Several proposals for a cut-and-cover subway tunnel under 3rd Avenue in Downtown Seattle were presented to the City of Seattle by predecessors of the Seattle Planning Commission throughout the 20th century. The first major proposal was part of urban planner Virgil Bogue's "Plan for Seattle" in 1911, as Route 1 of a proposed rapid transit network. Route 1 ran southeast on 3rd Avenue from a circular ring around a proposed civic center in the Denny Regrade neighborhood to King Street Station, paralleled to the west by a subway on 1st Avenue known as Route 17; stations on the line were to have additional entrances from department stores and other major businesses on 3rd Avenue. The plan was supported by City Engineer Reginald H. Thomson and the Municipal League among others, but opposed by businesses fearing it would shift the commercial district further north, and by the three daily newspapers published in Seattle. A special municipal election for the comprehensive plan was held on March 5, 1912, in which Seattle voters rejected it by a 10,000-vote margin.