Seattle from Space in 1964

2021

Back in 2019, I paid USGS $30 to scan in the negative of a shot of Seattle taken by a KH-7 spy satellite. I received the link a few months later, and now anyone can download that 2,558 megapixel scan for free through USGS EarthExplorer (Entity ID: DZB00401100049H002001). This was taken September 26, 1964 (three days after launch) on mission 4011.

When this was taken, I-5 is under active construction and has just reached Olive Way. You can see the neighborhoods to the south being demolished to make way for it. The ramps to nowhere at SDOT peninsula were just built, and Naval Station Puget Sound (Now Magnuson Park)still has an active runway.