Seattle | Then & Now

November 19, 2002 9:38 AM

Seattle - Then & Now It's wider than you think. It's an old image atop a modern one of the Seattle "coastline." Javascript enables one to reveal the new image. Wow.
posted by folktrash (37 comments total)

Curses, folktrash! Just when I'd gotten over visiting and enjoying the Emerald City at the end of September, you go and post something like this!

*shakes fists in impotent fury; is consumed by longing*
posted by allaboutgeorge at 9:49 AM on November 19, 2002

Recently linked in a front page post here, but not prominently enough.
posted by luser at 9:50 AM on November 19, 2002

That is ten kinds of cool. Thanks, folktrash.

*wanders off to play with slider*
posted by frykitty at 9:50 AM on November 19, 2002

Alan does some sweet stuff, don't he?
posted by machaus at 9:52 AM on November 19, 2002

sorry about the double
posted by folktrash at 9:56 AM on November 19, 2002

Doesn't seem like a double to me. Remarkably similar concepts though, looks like kokogiak got the idea from that thread maybe?
posted by Stan Chin at 9:59 AM on November 19, 2002

No, it's not a double, just pointing out the thread for others that like this. And kokogiak's brilliant Seattle pix have been around way longer than that thread.
posted by luser at 10:01 AM on November 19, 2002

I actually built the Seattle Viewer almost a year ago, and just posted it a few months ago. I hadn't seen the other collages (which are amazingly cool) before the thread by luser. Of course, after seeing those collages, I thought about going back and tweaking my images to blend the two eras together. I just might do that at some point.

(Side note - I'm constantly amazed at the way 'net memes like this bloom, grow, and build. Last week was one of my highest traffic days ever, largely due to this months-old Seattle Waterfront project being mailed from person-to-person)
posted by kokogiak at 10:07 AM on November 19, 2002

So to share the person-to-person chain for me... I received this from my friend Tom at work, he from his wife Flora, and her from a coworker David.

Isn't this internet thing cool?
posted by folktrash at 10:15 AM on November 19, 2002

Hey, I can see my old apartment house and my new one, too! Well, almost...

And here is what we get to see looking west. When it's not raining, that is...
posted by y2karl at 10:16 AM on November 19, 2002

I live in the same city as y2karl? omg - will blessings never cease.
posted by folktrash at 10:54 AM on November 19, 2002

I liked this so much, I googled for more and came across this one of Montana mining sites (the presentation is a bit more basic). They have a nice ghost town feel to them.
posted by snez at 11:53 AM on November 19, 2002

Wait, I live in the same city as y2karl? Now I can wreak unholy vengeance upon him for all of those ridiculously long posts to the front page!

kokogiak: I found it rather surreal, receiving a link to a fellow MetaFilter member's site from one of my Net-clueless co-workers. I had to restrain myself from saying, "Hey, I know that guy from the community weblog I spend my time reading while...at work...and...uhh..."
posted by Danelope at 12:53 PM on November 19, 2002

Danelope - I can totally understand. I feel like such a dork whenever I try to tell my wife something like "so I saw this interesting thing that stavrosthewonderchicken (I guy I know from MetaFilter) did the other day".

And yes, I think it's weird when even I got sent email from a somewhat net-clueless former boss of mine the other day saying "Here's a neat Historical Seattle photo." I thanked him for forwarding it to me.
posted by kokogiak at 1:08 PM on November 19, 2002

Isn't it deceptive to have the "after" photograph in color? Seems like the equivalent of telling the model to "smile this time"!
posted by dhartung at 1:44 PM on November 19, 2002

That was freaking cool. I always wondered what the city looked like before the regrade!

Thanks!

PS-I live in the same town as y2karl, Danelope, kokogiak and folktrash!!
posted by black8 at 2:37 PM on November 19, 2002

seattle mefi meeting? omg, i'm SO totally like a geek and stuff. go ahead, someone metatalk this.... i triple dog dare you.
posted by folktrash at 2:40 PM on November 19, 2002

Deceptive? Hmm. I'll say 'no', since I'm just presenting data without any prejudgement. It could be in B&W, but I think the difference is more striking as-is.

I did ask all Seattle denizens to smile before I took the 'after' photo though. I think most did.
posted by kokogiak at 2:40 PM on November 19, 2002

*crawls away sad, as the fact that it was mentioned too late, and the thread has crossed over, bubbles to the surface*
posted by folktrash at 3:23 PM on November 19, 2002

And now it looks as though there's going to be a monorail that stretches that entire way up and down that very waterfront! This just in, "Monorail Wins"!!!!!!

