Food & Drink
Seattle Center by the Numbers
A few fun (and somewhat random) statistics related our city's core cultural campus.
By Seattle Magazine Staff January 12, 2012
This article originally appeared in the February 2012 issue of Seattle magazine.
1,000,000: number of dollars the City of Fife offered Seattle to move the Space Needle to its downtown
600,000: number of dollars the City of Seattle paid for the monorail in 1965
500,000: total number of Belgian waffles sold during the six months of the fair. Stacked, they would have been higher than 70 Space Needles.
1,000: number of dollars Des Moines resident Gene Achziger paid for the Bubbleator in 1984. It now sits in his front yard as a green house.
848: number of stairs from the basement of the Space Needle to the top of the Observation Deck
160: number of colors of Venetian glass used in making in the Horiuchi mural at the center’s amphitheater
120: number of feet into the air water is blasted out of the “Super Shooter” nozzles of the International Fountain
110: number of feet into the air the five arches rise above the reflecting pools at the Pacific Science Center
43: number of seconds it takes to get to the top of the Space Needle, going at the elevator’s top speed of 10 miles an hour
30: number of different organizations, festivals, theaters, schools and museums that now call the Seattle Center home
6: number of parachute jumps from atop the Needle (only four were authorized)
1: number of inches the Space Needle expands on a hot day. Also the number of inches the Space Needle sways per every 10 mph of wind (up to a maximum of 200 mph).