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[Train announcement]
Two Line to International District
Station now arriving.

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(train bell chimes)

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-It is really an incredible
feat of engineering.

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This is the first time

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that anyone has built light
rail on a floating bridge

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in the world.

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♪♪

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We are headed across the East
Channel Bridge

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from Bellevue to Mercer
Island.

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[Train announcement]
Two Line to International District
Station now arriving.

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Please stand behind the yellow line.

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-We are pulling into the Mercer
Island Station,

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which is just to

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the north of the Mercer Island
town center,

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adjacent to Interstate 90.

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There are entrances at both
the east and west

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ends of the station.

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It is a short
walk to both the Mercer Island

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Park and Ride
and the bus bays there.

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Next, we are headed west
into the city of Seattle

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to the first

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2 line station in the city
of Seattle at Judkins Park.

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Lake Washington
is very deep, 200ft deep,

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which is why
we have a floating bridge.

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The Judkins Park station
has an eastern entrance on 23rd

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Avenue and the west entrance
on Rainier Avenue South.

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Well, if we

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rolled back about 50 years, 
the Homer M. Hadley Bridge,

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when it was designed
and built,

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it really was visionary.

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Those folks considered
a future where high

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capacity transit would use
that portion of the bridge.

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The design, essentially,
is taking that force

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that comes
with the movement of a bridge

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and deflecting it
from a single point,

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spreading it out over as long
a point as possible.

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♪♪

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We partnered with
the University of Washington.

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We partnered
with a local engineering firm

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to create prototypes,

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a series of large
square bearings that sit flat

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and the bearing on top
is able to move.

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We shipped them down
to Pueblo, Colorado.

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We hooked up 10,000
different testing inputs,

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and we ran those trains
for weeks.

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So we then brought it
back up to Seattle.

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We installed it on the bridge

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and again
undertook months of testing.

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And we are now running
light rail

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on a floating bridge for
the first time in the world.

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The ride quality

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across the

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bridge is,

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the same as what
you would experience

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throughout the system

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but the views are better.

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It is going to truly be
transformational.

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Just giving people
more options

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is giving them
more freedom to

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connect around the region
with opportunity.

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And that's what, you know,
really, really motivates us

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and keeps
us going at South Transit.