Seattle (pronounced /siːˈætəl/ ( listen) see-AT-əl) is the northernmost major city in the contiguous United States, and the largest city in the Pacific Northwest and in the state of Washington. A seaport situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth “Seattle”, of the Duwamish and Suquamish native tribes. Seattle is the center of the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan statistical area, the 15th largest in the United States, and the largest in the northwestern United States.⁸ Seattle is the county seat of King County and is the major economic, cultural and educational center in the region. As of April 2009[update], the city’s population was approximately 617,000 within a metropolitan area of some 3.4 million inhabitants. The Port of Seattle and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport are major gateways to Asia, Alaska, and the rest of the world.

Seattle is the western terminus of I-90 and resides on the I-5 corridor, about 170 miles (270 km) north of Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington and 140 miles (230 km) south of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. The city of Victoria, British Columbia’s capital, is about 110 miles (180 km) to the northwest (about 90 miles (140 km) by passenger ferry) while the eastern Washington hub city of Spokane lies 280 miles (450 km) to the east.

The Seattle area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years,⁹ but white settlement began only in the mid-19th century. The first permanent European-descended settlers, Arthur A. Denny and those subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived November 13, 1851. Early settlements in the area were called “New York-Alki” (“Alki” meaning “by and by” in Chinook Jargon) and “Duwamps”. In 1853, Doc Maynard suggested that the main settlement be renamed “Seattle”, an anglicized rendition of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes. From 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the “Queen City”.¹⁰ Seattle’s current official nickname is the “Emerald City”, the result of a contest held in 1981;¹¹¹² the reference is to the lush evergreen forests of the area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the “Gateway to Alaska”, “Rain City”,¹³ and “Jet City”, the last from the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.

Seattle is the birthplace of rock legend Jimi Hendrix and the rock music style known as “grunge,”¹⁴ which was made famous by local groups Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam.

Seattle has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption;¹⁵ coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks,¹⁶ Seattle’s Best Coffee,¹⁷ and Tully’s.¹⁸ There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes.¹⁵

Researchers at Central Connecticut State University consistently rank Seattle and Minneapolis as the two most literate cities among America’s largest cities¹⁹²⁰ Additionally, survey data from the United States Census Bureau indicate that Seattle has a higher percentage of college graduates than any other major American city, with approximately 53.8% of residents aged 25 and older holding a bachelor degree or higher.²¹

In terms of per capita income, a study by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked the Seattle metropolitan area 17th out of 363 metropolitan areas in 2006.²² Seattle has particularly strong information technology, aviation, architecture and recreational industries. It is particularly known as a hotbed of “green” technologies²³, stemming in part from the strong and relatively non-controversial stances its public leaders have taken on policies regarding urban design, building standards, clean energy and climate change (Seattle in February 2010 committed itself to becoming North America’s first “climate neutral” city, with a goal of reaching zero net per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 2030).²⁴

Seattle is ranked as one of the most car-congested cities in the United States, and efforts to promote compact development and transportation choices are perennial policy issues.²⁵ The railways and streetcars that once dominated its transportation system were largely replaced with an extensive network of bus routes for those living near the city center, and the city’s outward growth caused automobiles to become the main mode of transportation for much of the population in the middle to late twentieth century. However, efforts to reverse this trend at the municipal and state levels have resulted in new commuter rail service that connects Seattle to Everett and Tacoma, a regional Link Light Rail system that extends south from the city core,²⁶ and an inner-city South Lake Union Streetcar network in the South Lake Union area.²⁷

Archaeological excavations confirm that the Seattle area has been inhabited by humans for at least 4,000 years.⁹ By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, the people (now called the Duwamish Tribe) occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay.²⁸

In 1851, a large party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River; they formally claimed it on September 14, 1851.²⁹ Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, the group who would eventually found Seattle.³⁰ Members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851.³¹ The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon and landed on Alki point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851.³¹

After a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and founded the village of “Dewamps” or “Duwamps” on the site of present day Pioneer Square.³¹ Charles Terry and John Low remained at the original landing location and established a village they initially called “New York”, but renamed “New York Alki” in April 1853, from a Chinook word meaning, roughly, by and by or someday.³² New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance for the next few years, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers.³³

