Seattle, city in west central Washington and seat of King County. Seattle is located between Puget Sound and Lake Washington. The most populous city in the state, Seattle is built on a series of hills and is noted for its fine scenery. Lake Union, Lake Washington, and Green Lake lie within the city limits. The mountains of Olympic National Park rise to the west, and the Cascade Range, which includes Mount Rainier, is to the east. Commercial and manufacturing establishments occupy sites along the coast of Elliott Bay and in the south along the Duwamish River. Residential districts crown the city's hills. Seattle covers an area of about 217 sq km (about 84 sq mi).

Population

After a peak in population in the 1950s at about 575,000, Seattle's population declined as people moved to the suburbs. However, from 1980, when the population was 493,846, to the 1990s, Seattle's population increased as people were attracted to the city. The 1990 population was 516,259. According to the 1990 census, whites constitute 75.3 percent of the city's population; people of Asian background, 11.8 percent; blacks, 10.1 percent; and Native Americans, 1.4 percent. Hispanics, who may also be counted among other groups, represent 3.6 percent of Seattle's population. The population of Seattle's consolidated metropolitan statistical area, which includes Everett to the north, Bellevue to the east, Bremerton to the west, and Tacoma and Renton to the south, increased from 2,409,000 in 1980 to 2,970,000 in 1990.

Economy

Seattle is an important Pacific Coast seaport and a center of commerce and manufacturing. Among the manufactures of the metropolitan area are aircraft and aerospace items, computer software, and biotechnology-related items. Tourism, commercial fishing, ship repairing, government operations, and military installations (such as a United States Navy shipyard) are also important to the city's economic base. Seattle is served by the nearby Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and by railroads and major highways. Its fine port comprises an outer harbor on Puget Sound and an inner harbor centered on Lake Union (which serves as an airport for seaplanes) and Lake Washington. These facilities are connected by Lake Washington Ship Canal and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. Lacey V. Murrow (or Lake Washington) Floating Bridge and Evergreen Point Floating Bridge connect Seattle with the east side of Lake Washington, and a state ferry system connects the city with the Kitsap Peninsula, islands in Puget Sound, and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. A downtown convention center opened in 1988. Seattle is the site of numerous festivals throughout the year, including the Northwest Folklife Festival, Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Seattle Film Festival, summer street fairs, Bon Odori, Bite of Seattle, Seafair, Sundiata African-American Festival, and the Christmas Parade of Ships.

Points of Interest

Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square, both restored shopping areas, are located in downtown Seattle. The Kingdome (1976), a domed stadium used for concerts and trade shows, is also the home of the Mariners, a major-league baseball team, and the Seahawks, a professional football team. Seattle's professional basketball team, the SuperSonics, play at the newly renovated Key Arena at Seattle Center.

Educational and Cultural Institutions

Higher education facilities in Seattle include the University of Washington (1861), Cornish College of the Arts (1915), Griffin College (1909), Seattle Pacific University (1891), Seattle University (1891), Bastyr University (1978), and an extensive community college system. In the west central part of the city is the Seattle Center, located on the site of the Century 21 Exposition, a 1962 world's fair that drew 9.5 million visitors. Cultural arenas in Seattle Center are the Opera House, home of the Seattle Opera Association, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra; the Bagley Wright Theatre, home of the Seattle Repertory Theatre Company; the Seattle Center Playhouse, home of the Intiman Theatre Company; the Charlotte Martin Theatre, home of the Seattle Children's Theatre; the Pacific Science Center; the Seattle Children's Museum; and the Space Needle (185 m/607 ft high), with a revolving restaurant and observation deck providing panoramic views of the area. A monorail train connects Seattle Center with the downtown area. Seattle supports many other professional, semi-professional, and fringe theater companies.

Seattle's International District is the location of the Wing Luke Memorial Museum and the Nippon Kan Theatre, a national historic landmark. Farther to the northeast are three of the city's major museums-the Museum of History and Industry; the Henry Art Gallery; and the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum, which features exhibits about Native Americans of the region. Other Seattle museums are the Nordic Heritage Museum and the Museum of Flight. The Seattle Art Museum (1991) displays collections of African and Northwest Native American art; its original museum, in Volunteer Park, is now a center for Asian art.

The city also supports a zoo and aquarium, and many city parks. The 216-hectare (535-acre) Discovery Park, the city's largest, is the site of the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Education Center. The University of Washington Arboretum contains trees and shrubs from around the world, a Japanese garden, and wetlands.

History

Native Americans, including the Snohomish and the Suquamish, lived in the area before Seattle was founded. In 1852 a white settlement, established the previous year at Alki Point, was moved to the present-day site of downtown Seattle; the city was named for Suquamish leader Chief Seattle. A sawmill was constructed at Seattle in 1853, and exploitation of the rich local timber resources began. Seattle was incorporated as a city in 1869. The settlement grew slowly at first, but after the arrival in nearby Tacoma of a transcontinental railroad in 1883, the city experienced a population boom. Chinese workers began to arrive in the 1860s, and by the mid-1880s their population exceeded 500. Fears that cheap immigrant labor would cost whites their jobs resulted in anti-Chinese riots, and many Chinese were driven from town. A fire leveled the old downtown on June 6, 1889, but the area was reconstructed, and Pioneer Square still contains many buildings from this period. Seattle served as a gateway to, and a supply center for, the Yukon and Alaska gold rushes of the 1890s, and its population swelled from 37,000 in 1889 to 237,000 in 1910. Four transcontinental railroads served the city by 1910, and trade was further stimulated by the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and the Lake Washington Ship Canal a few years later. By this time Seattle had a diverse population. A large Scandinavian community was centered in the fisheries-oriented Ballard area, and many people of Japanese and Chinese descent worked in the agricultural lands of the Duwamish and Green river valleys.

World War I (1914-1918) stimulated the growth of port activities in Seattle. In February 1919, Seattle shipworkers striking for increased wages were joined by the city's other trade unions, creating a three-day general strike. Since World War II (1939-1945) the region's economy has been dominated by the aerospace industry. Boeing Airplane Company has operated in the area since before World War II; the company developed the 707 commerical jet-powered plane that permanently changed civilian air travel. The city hosted the Goodwill Games in 1990. In 1993 Seattle was the site of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) annual Ministerial Meeting.

Microsoft Encarta (but hopefully they'll never find this - and, in any case, it's an old version!).

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