Waiting for the Interurban statue in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.
CLAIRE MAULDING, SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLEPIWe get it, Seattle is strange. Truth be told, perhaps most of us would like to keep it that way.
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From city chandeliers comprised of shattered CDs and a gargantuan pair of boots alongside a cowboy hat, the Emerald City has its fair share of wacky attractions for both locals' and visitors' amusement amid the hustle and bustle of an ever-expanding city life.
Some are tucked away, down alleys or underneath a bridge's shadow, while others remain in plain sight amid the labyrinth of downtown city streets. Some remain sights of controversy, and some act as beacons of color and contrast under gray skies. Others are meant as messengers to the public eye or merely as a bit of humor.
Nonetheless, we've rounded up 24 of Seattle's classic yet quirky landmarks. Scroll down to see where to find them, and let us know what other city oddities we should be on the lookout for.
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Ever since the Aurora Bridge was erected in 1932 there have been reports of troll sightings underneath. Now we can say for sure that a troll has taken up residence on the north end of the Aurora Bridge.
In 1989, the city asked the Fremont Arts Council to launch an art competition to rehabilitate the area under the bridge, which at the time was a dumping ground and haven for drug dealers. Later that year, a team led by sculptor Steve Badanes won the competition and was inspired by the folktale Billy Goat’s Gruff. The troll is made from rebar steel, wire and two tons of messy ferroconcrete, and is 18 feet tall with a shiny metal eye and crushing a Volkswagen Beetle in his left hand — which was a time capsule for Elvis Memorabilia for a while until vandalized.
JOE DYER/seattlepi.com file photo
Nestled under the shade of Viretta Park, next to Kurt Cobain's former home, fans have designated an unofficial memorial to the musician. Atop the benches, visitors can find flowers, letters, lyrics, and poems left behind for the Nirvana frontman on what they believe to be a place he would originally sit to write lyrics and find alone time.
Wikimedia Commons
The bronze cast piggy bank more commonly known as Rachel, an icon at Pike Place Market, was based as an outdoor bronze sculpture in 1986 as the Market's foundation piggy bank. Annually, Rachel takes in around $9,000 in currency from across the globe, all of which funds the market's social services.
Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com
Amid Georgetown's Oxbow Park rests the 1950s 44-foot-wide hat and 22-foot-tall boots. Though it's now a whimsical plaything, it was once the state's most successful gas station, housing the office in the hat, and the restrooms in the boots. Legend holds even Elvis Presley swung through in 1962 while attending the Seattle World's Fair.
Richie D via Yelp
Hidden away underneath the University Bridge in Seattle's University District, along the Burke Gilman Trail, lies the Wall of Death. Thankfully, its inspiration is much less morbid than the name suggests.
Constructed in 1993, the installation reflects the structure used to perform the motorcycle stunt, the wall of death.
Penelope K. via Yelp
The painted blacktop reminiscent of our childhood gaming days rests along Summit Avenue. While the 2,600-square-foot portion of pavement offers a pathway for Pac Man, unfortunately, it cannot teleport you from one side to the other after exiting right to left. Of course, don't be alarmed if you hear the familiar "wakka wakka wakka" in the distance of Capitol Hill.
SeattleDOT/Public Domain
Pointing to destinations like that of "Noogie" — cleverly described as "at the top of the head" — Milky Way, Rapunzel and the North Pole, residents of Fremont have considered the guidepost the center of the universe since the early 1970s.
The Center of the Universe
Installed in 2011, a giant popsicle sculpture curated by artist Catherine Mayer, perhaps held together with the Seattle freeze, reflects a 17-foot-tall work of public pop art that looks good enough to eat, but sadly is not.
Jordan Stead/SEATTLEPI.COM
Commissioned by the Fremont Arts Council and dedicated in 1978, the Fremont installation depicts six people and a dog waiting for the Seattle to Everett Interurban, a public transportation service that ended in 1939.
While this image of the sculpture and an added snowman was taken during a January cold snap, it's not unusual for locals to dress the individuals in themed or event-related attire. History House of Greater Seattle, a historical museum located across the street from the sculpture, has exhibits showing some of the most imaginative displays by people who have decorated the statues over the years.
PI FILE
Beckoning drivers near and far, the rotating pink neon of Elephant Car Wash was the first automatic car wash in Washington back in 1951. Over the years, its seen celebrities like Elvis Presley, politicians, foreign diplomats and past United States Presidents — complete with full security detail — visit. Not to mention, it got a quick scene in the 2009 romance film, "Love Happens."
Click here to find out where the sign recently moved to.
puuikibeach, Creative Commons Flickr
The Cold War siren overlooking the Phinney pocket is one of the last of its kind — erected in 1954 as the perceived threat of nuclear air raids wafter across the Emerald City.
