World's Fairs used to be truly fantastic events and none were more notable than the 1962 event held in Seattle. High speed "air cars," schools of the future with "electronic storehouses of knowledge," and climate controlled "farm factories" were all part of exhibits that emphasized we were about to enter a technology-filled world where our biggest concerns would be how to make the best use of all the leisure time we would have. Fifty-five years later there are still a couple of iconic elements of the fair that people still associate with the city: the space needle and the monorail.
Built at a cost of $3.5 million, the trains provided an important link between the fairgrounds and downtown. More than 8 million passengers rode the monorail during the six months of the fair providing the builders with a decent profit. Still in operation today, the Monorail carries about two million passengers a year and continues to be one of the few fully self-sufficient public rail transit systems in the U.S.