Seattle ripped out its original rail-transit system - its streetcars - in 1941. Voters will eventually approve plans to extend the light-rail system to a total 116 miles in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, scheduled for completion in 2041. This is the first stretch of what is planned to be a much more extensive light-rail system. Within six months the Central Link line will be extended south another 1.7 miles to Sea-Tac Airport. The 14-mile line is known as the Central Link and it runs between Tukwila and downtown Seattle's Westlake Center Station. About 45,000 people ride the light-rail trains on the first day.

It makes Seattle feel like a real city' ('Seattle Hops on Board'). One passenger on the first day tells reporters, 'It's about time. The event, anticipated for decades, is celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Sound Transit's Mount Baker Station in the Rainier Valley neighborhood, presided over by Seattle mayor and Sound Transit board chair Greg Nickels (b. On July 18, 2009, Seattle's light-rail era begins as Sound Transit's Link light-rail trains carry their first passengers between downtown Seattle and Tukwila in south King County.

Sound transit link light rail