Seattle World's Fair highlighted electric transportation

Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair was awe-inspiring. It previewed developments that would improve our daily lives in the next millennium. While “Century 21” memories have faded, three of its landmarks remain as reminders of the innovations it inspired: The Seattle Center, the Space Needle, and the monorail.

One thing many remember is “The Bubble-ator,” a glass ball-shaped elevator in the coliseum (now Climate Pledge Arena) which gradually climbed to the middle of a contoured map of the Puget Sound region. As the narrator described Seattle in the year 2000, tiny lights lit up showing a monorail netwo...