Whereas, on April 21, 2012, the City of Seattle will
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair (referred to in
this preamble as the Seattle World’s Fair
), which showcased the
optimism, energy, and innovative spirit of Seattle;
Whereas more than 9,000,000 people visited the Seattle
World’s Fair, a number that represents roughly 3 times the total population of
the State of Washington at the time;
Whereas the Seattle World’s Fair brought together the most
talented architects of the Pacific Northwest to create a civic legacy and the
treasured Seattle Center public space, which includes the Space Needle, the
Seattle Center Armory, the Pacific Science Center, the Coliseum (now known as
Key Arena
), Memorial Stadium, the International Fountain, and
the Opera House;
Whereas the Seattle World’s Fair facilitated the
construction of key transportation infrastructure, including the SR 520
floating bridge, the portion of Interstate 5 that traverses downtown Seattle,
and the Monorail;
Whereas, to officially open the Seattle World’s Fair,
President John F. Kennedy used the same historic telegraphic key that had been
used to open the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle 53 years
earlier;
Whereas the attendance of music icon Elvis Presley in
Seattle during the filming of the movie It Happened at the World’s
Fair
further elevated the City of Seattle as an international city for
the arts;
Whereas the theme of the Seattle World’s Fair,
science
, foreshadowed regional innovations in technology and
advanced manufacturing that now support world leading companies and tens of
thousands of high-paying jobs;
Whereas some of the earliest satellite transmissions of
telephone calls and television broadcasts occurred at the Seattle World’s Fair,
and the Seattle area is now home to global information and communications
technology companies; and
Whereas the Seattle World’s Fair celebrated aviation and
the new Space Age, and the aerospace industry in the Seattle area now employs
82,000 people (including 7,000 engineers), generates a combined annual revenue
of $32,000,000,000, and includes a cluster of 650 companies: Now, therefore, be
it
That the Senate—
(1)celebrates the
50th anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair;
(2)commends the City
of Seattle for its innovation, growth, and entrepreneurial spirit during the
past 50 years;
(3)supports the
Next Fifty
initiative to develop a blueprint for success in
Seattle for the next half-century; and
(4)requests that the
Secretary of the Senate transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the
City of Seattle for appropriate display.