David Swinson (“Doc”) Maynard, one of Duwamps’s founders, was the primary advocate to rename the village “Seattle” after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.³⁴ The term, “Seattle”, appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the village were filed. In 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14, 1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of trustees managing the city. Two years later, after a petition was filed by most of the leading citizens, the Legislature disincorporated the town. The town remained a precinct of King County until late 1869 when a new petition was filed and the city was re-incorporated with a Mayor-council government.³¹³⁵
[edit] Timber town

Seattle has a history of boom and bust cycles, as is common to cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure.³⁶
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition had just over 3.7 million visitors during its 138-day run³⁷

The first such boom, covering the early years of the city, was fueled by the lumber industry. (During this period the road now known as Yesler Way was nicknamed “Skid Road”,³⁸ after the timber skidding down the hill to Henry Yesler’s sawmill. This is considered a possible origin for the term which later entered the wider American lexicon as Skid Row.)³⁶ Like much of the American West, Seattle saw numerous conflicts between labor and management, as well as ethnic tensions that culminated in the anti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886.³⁹ This violence was caused by unemployed whites who determined to drive the Chinese from Seattle (anti-Chinese riots also occurred in Tacoma). Martial law was declared, and federal troops were brought in to put down the disorder. Nevertheless, the economic success in the Seattle area was so great that when the Great Seattle fire of 1889 destroyed the central business district, a far grander city center rapidly emerged in its place.⁴⁰ Finance company Washington Mutual, for example, was founded in the immediate wake of the fire.⁴¹ This boom was followed by the construction of a park system, designed by the Olmsted brothers’ landscape architecture firm.³⁶ However, the Panic of 1893 hit Seattle hard.⁴²
[edit] Gold Rush, World War I, and the Great Depression

The second and most dramatic boom and bust resulted from the Klondike Gold Rush, which ended the depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893; in a short time, Seattle became a major transportation center. On July 14, 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed “ton of gold”, and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for the miners in Alaska and the Yukon. Those working men only found lasting wealth in a few cases, however; it was Seattle’s business of clothing the miners and feeding them salmon that panned out in the long run. Along with Seattle, other cities like Everett, Tacoma, Port Townsend, Bremerton, and Olympia, all in the Puget Sound region, became competitors for exchange, rather than mother-lodes for extraction, of precious metals.⁴³ The boom lasted well into the early part of the 20th century and funded many new Seattle companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey borrowed $100 from a friend and founded the American Messenger Company (later UPS). Other Seattle companies founded during this period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer.⁴¹ The Gold Rush era culminated in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of today’s University of Washington campus.⁴⁴
Downtown Seattle and a ferry at the Central Waterfront.

A shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century became massive during World War I, making Seattle somewhat of a company town; the subsequent retrenchment led to the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in the country⁴⁵ A 1912 city development plan by Virgil Bogue went largely unused. Seattle was mildly prosperous in the 1920s but was particularly hard hit in the Great Depression, experiencing some of the country’s harshest labor strife in that era. Violence during the Maritime Strike of 1934 cost Seattle much of its maritime traffic, which was rerouted to the Port of Los Angeles.⁴⁶

Seattle was also the home base of impresario Alexander Pantages who, starting in 1902, opened a number of theaters in the city exhibiting vaudeville acts and silent movies. His activities soon expanded, and the thrifty Greek went on and became one of America’s greatest theater and movie tycoons. Between Pantages and his rival John Considine, Seattle was for a while the western United States’ vaudeville mecca. The several theaters Scottish-born, Seattle-based architect B. Marcus Priteca built for Pantages in Seattle have all been either demolished or converted to other uses, but many of their theaters survive in other cities of the USA, often retaining the Pantages name.
[edit] Post-war years: aircraft and software

The local economy dipped after World War II, which had seen the dispersion of the numerous Japanese-American businessmen, a consequence of Japanese American internment. The local economy rose again with manufacturing company Boeing’s growing dominance in the airliner market.⁴⁷ Seattle celebrated its restored prosperity and made a bid for world recognition with the Century 21 Exposition, the 1962 World’s Fair.⁴⁸ The local economy went into another major downturn in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading “Will the last person leaving Seattle – Turn out the lights.”⁴⁹
Westlake Center, a Downtown mall and southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail. This is the northwest corner of 5th and Pine.

