King County Metro - History

History

The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, or Seattle Metro, was created by a local referendum in 1958 authorized to manage regional wastewater and water quality issues in King County. After two failed attempts to enable it to build a regional rapid transit system, it was authorized to operate a regional bus system in 1972. The bus system was known as Metro and began operations in 1973. Its operations subsumed Seattle Transit, formerly under the purview of the City of Seattle, and the Metropolitan Transit Corporation, a private company serving suburban cities in King County. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle was overseen by a federated board of elected officials in King County. Its representation structure was ruled unconstitutional in 1990. In 1992, after gaining approval by popular vote, the municipality's roles and authorities were assumed by the government of King County. After completion of the downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel project, attention was drawn again to developing a regional rail system. This interest led to the formation of the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, also known as Sound Transit, which holds primary responsibility for planning and building high capacity transit in the counties of King, Pierce and Snohomish, in western Washington state. Metro Transit continues to provide local and regional transit service connections, primarily within its jurisdictional boundaries. Besides its own transit operations, Metro operates ST Express bus and Central Link light rail service for Sound Transit.

Read more about this topic:  King County Metro

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
    —Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)

    “No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    “Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)