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Place Name
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Seattle
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Place Status (Type)
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city
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Capital Of
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King County
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Population
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516,259 (1990)
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Location
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King County, Washington (WA), United States, North America
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Latitude
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47°37'N
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Longitude
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122°21'W
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Seattle
, city (1990 pop. 516,259), W Wash., built on 7 hills,
bet. Puget Sound (W) and L. Washington (E);  King co.; 47°37'N
122°21'W. Downtown Seattle fronts on Elliott Bay. L. Union N of
downtown; Wash. Ship Canal and Locks connect it with L. Washington and
Puget Sound. Seattle, the largest city in Wash. and the Pacific NW, is
the region's commercial, financial, transportation, and industrial hub
and a major port of entry, important in Far Eastern, Alaska (AK)n, and
Canadian trade. A center of aircraft mfg. and shipbuilding since World
War II, the city is hq. for the Boeing Co., primarily based in Renton,
to S, and Everett, to N, which employs a significant number of people
in Seattle and adjacent cities. There are also major computer services,
electronics, banking, insurance, biomedical, food-processing, and
lumber industries. Mfg. (steel, electronic equip., shipbuilding,
apparel, fabricated metal prods., printing and publishing, concrete,
glass prods., aircraft, beer, food prods., plastics, textiles,
biological prods.). Settled in 1851-1852, Seattle remained a small
lumber town until the coming of the Great Northern RR in 1893. The city
became a boom town with the 1897 Alaska gold rush and developed into
the nation's chief link with Alaska. It grew further with the
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909), the opening of the Panama Canal
(1914), and the completion (1917) of a canal and locks connecting L.
Washington with Puget Sound, making the city both a saltwater and a
freshwater port. Aiding its industrial growth was the presence of coal
in the area and the development of hydroelectric power. Long a center
of radical labor movements, Seattle was the scene of a major general
strike (1919) led by the Industrial Workers of the World. During the
1960s, Seattle's port expanded enormously; it now has 18 major
terminals, 4 smaller piers, a 600-boat fisherman's terminal, and huge
marinas for private boats. The city, situated bet. the majestic Cascade
Range to E and Olympic Mts. on Olympic Peninsula to W, with Mt. Rainier
to the SE, Mt. Baker to the NE, and others, snowcapped extinct
volcanoes that rise majestically above the surrounding Cascade Range,
is accessible to many natl. and state parks and recreation areas.
Seattle is a cultural center with numerous mus. and art galleries, a
variety of theater and musical organizations, aquarium, an arboretum, a
zoo, and a modern public lib. The city also has professional baseball,
basketball, and football teams; Seattle Kingdome. During the 1980s and
1990s, Seattle became known for its art galleries, pubs, and espresso
coffee bars (the latter becoming a nationwide trend during
the mid-1990s). It is the seat of the Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Univ. (including Burke Mus.), Seattle Pacific Univ., and Seattle
Central Community Col. Site of Westlake Center and Southcenter, two of
the largest shopping centers in U.S. Seattle was the site of the 1962
world's fair, the Century 21 Exposition. The Space Needle symbol of
that fair—a 600-ft/183-m tower with revolving
restaurant and viewing deck—now serves as Seattle's key
skyline landmark, to N of downtown. Another remnant of the fair is the
Monorail, the 1st publicly operated monorail in the U.S., which still
operates downtown. Also remaining from the fair are the Pacific Science
Center and a cultural and recreational park. Ferries connect Seattle
with Kitsap Peninsula, Vashon, and Brinbrise Islands to W, and to
Victoria on Vancounver Isl., B.C. (S terminus of Alaska State Ferry
Systems, formerly at Seattle, is now at Bellingham to N). Its rapidly
growing E side suburbs include several inc. private gated communities.
Seattle-Tacoma (SeaTac) Internatl. Airport
10 mi/16 km S of downtown. Boeing Field (King
County Internatl. Airport) in S part of city. Inc. 1869.
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