Still, Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company separated its headquarters from its major production facilities. Boeing finally chose to move its corporate headquarters to Chicago.⁵⁰ The Seattle area is still home to Boeing’s Renton narrow-body plant (where the 707, 720, 727, and 757 were assembled, and the 737 is assembled today) and Everett wide-body plant (assembly plant for the 747, 767, 777, and 787); the company’s credit union for employees, BECU, remains based in the Seattle area, though it is now open to all residents of Washington.

As prosperity began to return in the 1980s, the city was stunned by the Wah Mee massacre in 1983, when thirteen people were killed in an illegal gambling club in the International District, Seattle’s Chinatown.⁵¹ Beginning with Microsoft’s 1979 move from Albuquerque, New Mexico to nearby Bellevue, Washington,⁵² Seattle and its suburbs became home to a number of technology companies including Amazon.com, RealNetworks, McCaw Cellular (now part of AT&T Mobility), VoiceStream (now T-Mobile USA), and biomedical corporations such as HeartStream (later purchased by Philips), Heart Technologies (later purchased by Boston Scientific), Physio-Control (later purchased by Medtronic), ZymoGenetics, ICOS (later purchased by Eli Lilly and Company) and Immunex (later purchased by Amgen). This success brought an influx of new citizens with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000,⁵³ and saw Seattle’s real estate become some of the most expensive in the country.⁵⁴ Many of the Seattle area’s tech companies remain relatively strong, but the frenzied dot-com boom years ended in early 2001.⁵⁵⁵⁶

Seattle in this period attracted widespread attention as home to these many companies, but also by hosting the 1990 Goodwill Games⁵⁷ and the APEC leaders conference in 1993, as well as through the worldwide popularity of grunge, a sound that had developed in Seattle’s independent music scene.⁵⁸ Another bid for worldwide attention—hosting the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999—garnered visibility, but not in the manner its sponsors desired, as related protest activity and police reactions to those protests overshadowed the conference itself.⁵⁹ The city was further shaken by the Mardi Gras Riots in 2001, and was literally shaken the following day by the Nisqually Earthquake.⁶⁰

The UK consulting firm Mercer, in a 2009 assessment “conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments”, ranked Seattle 50th worldwide in quality of living; the survey factored in political stability, personal freedom, sanitation, crime, housing, the natural environment, recreation, banking facilities, availability of consumer goods, education, and public services including transportation.⁶¹
[edit] Geography
Panoramic view of Seattle, as seen from the Space Needle.
[edit] Topography
See also: List of Seattle parks, Bodies of water of Seattle, and Regrading in Seattle
Downtown Seattle is bounded by Elliott Bay (lower left), lower Broadway (from upper left to lower right), Yesler Way (lower right), and Denny Way (obscured by clouds).

Seattle is located between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) to the west, and Lake Washington to the east. The city’s chief harbor, Elliott Bay, is an inlet of Puget Sound. To the west, beyond Puget Sound, are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula; to the east, beyond Lake Washington and the eastside suburbs, are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range. Lake Washington’s waters flow to Puget Sound through the Lake Washington Ship canal (a series of two man-made canals), Lake Union, and the Hiram C. Chittenden Locks at Salmon Bay, ending in Shilshole Bay.

The sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields surrounding Seattle were once rich enough to support one of the world’s few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. The surrounding area lends itself well to sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking year-round.^{62 63}

The city itself is hilly, though not uniformly so.⁶⁴ Like Rome, the city is said to lie on seven hills⁶⁵; the lists vary, but typically include Capitol Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Queen Anne, Magnolia, and the former Denny Hill. The Wallingford and Mount Baker neighborhoods are technically located on hills as well. Many of the hilliest areas are near the city center, with Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill collectively constituting something of a ridge along an isthmus between Elliott Bay and Lake Washington.⁶⁶ The break in the ridge between First Hill and Beacon Hill is man-made, the result of two of the many regrading projects that reshaped the topography of the city center.⁶⁷ The topography of the city center was also changed by the construction of a seawall and the artificial Harbor Island (completed 1909) at the mouth of the city’s industrial Duwamish Waterway. The highest point within city limits is at High Point in West Seattle, roughly located near 35th Ave SW and SW Myrtle St. Other notable hills include Crown Hill, View Ridge/Wedgwood/Bryant, Maple Leaf, Phinney Ridge, Mt. Baker Ridge, Highlands/Carkeek/Bitterlake.