Wikimedia Commons
Yes, it's still sitting atop the building at 101 Elliott Ave. W., quietly spinning — actually, not spinning anymore — along the Seattle skyline. It's stayed there, reminding residents of the city — long after the paper itself had gone online only and moved buildings — that "It's in the P-I."
Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Ever noticed a couple of odd ball ramps leading to dead ends across Seattle?
They were proposed as part of the 1960s plan to connect Highway 520 and the R. H. Thomson Expressway. While the highway would've weaved through the Washington Park Arboretum, demolishing a surplus of homes in a predominantly Black community in its wake, activists once came from all corners to stop it. And now, ironically, battle to prevent the unfinished ramps from being demolished as an icon of remembrance.
Wikimedia Commons
Stroll along Seattle's waterfront at Myrtle Edwards Park and you might run into Jaume Plensa's "Echo" sculpture. Named after the mountain nymph of Greek mythology who offended the goddess Hera — she kept her engaged in conversation and prevented her from spying on one of Zeus’ amours. To punish Echo, Hera deprived the nymph of speech, except for the ability to repeat the last words spoken by another.
Plensa created this monumental head of Echo with her eyes closed, seemingly listening or in a state of meditation. The work is situated on the shoreline of the park, where Echo looks out over Puget Sound in the direction of Mount Olympus, according to the Seattle Art Museum.
Danxia via Yelp
Drop a humble 50 cents into a small coin box for the world's largest collection of giant shoes. Nestled a few floors below Seattle's Pike Place Market, approach the flamboyant circus entryway and gaze through the binoculars for a myriad of Herculean hi-tops and a size 37 work by Robert Wadlow.
Sherill Y. via Yelp
While aged chewing gum — or an entire wall of it, for that matter — doesn't always scream "attraction," it seems Seattle celebrates these thousands of little flavored hunks smudged along one of downtown's brick walls.
Beginning in the 1990s, it all started when local Seattleites waiting in line for an improv show at Post Alley’s Market Theater stuck their used gum on the wall. Though the wall was scrubbed down for three days in 2015, just days later both locals and tourists took back the wall with their sticky bits of DNA.
Grant Hindsley /Seattlepi.com
A peculiarity for as long as it's been around — something like 20 years. The machine has long been a source of cultural fascination in the city, with no one knowing — or ever wanting to confirm — who stocks or maintains the machine. For the low, low price of 75 cents, anyone interested in drinking a can has the opportunity to select one — and then receive a surprise flavor. Yet as of 2018, the machine mysteriously vanished.
Jordan Stead/SEATTLEPI.COM
Nestled atop Capitol Hill, this burial ground was established in 1872 and now serves as the final resting place for numerous iconic American figures, and the founder of Nordstrom department store, John W. Nordstrom. Yet, one of the most popular plots remains that of Brandon and Bruce Lee, father and son martial artists and actors.
As a kaleidoscope of murals boasting wacky wide-eyed animals and mythical beasts have increasingly brightened up Seattle's neighborhoods of Fremont, Ballard and Wallingford over the last few years, you'll often find them signed by "henry," or artist Ryan Henry Ward.
Now you can find more than 200 murals painted across alleys and automobiles around town. Swing by Short Stop Coffee in Ballard, and you might just catch the artist in person.
Picasa/Joe Wolf/Flickr
While a reminiscent memory remains of Luna Park, the West Seattle amusement park once deemed "the Coney Island of the West" but eventually closed down in 1913, rides like those of the Batman-themed car live on in the Luna Park Café.
The artifact filled, retro diner has been serving up "nostalgia and fries since 1989," according to Gemma Alexander.
Jeanny M. via Yelp
Spattered in red "blood" paint, Fremont's provocative bronze statue of Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin was salvaged from Czechoslovakia in 1993 by an Issaquah resident living in the Central European country.
JORDAN STEAD/SEATTLEPI.COM
Stroll through downtown and a moving shadow might catch your eye at the Seattle Art Museum.
Say hello to The Hammering Man, who honors the working class men and women of the world by hammering away 20 hours each day. The gargantuan piece of moving art rests a towering 48 feet in the air and weighs in at a whopping 26,000 pounds.
Joshua Trujillo/Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com
Va va voom? The house mural of a pin-up model and drag icon Divine (created by artist Two Thangs) has turned heads from Interstate 5 since 2006. Controversial, defaced and restored, the mural remains a curious house tattoo.
Tomas M/Yelp
As you glance up to see if the sun is peaking out, you might notice these wooden creatures dangling all throughout Capitol Hill, West Seattle, Columbia City, the Central District and Rainier Beach.
Those mobile-sculptures are strung up by SEA Dragons, a project run by a local artist who wishes to remain anonymous. Now, nearly 300 mobile sculptures dangle across Seattle, made out of scraps of wood, CD shards and other discarded materials.
Courtesy @sea_dragonsss / InstagramMORE SEATTLE NEWS:
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