.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/09/1658977/point-defiance-parks-camp-6-closed.html