North of the city center, Lake Washington Ship Canal connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. It incorporates four natural bodies of water: Lake Union, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, and Union Bay.

Due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire, Seattle is in a major earthquake zone. On February 28, 2001, the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake did significant architectural damage, especially in the Pioneer Square area (built on reclaimed land, as are the Industrial District and part of the city center), but caused no fatalities.⁶⁸ Other strong quakes occurred on January 26, 1700 (estimated at 9 magnitude), December 14, 1872 (7.3 or 7.4),⁶⁸ April 13, 1949 (7.1),⁶⁹ and April 29, 1965 (6.5).⁷⁰ The 1949 quake caused eight known deaths, all in Seattle;⁶⁹ the 1965 quake caused three deaths in Seattle directly, and one more by heart failure.⁷⁰ Although the Seattle Fault passes just south of the city center, neither it⁷¹ nor the Cascadia subduction zone has caused an earthquake since the city’s founding. The Cascadia subduction zone poses the threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, especially in zones built on fill.⁷²

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 142.5 square miles (369 km2),⁷³ 83.9 square miles (217 km2) of which is land and 58.7 square miles (152 km2) water (41.16 percent of the total area).
[edit] Surrounding municipalities
Bainbridge Island Shoreline Lake Forest Park
Puget Sound Mercer Island
Seattle
Vashon Island Tukwila Renton
[edit] Climate
Downtown Seattle averages 58 clear (sunny) days a year, with most of those days occurring between May and September⁷⁴

Seattle’s temperate, rainy climate is usually described as temperate Oceanic or Marine west coast, with mild, wet winters and mild, relatively dry summers. Like much of the Pacific Northwest, according to the Köppen climate classification it falls within a cool, dry-summer subtropical zone (Csb), with cool-summer Mediterranean characteristics such as its usually dry summers.⁷⁵ Other climate classification systems, such as Trewartha, place it firmly in the Oceanic zone (Do).⁷⁶

Temperature extremes are moderated by adjacent Puget Sound, the greater Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington. The region is partially protected from Pacific storms by the Olympic Mountains and from Arctic air by the Cascade Range. Despite being on the margin of the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, the city has a reputation for frequent rain.⁷⁷ This reputation derives from this frequency of precipitation (150 days of precipitation > 0.01 in/0.3 mm) as well as the fact that it is cloudy an average of 201 days and 93 partly cloudy days per year.⁷⁴ At 37.1 inches (942 mm)⁷⁸, the city receives less precipitation than New York, Atlanta, Houston, and most cities of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Seattle was also not listed in a study that revealed the 10 rainiest cities in the continental United States.⁷⁹ Most of the precipitation falls as drizzle or light rain. Thunderstorms occur only occasionally. Seattle reports thunder on just seven days per year (according to ‘Cities Ranked and Rated’ – Bert Sperling and Peter Sander.2007). For comparison Fort Myers, Florida reports thunder on 93 days per year. Kansas City reports 52 ‘thunder days’ and New York City reports 25. There are occasional downpours. One of these downpours occurred in December 2007 when widespread rainfall hit the greater Puget Sound area. It became the second wettest event in Seattle history when a little over 5 inches of rain fell on Seattle in a 24 hour period. The rain also caused five deaths and widespread flooding and damage.⁸⁰ Spring, late fall, and winter are filled with days when it does not rain but looks as if it might because of cloudy, overcast skies. Winters are cool and wet with average lows in the mid to upper 30s °F (2-4 °C) on winter nights. Colder weather can occur, but seldom lasts more than a few days. Summers are dry and warm, with average daytime highs around near 75 °F (24 °C). Hotter weather usually occurs only during a few summer days. Seattle’s hottest official recorded temperature was 103 °F (39 °C) on July 29, 2009;⁸¹ the coldest recorded temperature was 0 °F (−18 °C) on January 31, 1950.⁷⁸
Between October and May, Seattle is mostly or partly cloudy six out of every seven days⁷⁴

