Seattle’s Epic Underground Scene and a Cool Pinball Museum
- 11.15.13
- 6:30 AM
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20131117235526im_/http://www.wired.com/images/1x1.trans.gif)
Bertha | Earth pressure balance (EPB) tunnel-boring machine | 57.5 feet tall | 326 feet long | 7,000 tons
$80 million cost (including delivery from Japan) | Follow: @berthadigssr99 | Photo: Courtesy of WSDOT
Seattle is known mostly for what’s aboveground: the Space Needle, coffee, Amazon, Microsoft, rain. But under the city right now, the world’s largest tunneling machine is churning through soil (and tweeting). Named after the city’s first female mayor, Bertha is making her way 1.8 miles through the soft ground to build a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, an earthquake-damaged freight corridor. Project deputy administrator Matt Preedy describes Bertha’s giant head as a “rotational cheese grater” that bores through soil. Sadly, Bertha is hundreds of feet down and not on Instagram (yet). But street-level Seattle is pretty cool too.
SEE
(1) EMP For the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, this music, sci-fi, and pop-culture museum (formerly known as the Experience Music Project) is dusting off a Cyberman from its archives for display in December. Frank Gehry’s trippy metal building alone is worth a visit.
(2) Living Computer Museum Housing Paul Allen’s personal collection, the museum preserves and exhibits milestones in the evolution of computers. All the vintage machines can be used.
(3) Central Public Library The 11-story glass and steel Central Library looks like an art museum. Enjoy a spin up the ramp that spirals through the nonfiction collection, and take in the view of Elliott Bay from the 10th floor.
DO
(4) Seattle Pinball Museum Play on classic machines dating back six decades. In December, the hybrid museum/arcade will exhibit machines built by local pinball enthusiasts.
(5) Pink Gorilla The place to go for all your vintage gaming needs—anything from an Atari Asteroids cartridge for $2.99 to Little Samson, an original Nintendo release, for $550.
(6) Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery This shop in Georgetown, Seattle’s historic arts community, specializes in rare and out-of-print comics and graphic novels as well as popular Fantagraphics artists like Daniel Clowes and the Hernandez Brothers.