The first line of the now infamous Seattle Monorail Project [1] would have provided a downtown to Ballard link as well as downtown to West Seattle.<p>The final project proposal was clearly not workable, but instead of revamping the project, the city chose not just to pull the plug, but to (in my own humble opinion) drive a stake through its heart.  I suspect that this might have been at least partly because the city leaders only had enough political capital for one major transportation project and at that time there was a desperate need for the SR99 viaduct replacement [2].  The latter is of course where we&#x27;re having all the trouble with the tunnel boring machine.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Seattle_Monorail_Project" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Seattle_Monorail_Project</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Alaskan_Way_Viaduct_replacement_tunnel" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Alaskan_Way_Viaduct_replacemen...</a>