Eighty miles (130 km) to the west, the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park on the western flank of the Olympic Mountains receives an annual average rainfall of 142 inches (3,610 mm), and the state capital, Olympia—south of the rain shadow—receives an annual average rainfall of 52 inches (1,320 mm). Snowfall is very infrequent, especially at lower elevations and near the coast, and is usually light and fleeting, lasting only a few days. Heavier snowfall happens infrequently; a recent example happened from December 12–25, 2008, when over one foot of snow fell and stuck on much of the city’s roads, causing widespread difficulties in a city so unaccustomed to heavy snow. Average annual snowfall, as measured at Sea-Tac Airport, is 13 inches (33 cm).⁸² Seattle’s daily record snowfall was 20 inches (51 cm) on January 13, 1950.⁸³ A sunnier and drier climate typically dominates from mid-July to mid-September. An average of 0.8 inches (20 mm) of rain falls in July and 1.0 inch (25 mm) in August. Although the summer climate is considerably drier and less humid than in areas with humid continental climates, a slight dampness can be occasionally felt, usually when temperatures reach above 80 °F (26.7 °C). This dampness is typically more noticeable during the evening when the temperatures have dropped. Because of this, Seattle experiences occasional summer thunderstorms.⁸⁴

The Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an important feature of Seattle’s weather. In the convergence zone, air arriving from the north meets air flowing in from the south. Both streams of air originate over the Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains to Seattle’s west, then reunited by the Cascade Mountains to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced upward, resulting in convection.⁸⁵ Thunderstorms caused by this activity can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself rarely receives worse weather than occasional thunder and ice-pellet showers. The Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm in December 2006 is an exception that brought heavy rain and winds gusting up to 69 mph (111 km/h).

Another exception to Seattle’s dampness may occur in El Niño years, when the marine weather systems track as far south as California and little precipitation falls in the Puget Sound area.⁸⁶ Since the region’s water comes from mountain snowpacks during the drier summer months, El Niño winters can not only produce substandard skiing but can result in water rationing and a shortage of hydroelectric power the following summer.⁸⁷

The Space Needle, dating from the Century 21 Exposition (1962), is Seattle’s most recognizable landmark, having been featured in the logo of the television show Frasier and the backgrounds of the television series Dark Angel, Grey’s Anatomy and iCarly, and films such as It Happened at the World’s Fair, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The fairgrounds surrounding the Needle have been converted into Seattle Center, which remains the site of many local civic and cultural events, such as Bumbershoot, Folklife, and the Bite of Seattle. Seattle Center plays multiple roles in the city, ranging from a public fair ground to a civic center, though recent economic losses have called its viability and future into question.¹⁰² The Seattle Center Monorail was also constructed for Century 21 and still runs from Seattle Center to Westlake Center, a downtown shopping mall, a little over a mile to the southeast.
Pike Place Market

The Smith Tower was the tallest building on the West Coast from its completion in 1914 until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962.¹⁰³ The late 1980s saw the construction of Seattle’s two tallest skyscrapers: the 76 story Columbia Center (completed 1985) is the tallest building in the Pacific Northwest¹⁰⁴ and the fourth tallest building west of the Mississippi River;¹⁰⁵ the Washington Mutual Tower (completed 1988) is Seattle’s second tallest building.¹⁰⁶¹⁰⁷ Other notable Seattle landmarks include Pike Place Market, the Fremont Troll, the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (at Seattle Center), and the Seattle Central Library.

Starbucks has been at Pike Place Market since the coffee company was founded there in 1971. The first store is still operating a block south of its original location.¹⁰⁸

The National Register of Historic Places has over 150 Seattle listings.¹⁰⁹ The city also designates its own landmarks.¹¹⁰
[edit] Culture
[edit] Performing arts
Main article: Arts in Seattle

