Seattle’s hourglass shape and steep hills challenged land transportation from the very beginning. By the 1920s, with continuing population growth and the popularity of automobile transportation, traffic congestion had increased drastically. Concurrently, the city’s street railway system was losing money.

In 1925, the Rapid Transit Committee of the Seattle City Planning Commission put together an extensive report, proposing that a well-planned rapid transit system was the best way to deal with this issue into the future. The report includes information on transit in other cities; details on Seattle’s street railway problems; operational costs for a new system; and six pages of maps and drawings. The recommendations, estimated to cost $4 million, were widely discussed but never carried out.