That's Gneiss! #126 ~ Kingdoomed from the Start (an historic tale with an implosive end)
Also: A Triscuit mystery and floating jellyfish
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Good [fill in the blank]!
This week I will not be writing about the v*r!s other than to let you know we are well.
I’m sick of it… you’re sick of it.
We’re all sick of it.
So. On to other things.
The other day I stumbled across the fact that it was the 20th anniversary of the implosion of the Kingdome, Seattle’s thin-shelled event stadium that existed as an icon/eyesore from 1976-2000.
I visited the stadium many times over the course of its life - for Seattle Sounders soccer games, home & boat shows, high school marching band competitions… I’ve got a lot of fun memories connected to the Kingdome.
I thought it would be fun to look into the history of the Kingdome for this week’s newsletter.
Oh my! I’ve learned some interesting things and have discovered that the grey behemoth was doomed from the start…
Contrary to what my 11-year old mind may have thought, it didn’t just appear overnight in 1976. In fact, the journey to the finished stadium was long and controversial - pretty much like every other major piece of construction or infrastructure in Seattle history.
Developers and city leaders started talking about a major stadium in 1959, and over the years they floated many ideas and had two unsuccessful bond elections. Some even floated the idea of… a floating stadium!
Another group, made up of Seattle architects and contractors, suggested a floating stadium on Elliott Bay, near Seattle Center, at the base of Harrison Street.
The floating stadium near Seattle Center was the popular favorite, and had been considered in planning the World's Fair.
Kingdome: The Controversial Birth of a Seattle Icon (1959-1976)
(Excuse me for a while as I go ponder the practicalities of a floating stadium.)
In 1968 the citizens of King County voted on a number of bonds as part of the Forward Thrust initiative which proposed a variety of projects aimed at improving life in the Puget Sound area. The bonds for the stadium and an aquarium were among those that passed, while the bond for a major rapid transit system failed. Wonder no more why traffic around Seattle is so bad!
Planners and city leaders deliberated the merits of 110 sites across the county. The top choice was the Seattle Center, but after much controversy they went with the King Street site which was at the bottom of the list of contenders. On November 2, 1972 construction commenced on what would become the Seattle Kingdome.
Troubles continued as the stadium began to take shape.
Tragedy struck in January 1973, only months after construction began. One of the tall rebar towers fell on a workman while the rest toppled like dominoes. The workman was hospitalized. The accident was attributed to a broken turnbuckle.
The drooping supports raised eyebrows, and soon other design issues came to the fore. The contractor, Donald M. Drake, and the County's designers bickered over responsibility for the enormous falseworks. Falseworks such as structural scaffolding are members that support a dome or roof before the actual supports can do the job. The central falsework tower was 250 feet tall and contained 1,140 tons of structural steel, more than an average downtown office building of the period. The question of liability for this mammoth structure was not satisfactorily answered, and on November 22, 1974, Drake stopped work.
—-
Drake continued his strike into December, incensing Spellman. The County Executive terminated Drake's contract on December 10, 1974, for being 300 days behind schedule and for failing at "basic performance."
Kingdome: A Slideshow History of its Site, Design, and Construction
Eventually construction of the mammoth dome was completed, and it opened to great fanfare on March 27, 1976.
Not long after that, I made my first visit on when the Seattle Sounders played against the New York Cosmos, and we all got to see the legendary Brazilian soccer star Pele.
The Kingdome was host to a wide variety of events over the next 24 years - professional sports, trade shows, concerts, rodeos…
Evel Knievel even made a leap there!
I never attended a concert there, but I understand the acoustics were less than ideal.
Somewhat loved but mostly hated, the Kingdome eventually had to go to make room for CenturyLink Field, the modern home to several Seattle sportsball teams.
On March 26, 2000, the Kingdome ceased to be.
Reduced to a pile of concrete rubble in just a few moments.
POOF
Where were you when the Kingdome blew?
Fifteen years later the bill for construction of the Kingdome was finally paid off.
Sources
All of these articles (except Wikipedia) have a snarky streak - fun reading!
The Controversial Birth of a Seattle Icon (1959-1976) - HistoryLink.org
Kingdome: A Slideshow History of its Site, Design, and Construction - HistoryLink.org
Kingdome in Seattle opens to a crowd of 54,000 on March 27, 1976 - HistoryLink.org
Kingdome - Wikipedia
Seattle Kingdome - This Great Game
Sounders, Pele and the huge crowd at the Kingdome - Seattle Times
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tale of the Seattle Kingdome today. I’ve certainly had fun pulling it together for you!
~Anne
Tidbits
What does the ‘Tri” in Triscuit stand for? MYSTERY SOLVED
Eight Things I’ve Learned About Creativity - The Oatmeal
50 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time (according to Rolling Stone, make of that what you will)
P.S., Mushrooms are Extremely Beautiful - the work of Violetta White Delafield (see everything here)
Map of Common Gaelic Placenames - hover over the dots on the map to see the place name and its meaning
Making: the art bug returned! I did some drawings to test out some new art supplies from SketchBox, and made a collage.
Recently eaten: not out! Haha. Lots of great homemade food - lamb ragout, channa dal, and cheese on toast to name a few things
Reading: Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi. Excellent.
Videos of the Week
If you do NOTHING else this week, watch this delightful video. It is not at all what you expect. Groovy dancing alert at ~5:30 mark.
Need a break? Try this, it’s so soothing…
Question of the Week
If you feel like answering the question, hit reply to this email. Answers will be shared in next week’s newsletter - anonymously. Don’t be shy! General public commenting is available too at the end of this post.
Let’s do another activity this week! - ANAGRAMS! Type a favorite book or movie title at the link below and pick a couple of good ones to share. Have fun with it!
Internet Anagram Server/I, Rearrangement Servant
Tip: use the advanced searcher for more than 500 results.
Examples:
Catcher in the Rye
recreate thy chin
Ghostbusters
buttress hogs
bros test hugs
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Last week I asked you to send me the first line of a nearby book and the title. Your task is to see if you can match them!
First Lines
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
There are times in any science when one senses that a transformation to deeper understanding is pressing upward in some as yet poorly articulated form.
Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder.
When I wrote the following account of my experience with rats, I lived in an apartment building on a block filled with other apartment buildings, amidst the approximately eight million people in New York City, and I paid rent to a landlord that I never actually met - though I did meet the superintendent, who was a very nice guy.
The little village of Stanton drowsed contentedly in the spring sunshine.
This book recounts the five-day history of a major American Crisis.
On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.
Anton, the son of the postman Andreas Wanzl, was the oddest child you ever saw.
By all accounts, twelve-year-old G. Oscar Lester III was a lucky boy.
Enveloped in the gaseous film of the atmosphere, half-covered by a skim of water forming the oceans -- the great sphere of the earth spun upon its axis and moved inflexibly in its course around the sun.
Beginnings, it's said, are apt to be shadowy.
Titles
Storm - George R. Stewart
The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth - Joseph Roth
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History - Elizabeth Kolbert
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Rats - Robert Sullivan
The Origins of Order: Self Organization and Selection in Evolution - Stuart A. Kauffman
Love and Loveday - Mrs. Hobart Hampton
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Me & Mr. Cigar - Gibby Haynes
ANSWERS - no cheating! Try to figure it out before looking.
Current Temperature: 52.9 F (11.6 C)
Current Humidity: 60%
Wind (max gust): 14.8 mph
Precipitation: 0.08 in
I want to read whatever book the line #8 came out of :)
There is nothing better than reading a librarian's newsletter - thanks, friend! Learning during this time is good. That was interesting - a lot of memories at the King Dome.