Seattle has been a regional center for the performing arts for many years. The century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world’s most recorded¹¹¹ and performs primarily at Benaroya Hall.¹¹² The Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, which perform at McCaw Hall (opened 2003 on the site of the former Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center), are comparably distinguished,¹¹³¹¹⁴ with the Opera being particularly known for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner¹¹⁵¹¹⁶ and the PNB School (founded in 1974) ranking as one of the top three ballet training institutions in the United States.¹¹³ The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) is the largest symphonic youth organization in the United States.¹¹⁷ The city also boasts lauded summer and winter chamber music festivals organized by the Seattle Chamber Music Society.¹¹⁸

The 5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, stages Broadway-style musical shows¹¹⁹ featuring both local talent and international stars.¹²⁰ Seattle has “around 100” theatrical production companies¹²¹¹²² and over two dozen live theatre venues, many of them associated with fringe theatre;¹²³ Seattle is probably second only to New York for number of equity theaters¹²⁴ (28 Seattle theater companies have some sort of Actors’ Equity contract).¹²¹ In addition, the 900-seat Romanesque Revival Town Hall on First Hill hosts numerous cultural events, especially lectures and recitals.¹²⁵
The Moore Theatre has been a performing arts venue in Downtown Seattle since its construction in 1907.

Seattle is considered the home of grunge music¹⁴ because it was home to artists such as Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Mudhoney, all of whom reached vast audiences in the early 1990s.¹²⁶ The city is also home to such varied musicians as avant-garde jazz musicians Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, Heart, heavy metal bands Queensrÿche, Nevermore and Sunn O))), as well as such poppier rock bands as Harvey Danger, Goodness, and The Presidents of the United States of America. Such musicians as Jimi Hendrix, Duff McKagan, Nikki Sixx, and Quincy Jones spent their formative years in Seattle.

Since the grunge era, the area has hosted a diverse and influential alternative music scene. The Seattle record label Sub Pop—the first to sign Nirvana and Soundgarden—has signed such non-grunge bands as Band of Horses, Modest Mouse, Murder City Devils, Sunny Day Real Estate, Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, Flight of the Conchords, and Fleet Foxes.¹²⁶

Earlier Seattle-based popular music acts include the collegiate folk group The Brothers Four; The Wailers, a 1960s garage band; The Ventures, an instrumental rock band; pop Young Fresh Fellows and The Posies; pop-punk The Fastbacks; the well-traveled avant-rock of Sun City Girls; and the outright punk of The Fartz (later 10 Minute Warning), The Gits, and 7 Year Bitch.¹²⁷

Seattle annually sends a team of spoken word slammers to the National Poetry Slam and considers itself home to such performance poets as Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champ;¹²⁸ Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ;¹²⁹ and Danny Sherrard, 2007 National Poetry Slam Champ and 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champ.¹³⁰ Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival is a biennial poetry festival that (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry.¹³¹

The city also has movie houses showing both Hollywood productions and works by independent filmmakers.¹³² Among these, the Seattle Cinerama stands out as one of only three movie theaters in the world still capable of showing three-panel Cinerama films.¹³³¹³⁴

Additionally, the city is also home to the Seattle Polish Film Festival, (“SPFF”) an annual film festival showcasing current and past films of Polish cinema.¹³⁵¹³⁶ The festival is produced by the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association and awards the Seattle Spirit of Polish Cinema awards as well as the Viewers Choice of Best Film.

The city is the fictional home to the Nickelodeon cable television show, iCarly.
[edit] Media
Main article: Media in Seattle

As of 2010, Seattle has one major daily newspaper, The Seattle Times. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, known as the P-I, published a daily newspaper from 1863 to March 17, 2009. There is also the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce,¹³⁷ and the University of Washington publishes The Daily, a student-run publication, when school is in session. The most prominent weeklies are the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger; both consider themselves “alternative” papers.¹³⁸ Real Change is a weekly street newspaper that is sold mainly by homeless persons as an alternative to panhandling. There are also several ethnic newspapers, including the Northwest Asian Weekly, and numerous neighborhood newspapers, including the North Seattle Journal.

