Fri, 19:50: Birth Week Hidden Gem(s) #10: Downtown Seattle hidden passageways!
Itinerary derived from a Seattle Times article published pre-pandemic (2018), so I wasn’t sure if they would all still be accessible. I just knew we needed to explore during business hours as many of them have historically only been accessible then.
Danielle actually sent me the article as a day activity idea a few years back. We finally got around to it today:
10a. Tunnel from Goat Hill Garage to Chinook Building.
10b. Tunnel from Columbia Center to 800 5th Ave, with an offshoot also to the Seattle Municipal Tower—where we tried to joyride the elevator to the 40th floor elevator transfer area, which I once accessed when I had a dentist in that building, only to be told that today floors 40-62 are currently vacant(!) and thus not currently open to the public.
10c. Tunnel that stretches four blocks(!) from Rainier Square to the Convention Center, this one being one I have long been very familiar with—and I was unsure if it would even be currently accessible due to the recent, massive construction at Rainier Square. But, it was! Parts of it were blocked off, but we were still able to go from 5th Avenue to 7th Avenue in the tunnel. The only disappointment was that the stretch of hallway once adorned with fantastic historical photos of Seattle now has bare walls.
10d. Skywalk from Pacific Place to Nordstrom—I had thought this would be the most accessible stretch, with shopping open well past office hours. But! The “secret passageway” stretch here included a basement doorway from Nordstrom into the Downtown Transit Tunnel through which you could get across the street to Westlake Center, and those doors are now closed off. So, that particular four-block “secret passageway” is now down to two blocks.
I still had a blast exploring it all! https://t.co/5iEbqfDgAq
