Union Station (Seattle)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Union Station is a train station built in Seattle, Washington, USA from 1910 to 1911 to serve the Union Pacific Railway and the Milwaukee Road. It was originally named Oregon and Washington Station after a subsidiary line of the Union Pacific. Located at the corner of S. Jackson Street and 4th Avenue S. in the Pioneer Square neighborhood, the station opened on May 20, 1911. The Milwaukee Road discontinued passenger service to Union Station 50 years later, on May 22, 1961, and the Union Pacific followed suit on April 30, 1971. Having sat empty for many years, the station was renovated in the late 1990s by Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. It now serves as the headquarters of Sound Transit; its grand hall is rented out to public for weddings and other events.

In Seattle, the term Union Station refers not only to the main station building, but also to the several adjacent office buildings (505 5th Avenue South; 605 5th Avenue South ("US1"); 705 5th Avenue South ("US2")), whose tenants include Amazon.com.

The remaining train service to Seattle (Amtrak long-distance trains and Sounder commuter trains) serves King Street Station a block to the west from Union Station.