Old Pole Burner,

If you faced south and stood on 4th Avenue between the former Union Station--where the Milwaukee Road and UP called, and King Street Station (GN, NP)...King Street Station would be on your right, and Union Station would be on the left. The photos Marty posted in this thread are of the old Union Station, now I believe being used by Sound Transit as a headquarters, or something like that. The photos in Marty's other posting are of King Street Station. From your description, I think you left from King Street Station, as to the north there is a tunnel on the old GN line (now BNSF) that goes north underneath downtown Seattle, emerging near Belltown, up near Galer Street. The "upstairs" area is actually steet level in downtown Seattle. The train sheds were "downstairs" (down the "electric stairs"/escalator), and points south are generally "street level" from there on. Downtown Seattle was raised a level or two many years ago in the Denny regrade project to improve drainage and sanitation, creating the famous "Seattle Underground", which is basically a lot of dusty basements these days. Anyway, if you head south out of King Street Station now, you would pass Seattle's two ball parks on your right...first Qwest (Seahawk football) Stadium, then Safeco (Mariners baseball) Field. After that, you'd pass the Amtrak coach yard and engine house (around Holgate Street), and further on, Boeing Field and then South Seattle Yard (intermodal trailers) before passing Black River on your way to Tacoma. Hopefully this helps orient you a bit better.

Click on either #7 or #8 in this mapquest link and then click "zoom to street level" (in the pop-up text bubble) to get you right down to 4th Avenue between the two stations (ilso click on "aerial view" if the regular street map view pops up first).

[www.mapquest.com]

Hope this helps...

--Sasquatch