Each day this week while I’m in Seattle for Railvolution there will be a brief post about some cool transportation-related thing in that city.

Thanks to its unique geography, Washington state has one of the world’s most extensive ferry networks. The largest boats, in Seattle, can carry thousands of passengers and hundreds of cars.

The downtown Seattle ferry terminal is within walking distance of the Pioneer Square subway station, making trips to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton easy.

Seattle ferry terminal.

 Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.
 
 
 

Lots of bridges around the world can be raised to let ships pass under, but not many look like this.

It’s the Slauerhoffbrug, of Leeuwarden, Netherlands, and it’s quite a sight. Here’s a video of it in action.

Slauerhoffbrug, aka the flying bridge of Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Photo by Bert Kaufmann on flickr.

Washington’s growing fleet of water taxis are useful as transportation, but they’re also a fun and unique way to see the city. I used an American River Taxi to travel to a Nationals game a few weeks ago, and photographed the trip for posterity.

ART ferries sailing to the ballpark pick up passengers at Washington Harbor, in Georgetown. Boats pull directly up to the boardwalk, and passengers simply walk straight on.

The ferry.

More pictures after the jump.

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Last year about this time I visited Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. I prepared a slideshow of transportation photos from the three cities to share with coworkers. It’s essentially a tour of rail, bus, and bike infrastructure within each city. Why not share it here too?

Click the image to download a pdf of the slideshow. It’s about 16 Mb. If you just want to see the photos in flickr without commentary, here they are.

Click to download pdf.