It’s been a whole five years since Sound Tran­sit last expand­ed our high capac­i­ty tran­sit spine with a new Link light rail exten­sion, but as of next Sat­ur­day, the wait  will final­ly be com­ing to an end when North­gate Link opens to the public.

The 4.3 mile exten­sion, which has been under con­struc­tion since 2012, will add three new sta­tions to the sys­tem for­mer­ly known as Cen­tral Link and now being dubbed Line 1: U Dis­trict, Roo­sevelt, and the name­sake North­gate Station.

If you’d like to take a peek inside the new sta­tions ahead of next Sat­ur­day’s open­ing, we’ve put togeth­er three pho­to gal­leries show­cas­ing each one.

Enjoy, and if you’re curi­ous about tim­ing, know that North­gate Link will be open for your enjoy­ment begin­ning pri­or to dawn’s first light on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 2nd. Sound Tran­sit has opt­ed against any kind of spe­cial sched­ule for next week­end because that could be need­less­ly dis­rup­tive to rid­ers. So if you want to be on the very first train in rev­enue ser­vice, you’ll need to get up real­ly, real­ly early!

U District

U Dis­trict, short for Uni­ver­si­ty Dis­trict, is the south­ern­most of the new sta­tions. It is locat­ed on Brook­lyn Avenue between NE 43rd and NE 45th Streets, across the road from the UW Tow­er and steps away from the shops on The Ave.

Are your taste buds as eclec­tic as your wardrobe? Then you, my friend, have come to the right place. Here you’ll find a pletho­ra of indie eater­ies, cof­fee shops, pubs and bars — where you can hang out with UW stu­dents and relive your col­lege days, minus the all-nighters and cold piz­za. What’s more, if you’re in the mar­ket for super fresh pro­duce and all things organ­ic, check out the U Dis­trict Farm­ers Mar­ket every Saturday.

– Sound Transit

The sta­tion has two head hous­es that are sep­a­rat­ed by a small tract of land that will soon be repur­posed for tran­sit-ori­ent­ed devel­op­ment by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton. Here’s some pho­tos from inside (and out­side!) the station:

Roosevelt

Roo­sevelt, the mid­dle of the new sta­tions, is locat­ed at NE 65th Street and 12th Avenue NE, not far from Raven­na Park. Roo­sevelt High School is near­by, as are many small busi­ness­es, from Rain City Burg­ers to Sun­light Cafe and Teddy’s.

Named after Ted­dy Roo­sevelt, this urban-sub­ur­ban neigh­bor­hood was ranked as the 10th hottest in the nation. Here, you’ll dis­cov­er a diverse mix of delight­ful lit­tle restau­rants, cozy cof­fee hous­es and friend­ly bars where every­body knows your name if you have it embroi­dered on your shirt. You’ll also find near­by Green Lake and sev­er­al yoga stu­dios where you can Namaste the day away.

– Sound Transit

Here’s some pho­tos from inside (and out­side!) the station:

Northgate

North­gate is the north­ern­most of the new sta­tions. It is locat­ed at 1st Avenue NE and NE 103rd Street. On one side of the sta­tion is Inter­state 5; on the oth­er side is North­gate Mall and the Seat­tle Krak­en’s new prac­tice facility.

What was once known as one of the coun­try’s first open-air malls, it will soon be home to the Seat­tle Krak­en. So, along with three NHL reg­u­la­tion skat­ing rinks, a train­ing cen­ter, and Krak­en HQ, you’ll find one of the busiest tran­sit cen­ters in the state con­nect­ed to the Link light rail sta­tion. Need­less to say, if you need a ride any­where, and I mean any­where, this is the place to be.

– Sound Transit

Here’s some pho­tos from inside (and out­side!) the station:

If these pho­to gal­leries whet­ted your appetite for more, you can get some “Street View” style glimpses of the under­ground U Dis­trict and Roo­sevelt sta­tions at this web­site that Sound Tran­sit built to pro­mote the new exten­sion.

We will be cov­er­ing next week­end’s open­ing fes­tiv­i­ties here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate, so check back as Octo­ber gets going for our impres­sions and thoughts on the inau­gu­ra­tion of ser­vice to our newest light rail stations!