Seattle, pronounced “see-at-l,” is a seaport city on the American West Coast. King County, Washington, has it as its county seat. It will have 737,015 residents in 2020, making it the biggest city in both Washington state and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 4.02 million, the Seattle metropolitan area is the fifteenth-largest in the nation. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 places it among the main cities with the fastest growth rates in the country.
Seattle is located on an isthmus between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. At around 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canadian border, it is the most northern large city in the United States. Seattle serves as a significant entry point for trade with East Asia and, as of 2015, it was the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling.
Before the first permanent European settlers arrived, Native Americans had lived in the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. On November 13, 1851, the schooner Exact, captained by Arthur A. Denny, landed at Alki Point from Illinois after stopping in Portland, Oregon. This group of travellers became known as the Denny Party. In 1852, the town was relocated to Elliott Bay’s eastern side and given the name “Seattle” in tribute to the native Duwamish and Suquamish Chief Si’ahl. Today, Seattle contains large communities of Native Americans, Scandinavians, Asian Americans, and African Americans. It also boasts the sixth-largest number of LGBT persons in the country.
As a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush, logging was Seattle’s first significant business, but by the late 19th century, the city had transformed into a commerce and shipbuilding hub. Seattle’s post-World War II growth can be partly attributed to the local Boeing corporation, which made the city a hub for the production of aeroplanes. From the 1980s onward, the Seattle area transformed into a hub for technology with the establishment of businesses like Microsoft; Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a native Seattleite. Major airline Alaska Airlines is headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, and serves Seattle’s main airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle in 1994. The city’s population expanded by about 50,000 between 1990 and 2000 as a result of the steady influx of new software, biotechnology, and Internet businesses that sparked an economic renaissance. Seattle has a rich musical heritage as well. Nearly 20 jazz nightclubs operated along Jackson Street between 1918 and 1951, from the present-day Chinatown/International District to the Central District. Early careers for Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others were supported by the jazz scene. Jimi Hendrix, the band Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Heart, Alice in Chains, and the Foo Fighters were all formed in Seattle, which is also the birthplace of the alternative rock genre known as grunge.