I randomly found the above pic online and decided to post it here.
It's the view of downtown Seattle as you're coming from the south, driving north, into the city. It looks like it was taken from highway 99. (??) Definitely an old pic - heavens the city has a lot more building than that now.
In the front of the photo, as you're looking straight down the highway, there is a white older tallish building, though it's dwarfed by the tallest building in the photo behind it.
The older tallish building with the sort of pyramid shaped top to the building is the "Smith Tower" built in the early 20th century by a man who made his wealth selling Smith-Corona typewriters. The Smith Tower is Seattle's oldest skyscraper, and is actually on 2nd and Yesler, but due to the perspective of the photo it somehow looks closer to the other buildings than it really is.
The tallest building in the photo is the Columbia Center Building at 5th and Columbia downtown. It is indeed Seattle's tallest buidling, and was built by "Seafirst Bank" back when there was such a bank. For years it was called the SeaFirst Bank Building. It has a Starbucks on the 40th floor which I sometimes pop into for the panoramic views! It's close to where I work. And to this day, it is still Seattle's tallest building.
To the left of the picture is a tallish building with a green round ball shaped top to it. I don't know what that is really called, but if you refer to it as "Ban Roll On building" everyone will know which one you mean!
The tall blue & white building behind the Ban Roll On Building is owned by Washington Mutual Bank and they have built a 2nd building right there in that immediate area. In most very new photos the Ban Roll On Building is almost impossible to see anymore because it has been dwarfed by newer, taller buildings.
One more Seattle photo I randomly found:
That's not the most glamorous photo of Seattle but what it does show is again the Columbia Center Building towering over everything else. In front of that building you see a square, low concrete building that looks like a piece of graph paper turned into architecture. That's a very good shot of the King County Jail! LOL. What a horrible jail! Overcrowded, dirty, old, with barely edible food. Don't ever go there!
LOL
