Space Shuttle thermal protection system
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle "Columbia" was destroyed on reentry due to a failure of the TPS. The investigation team found and reported that the probable cause of the accident was that during launch, a piece of foam debris punctured an RCC panel on the left wing's leading edge and allowed hot gases from the reentry to enter the wing and disintegrate the wing from within, leading to eventual loss of control and breakup of the shuttle.
Columbia City station
Columbia City was established in 1891 as a streetcar suburb by J. K. Edmiston, the owner of the Rainier Avenue Electric Railway. Edmiston had built the line and a lumber mill on the site of old-growth forests to aid in the rebuilding of Downtown Seattle after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The site was later named "Columbia" and plotted for homes, and incorporated in 1893 as "Columbia City". The city was annexed by the city of Seattle in 1907 after Edmiston sold the railway and left the fledgling town, who felt their tax base was too small to support the area's growth. The Rainier Avenue line would cease operations on January 1, 1937, in order to pave Rainier Avenue; service was replaced by motor buses, after an unsuccessful attempt to extend the Seattle Municipal Street Railway to the area.