South Two-Twelfth Street — The Wagon Wheel
From Sal on SR 167 Northbound: Tacoma to Renton · 1:55
Show by WithBy
Sal: Between South Two-Twelfth Street and South One-Eightieth Street. Sal: The freeway follows the edge of the Green River Valley here, with the industrial area on one side and the neighborhoods of Benson Hill and East Hill on the other. Sal: Some of what the valley built reached the Moon. The Boeing Kent Space Center was dedicated on October 24, 1964, and its laboratories and facilities were used to build the Lunar Roving Vehicles for the Apollo program. Today Kent is home to the headquarters of Blue Origin and Stoke Space. Peggy: Built in Kent, driven on the Moon. Best commute in the valley. Sal: The city line between Kent and Renton crosses the freeway near Valley Medical Center. It began as Renton Hospital, which opened on April 15, 1945, built by the Federal Works Agency as a wartime measure. The main building was a "wagon wheel," with seven spoke-like wings and 100 beds, a design meant to disperse the impact of a bombing. It later got in the way of patient care. Peggy: Designed for an air raid. Nobody designed it for an ordinary Tuesday. Sal: In December 1947, after Renton-area voters approved it by a margin of ten to one, a public hospital district was created to run it, the first in Washington. The hospital was renamed Valley General in 1965, and the new campus was delayed by bad weather, three labor strikes and design changes before it opened in November 1969. It has 341 beds, employs over 3,800 people, and has been part of UW Medicine since 2011. The original hospital site is now a McLendon Hardware store. Sources: • story 788 (released) SR-167 — Thomas to Kent — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent%2C_Washington • story 985 (staged) Valley Medical Center — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Medical_Center_%28Washington%29 • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_167 — the freeway separates the Green River industrial area from Benson Hill and East Hill and enters Renton near Valley Medical Center
More episodes of Sal on SR 167 Northbound: Tacoma to Renton
More episodes
- Interstate Four-Oh-Five — Renton's Own Space Needle
- South One-Eightieth Street — Built in Twenty-Eight Days
- Central Avenue — Kent Gets a Library
- Willis Street — Hops, Then Lettuce
- South Two Seventy-Seventh Street — Just Plain Washington
- Fifteenth Street Northwest — Horses and Trolleys
- State Route Eighteen — Once Called Slaughter
- Fifteenth Street Southwest — The Supermall
- Ellingson Road — Valley of Flowers
- Eighth Street — Pacific City
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.