Seattle is also well served by television and radio, with all major U.S. networks represented, along with at least five other English-language stations and two Spanish-language stations.¹³⁹ Seattle cable viewers also receive CBUT 2 (CBC) from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Non-commercial radio stations include NPR affiliates KUOW-FM 94.9 and KPLU-FM 88.5 (Tacoma). Other stations include KEXP-FM 90.3 (affiliated with EMP), KBCS-FM 91.3 (affiliated with Bellevue College), and KNHC-FM 89.5, which broadcasts an electronic music format and is owned by the public school system and operated by students of Nathan Hale High School. Many Seattle radio stations are also available through Internet radio, with KEXP in particular being a pioneer of Internet radio.¹⁴⁰ Seattle also has numerous commercial radio stations, including KING-FM, one of the last commercial classical music stations in the United States.¹³⁹

Seattle-based online magazines Worldchanging and Grist.org were two of the “Top Green Websites” in 2007 according to Time.¹⁴¹

Seattle also has many online newspapers. The two largest are The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer (the latter online only).
[edit] Tourism
See also: Museums and galleries of Seattle
210 cruise ship visits brought 886,039 passengers to Seattle in 2008.¹⁴²

Among Seattle’s prominent annual fairs and festivals are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival,¹⁴³ Northwest Folklife over the Memorial Day weekend, numerous Seafair events throughout July and August (ranging from a Bon Odori celebration to the Seafair Cup hydroplane races), the Bite of Seattle, one of the largest Gay Pride festivals in the United States, and the art and music festival Bumbershoot, which programs music as well as other art and entertainment over the Labor Day weekend. All are typically attended by 100,000 people annually, as are the Seattle Hempfest and two separate Independence Day celebrations.^144145146 In the past, the Gay Pride parade and festival have been centered on Capitol Hill, but since 2006, festivities have been held city-wide, and the parade has followed a route in Downtown from the retail core to Seattle Center.¹⁴⁷

Other significant events include numerous Native American pow-wows, a Greek Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake, and numerous ethnic festivals (many associated with Festál at Seattle Center).¹⁴⁸
The Seattle skyline viewed from Gas Works Park.

There are other annual events, ranging from the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair & Book Arts Show;¹⁴⁹ an anime convention, Sakura-Con;¹⁵⁰ Penny Arcade Expo, a gaming convention;¹⁵¹ specialized film festivals, such as the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival, the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival;¹⁵² and a two-day, 9,000-rider Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic.¹⁵³

The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, the first public art museum in Washington.¹⁵⁴ The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) opened in 1933; SAM opened a museum downtown in 1991 (expanded and reopened 2007); since 1991, the 1933 building has been SAM’s Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM).¹⁵⁵ SAM also operates the Olympic Sculpture Park (opened 2007) on the waterfront north of the downtown piers. The Frye Art Museum is a free museum on First Hill.

Regional history collections are at the Loghouse Museum in Alki, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Museum of History and Industry and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry collections are at the Center for Wooden Boats and the adjacent Northwest Seaport, the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and the Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include the Nordic Heritage Museum, the Wing Luke Asian Museum and the Northwest African American Museum. Seattle has artist-run galleries,¹⁵⁶ including 10-year veteran Soil Art Gallery,¹⁵⁷ and the newer Crawl Space Gallery.¹⁵⁸

Woodland Park Zoo opened as a private menagerie in 1889, but was sold to the city in 1899.¹⁵⁹ The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977 (undergoing a renovation 2006).¹⁶⁰ The Seattle Underground Tour is an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire.¹⁶¹ There are also many community centers for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, Loyal Heights north of the Canal, and Meadowbrook.¹⁶²

Since the middle 1990s, Seattle has experienced significant growth in the cruise industry, especially as a departure point for Alaska cruises. In 2008, a record total of 886,039 cruise passengers passed through the city, surpassing the number for Vancouver, BC, the other major departure point for Alaska cruises.¹⁶³

Seattle’s mild, temperate marine climate allows year-round outdoor recreation, including walking, cycling, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, rock climbing, motor boating, sailing, team sports, and swimming.¹⁷⁰ In town, many people walk around Green Lake, through the forests and along the bluffs and beaches of 535-acre (2.2 km2) Discovery Park (the largest park in the city) in Magnolia, along the shores of Myrtle Edwards Park on the Downtown waterfront, along the shoreline of Lake Washington at Seward Park, or along Alki Beach in West Seattle. Also popular are hikes and skiing in the nearby Cascade or Olympic Mountains and kayaking and sailing in the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia. In 2005, Men’s Fitness magazine named Seattle the fittest city in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Seattle