Car struck

It's hard to imagine that 100 years ago this town had only one car, the Woods Electric owned by Ralph S. Hopkins. We now have more cars than drivers, drive-up latte stands, a site commemorating the nation's first gas station and the national headquarters of Car Toys, the largest independent car-stereo retailer in the nation.

What happened? The following timeline of Seattle's automobile history offers some clues.

1896 - Frank and Charles Duryea's Springfield, Mass., auto plant becomes the first to produce more than one automobile at a time. It builds 13 automobiles in one year. An electrical engineer named Henry Ford builds a "quadricycle" capable of going 20 mph.

July 23, 1900 - A Woods Electric auto driven by Ralph S. Hopkins becomes the first automobile on Seattle streets.

1904 - Automobile Club of Seattle created.

1905 - State Highway Department organized. Division of Motor Vehicles issues its first license to a vehicle owned by S.A. Perkins of Tacoma - the first of 763 licenses sold at $2 each. Owners are required to make own license plates of wood, metal or leather or simply write the number on front and rear of vehicle. The division's revenue for the year: $1,525.

1907 - The world's first gasoline service station opens and it just happens to be in Seattle, at Holgate Street and Western Avenue. John McLean, head of Washington sales for Standard Oil Co. of California, built it with Henry Harris, an engineer who affixed a pipe to a 30-gallon tank with a gauge.

1908 - Henry Ford markets nationwide his first Model T and in the same year opens an automobile-and-tractor assembly plant at the south end of Seattle's Lake Union.

1909 - The winner of the Guggenheim Trophy Race drives from New York to Seattle in 23 days.

1910 - National sales of gasoline, once considered a waste byproduct of the oil-refining process, exceed those of kerosene and other illuminating fuels.

1913 - There are 19,497 automobiles in Washington.

Dec. 27, 1913 - The ferry Leschi, the first boat built in Puget Sound to carry automobiles, makes its trial run between Seattle and Bellevue.

1915 - The gravel Snoqualmie Pass Highway, now Interstate 90, opens, creating the first cross-state highway. The 12-mile stretch over the summit cost $203,700.

1916 - State begins licensing vehicles by class, registering 49,947 passenger cars and 5,700 trucks. Revenues reach $356,000. The first metal license plates are issued, with white letters on a blue background. Vehicles are required to have two headlights and one taillight. Upon meeting another vehicle, drivers must keep to the right.

1921 - First state gas tax is set at 1 cent per gallon. State establishes driver's licenses. Applicants must furnish signatures of two people certifying that the person is a competent driver and has no physical problems that would impair safe driving. The minimum driving age is 15. The penalty for drunken driving is a three-month license suspension. State Patrol is established.

1922 - The Teapot Dome service station, named for the scandal in the administration of President Warren G. Harding, opens on U.S. Highway 410 in Zillah, Yakima County.

1929 - Gasoline tax rises to 3 cents per gallon, bringing in $6,233,907 in a single year. Chicago businessman Paul Galvin invents the first car radio.

1930 - New Ford plant opens on East Marginal Way South.

1932 - The George Washington Memorial Bridge (Aurora Bridge) is completed.

1933 - Marginal Way Ford plant closes, a victim of the Great Depression.

1935 - Adolf Hitler announces the first Volkswagen. The state's most-famous ferry, the art-deco Kalakala, starts running between Seattle and Bremerton.

1937 - State Motor Vehicle Excise Tax established.

1940 - General Motors produces its 25-millionth vehicle. The first automobile crosses the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, officially known as the Lacey V. Murrow bridge, between Mercer Island and Seattle. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, opens; four months later, "Galloping Gertie" collapses in a windstorm.

1942 - Wartime gasoline rationing stickers are required on all automobiles.

1950 - The Northgate Shopping Center, now the Northgate Mall, opens as the nation's largest. It also is believed to be the first planned regional mall, featuring shops, restaurants, offices and a movie theater.

1951 - Washington State Ferries is born with state purchase of Puget Sound Navigation Co. The system carries 4 million passengers in its first year.

1953 - The Alaskan Way Viaduct is completed along the Elliott Bay waterfront, which was once dominated by railroad tracks.

1954 - The Evergreen State, a 100-car ferry, is christened for the popular Seattle/Bainbridge Island route. It is still in service.

1959 - Ford produces its 50-millionth vehicle, a Galaxie. State Highway Department begins preliminary work on Interstate 90, starting more than three decades of conflict over whether to build a second bridge and additional lanes across Mercer Island from Bellevue to Seattle.

1961 - Hood Canal Bridge opens. State grants special parking privileges to people with disabilities.

1963 - Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, also known now as the 520 bridge, opens.

1965 - State Department of Motor Vehicles is created.

1967 - One-hundred-millionth GM vehicle is produced, a Chevrolet Impala. State launches four "superferries" capable of carrying 160 cars each. The Kalakala is retired. Stop-light-free Interstate 5 is completed from Tacoma to Everett. The freeway era begins in the Northwest.

1968 - "Forward Thrust" bond measure proposes a $1.32 billion rapid rail-and-bus-transit system for Seattle region. It fails.

1970 - Another rail-and-bus-transit measure fails.

1972 - State creates a consumer-protection law requiring that an odometer reading be recorded at the time of sale for any car less than 10 years old.

1973 - Voters pass a referendum approving the sale of vanity license plates. State launches the Spokane, a 206-car "jumbo" class ferry. It is still in service.

1974 - Oil crisis has patrons lining up in Ballard to make an appointment to buy gas.

1979 - Part of the Hood Canal Floating Bridge sinks.

1986 - A statewide contest to design a license place commemorating the state's centennial is won by Eric Booth, 18, of Bellingham. His blue and white design features Mount Rainier.

1987 - State passes a "Lemon Law" to solve disputes between new-vehicle buyers and dealers or manufacturers. Dan Brettler opens first Car Toys in Bellevue.

1990 - The Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge sinks.

1991 - State gas tax rises to 23 cents, its current rate.

1992 - Number of sport-utility vehicles sold nationwide tops 1 million for the first time.

1995 - Puget Sound voters reject a $6.7 billion mass-transit proposal.

1996 - Puget Sound voters approve a $3.9 billion mass-transit proposal. Sport-utility vehicle sales top 2 million nationwide.

1997 - More than 25 million people ride the Washington State Ferries, 11 million driving motor vehicles.

1998 - John M. Violanti, a professor of criminal justice at the Rochester Institute of Technology, reports that people driving while talking on cellular telephones have a nine-fold increased risk of a fatal accident.

1999 - Washington Department of Licensing revenues reach $1.2 billion. Of that, $837 million came from the statewide motor-vehicle excise tax now eliminated by Initiative 695. Revenue now comes from fees, including motor-vehicle registration fee of $30.

Information provided by Seattle Times researcher Steve Selter is included in this report.

Sources: Washington State Ferries, AutoMuseum.com; "Washington: The First One Hundred Years," by Don Duncan; Washington Department of Transportation; Washington Department of Licensing.