seattle connections museum

published: 2025-10-14

Yesterday I finally made it to the Connections Museum in Seattle. I’ve wanted to go for years, but one thing or another always got in the way. After wanting to go for so many years, I was honestly a little worried that my anticipation might exceed the reality.

That concern turned out to be completely unfounded. The museum exceeded my expectations in every possible way. As someone who has been fascinated by payphones and telephony for most of my life, stepping inside felt a bit like walking into heaven.

The collection is extraordinary. Old telephone switches, teletype machines, rows and rows of phones, and countless pieces of infrastructure that usually stay invisible to end users are all on display. Seeing the physical scale and mechanical complexity of these systems in person gave me a much deeper appreciation for how communication networks actually worked, long before everything became abstracted into software.

We were lucky enough to be joined by a volunteer tour guide, who ended up giving us an in-depth tour that lasted around two and a half hours. It was physically demanding for me, and I definitely felt it in my body, but it was worth every minute. The depth of knowledge, the stories, and the context they provided transformed the visit from “impressive” into something genuinely memorable.

I left the museum feeling energized, inspired, and already thinking about what I’d want to look at more closely next time. There’s simply too much there to fully absorb in one visit.

I can’t wait to go back.