#HISTORY THREAD: THE INTERURBAN
> It's all asphalt. I grew up in suburbs like this one, places so ordinary that ghosts don't even live there. Streets so normal, so full of TJ Maxx's and Starbucks, that they play this trick on you like nothing of any real importance could ever have happened there.
- Jon Bois, Rat Poison & Brandy
In the US, you get used to places that feel bereft of history. I found a rare exception in my neighborhood, and I'll cobble together a thread over a few days to share.
Many Americans don't know this, having been inundated all their lives by our highway culture and the cult of the private automobile, but getting around nearly everywhere in the US was cheaper, cleaner, safer, more accessible, and in many cases faster a century ago than it is today.
That's true where I live: Hourly service on an light electric railway existed between #Seattle and #Tacoma by 1902, with the line extending to Everett by 1912.