That 2002 picture, BTW, is soooo 2000. No Seahawks Stadium.

Oh. And those who may still be interested in Seattle history you've gotta check out the super-cool historylink.org.
posted by crasspastor at 3:37 PM on November 19, 2002

that's a very interesting looking reasource (historylinkorg) but why do some sites continue to be built using frames, rendering them unlinkable?

why damnit?!
posted by folktrash at 3:44 PM on November 19, 2002

Okay - it was late 2001, but who's really counting ;)
posted by kokogiak at 3:44 PM on November 19, 2002

this is cool, it's just us reading this thread now. tee hee.

i'm so glad the monorail passed... for the first time i didn't vote, and it was down by three FREAKIN votes!

i was totally almost pooping my pants.

but then i could have made it into art, so, i got that going for me. which is nice.
posted by folktrash at 3:48 PM on November 19, 2002

A lot of days I just sort of walk to and from my destinations and even then spend most of the day indoors. So it takes me completely by surprise on those all-too-rare occasions when I look around and see how absolutely gorgeous this city is. Even when it's raining. All part of the charm.
posted by Hildago at 4:09 PM on November 19, 2002

Yay, Seattle is growing up into a real big city. You're just an overgrown small town until you get a rapid transit system, after all...

I saw this link a week or two ago, kokogiak; my wife found it on a Seattle-related discussion board.
posted by Mars Saxman at 4:47 PM on November 19, 2002

Lookit all these Seattle Mefers, dang... we really should all get out more...
posted by folktrash at 4:49 PM on November 19, 2002

"you may have to scroll to the right to see the whole thing"
kokogiak dude how big is your freaking monitor???

Just kidding
posted by fullerine at 4:55 PM on November 19, 2002

Holy cow...the "after" picture, as it was slowly revealed, was awe-inspiring...ain't technology & progress grand?
posted by davidmsc at 5:13 PM on November 19, 2002

Notice the whole big horizon of trees behind the space needle that are gone, but also that Beacon Hill looks a lot prettier and greener. Can't believe I'm still playing with this!
posted by Hildago at 5:31 PM on November 19, 2002

Hildago, I think those missing trees behind the Space Needle are a little exaggerated - my focal length wasn't nearly as good as the original, so some of the more distant pieces got a little skewed. I still think there's a difference, aybe just not as pronounced as this appears. (You can see it a little to the far right too, just above the SoDo region).
posted by kokogiak at 5:41 PM on November 19, 2002

Just wanted to say thanks for this cool piece of interactive art. I couldn't stop looking at it. It's like some mutated chia pet species. I keep wanting to mow Seattle.
posted by onlyconnect at 6:25 PM on November 19, 2002

rendering them unlinkable?

One way to get around that is through the right mouse button menu. For IE you just go over the frame, click and chose properties. You can copy the URL from the popup dialogue box. For Mozilla you can just right click to "show this frame only." It breaks up the site, but you can at least link to certain pages.

I lived in Seattle for a year and enjoyed my brief stay. I even had a view of Ranier from the balcony (which they shortened to a near useless degree after some city ordinance was passed) of my apartment. I used to walk along the waterfront all the time. It's a great city to explore by foot. A good workout too.

This makes me miss the place even more.
posted by john at 8:47 PM on November 19, 2002

Well, you've been gone long enough to misspell Mt. Rainier--snark, snark, snark
posted by y2karl at 9:08 AM on November 20, 2002

said folktrash: "seattle mefi meeting? omg, i'm SO totally like a geek and stuff. go ahead, someone metatalk this.... i triple dog dare you."

It's already happening: http://metafilter.meetup.com/, it seems. I do attend the blog.meetups but haven't done the mefi ones. And I have no idea why it's called Jack In The Box Devotees. Jerry Kindall, do you know?
posted by anitar at 10:54 AM on November 20, 2002

I am a notorious misspelling fool.

I did attend one Seattle Mefimeetup. Perhaps the first? I think it was at the Speakeasy Cafe before they had the fire.
posted by john at 12:41 PM on November 20, 2002

Great links and great photos!

kokogiak, the slider is cool! May I ask where you got the old photo from?

I am fascinated by such old photos (e.g. lileks' Minneapolis and Fargo are fantastic) and wonder what is the best way to get these old photos.
posted by mumbaiyaa at 1:55 PM on November 20, 2002

I got the old panorama from the Library of Congress' wonderful "Taking the Long View" American Historical Panorama exhibition. The original 1907 Seattle photo was here (you can see I cleaned it up a bit). Dig around - there are hundreds of cool panoramas there.
posted by kokogiak at 2:13 PM on November 20, 2002