Well, as many of you know, a handful of TrekUnited peeps were down in Seattle for the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek, almost two weeks ago now. The Space Needle, in my opinion, being the highlight, and ultimatly, the only thing that the convention truly had to offer. Anyway, I'm not here to tell you about the convention. I'm here to tell you about the Space Needle, and it's rarely publicised history.
As many of you will be aware, Seattle, and indeed the Washington state, is surrounded by mountains. Mount Rainier being the name most will first think of. What many people don't know is that the city of Seattle is actually built on an inactive volcano, and indeed, those who built the city were unaware of this at it's founding.
In the early 1950's, seismic activity was becoming the big concern for the area, although only amongst scientists and politicians, as to not cause any kind of panic. By 1954, it was realised that a volcano actually lie underneath the city, and that until just recently, it had led dorment. By 1956 it was realised that the Civic Auditorium site north of Downtown Seattle at the foot of Queen Anne Hill was the place of most concern, as the main activity from "Wheedle", the name given to the volcano, seemed to originate from this point.
The solution? A hole, 10m deep and 40 m across, would be dug, and filled with concrete. The bottom of this pit would see a 10ft by 10ft room built, which would house a device which would, through some unknown method, control the volcano, and keep it dorment. However, it was decided in late 1956 that no one would ever fund the digging of a giant hole, and then filling it with concrete, without knowing why. The local government were not about to tell the world that a growing city in the western United States of America was on the verge of destruction by an unknown volcano. May 1957 saw the solution to this problem come to light.
A competition was held. Seattle City councilmen decided to hold the next World Fair in Seattle, as a partial cover for this ambitious attempt to hide the truth. The fair was looking for a place to settle, and Seattle seemed like the perfect location, after being compared to London’s highly successful Festival of Britain in 1951. The competition would see the design of a structure, which would sit on the site of the siesmic activity from Wheedle. In 1959, Brendan J. Cysewski sketched the original design for the Space Needle on a placemat. It eventually evolved into what we see today.
In order to keep the actual plan for the giant hole to be dug a secret, 467 cement trucks were used to fill the massive hole in one day. It was the largest concrete pour to ever take place in the western United States. The foundations for the tower weigh almost 6,000 tons, with 250 tons of reinforcing steel. Unintentionally, it turned out that the concrete base weighed the same as the final above ground structure would, causing the Needle's center of gravity to be just 1.5m above ground level. 72, 10m bolts were used to bolt the structure to the foundation. The finished tower took less than a year to complete, and the city was saved.
The volcano was later remembered in a childrens story. In 1974, author Stephen Cosgrove wrote a children's book, called Wheedle on the Needle. It was about a furry creature called a Wheedle who lived on top of the Space Needle and caused its light to flash.
Over the years, the location of the needle changed, and had moved 95m from its original location. Tectonic plates shifted, and the volcano's failed attempt to become active, meant that maps had to be redrawn in June 1987. Maps were redrawn using satellite images, so that the towers movement could be tracked for the future.
Labels: Seattle, Space Needle, TrekUnited Star Trek
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