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| The Century 21 Exposition is better known
as the Seattle World's Fair. The highlights of the fair were
the Space Needle and the Alweg Monorail. The fair opened in
early 1962 and the production model Studebaker Avanti made
its first public appearance in April at the New York Auto
Show. The classic Studebaker Avanti advertisements were published
in Life and other popular periodicals at the same time. The Space Needle became the symbol of
Seattle. The structure is 184 m (605 feet) high and 42 m (138
feet) wide at its widest point and weighs 9,550 tons. It is
built to withstand winds of up to 200 mph (320 km/h) and earthquakes
up to 9.1 magnitude, and has 25 lightning rods on the roof
to withstand lightning strikes. The Space Needle features
an observation deck at 520 feet (159 m), a restaurant, and
a gift shop. From the top one can see the downtown Seattle
skyline, the Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Elliott Bay
and its surrounding islands.The Monorail is an elevated train that
runs one mile along Fifth Avenue from Westlake Center in downtown
to Seattle Center in Lower Queen Anne. It claims to be the
"only fully self-sufficient public transit system" in the
United States, and with a top speed of 50 mph, to also be
the fastest full-sized monorail in the country. It Happened at the World's Fair is a 1963
musical film starring Elvis Presley as a cropdusting pilot.
It was filmed at the site of the Century 21 Exposition. The
Space Needle and Monorail provided backdrops for several scenes. |
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