SEATTLE

SEATTLE, Washington (pop. 563,374; metropolitan area 3,275,847), the largest city and most prominent commercial center in the Pacific Northwest, lies on a narrow strip of land between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, framed by the Olympic and Cascade Mountains. Euro-Americans settled in the area in 1851 and encountered the Duwamish leader, Chief Sealth, for whom the city is named. Early business leaders exploited natural resources, including lumber and coal, and developed a successful shipping industry on Puget Sound and along the west coast. Seattle weathered an Indian war (1856), losing the transcontinental railroad to Tacoma (1873), anti-Chinese riots (1886), and a fire that destroyed the commercial district (1889). The arrival of the Great Northern Railroad terminus and the discovery of gold in the Klondike in the 1890s occasioned exceptional growth through the first decade of the twentieth century, as Seattle became the supply center for the Alaskan gold rush.

The struggle between the forces of social and civic order and those advocating a wide-open town tolerating some forms of vice dominated Seattle politics. However, by the 1920s, a strong middle class had gained ascendancy over the city's rough and tumble elements. A generation of public works, including street grading, land reclamation, sophisticated water and sewer system creation, parks

system development, sluicing Denny Hill, and culminating in the Lake Washington Ship Canal dedication in 1917, changed the physical face of the city. Early labor organizing and agitation, especially by the International Workers of the World, climaxed in the 1919 General Strike that shut down all but emergency services for five days.

Seattle pioneered municipal ownership of utilities and was a national leader in the development of public power. During and after World War II, the Boeing Company became a powerful economic force through its commercial and military airplane manufacturing. Seattle's economy, tied closely to Boeing's fortunes in the 1970s, diversified in the 1980s and 1990s into technology, biotechnology, banking, insurance, medical services, and tourism.

Seattle is home to the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University, and a strong community college system. The city supports an array of professional sports franchises and cultural institutions including ballet, opera, symphony, and numerous theater companies. The natural beauty of the region sustains active outdoor recreation. Seattle's casual, middle-class lifestyle was rocked at the turn of the twenty-first century by the World Trade Organization and Mardi Gras riots, and the cancellation of millennium celebration in fear of a terrorist attack on the Space Needle, Seattle's most visible monument. The 2000 census revealed increased ethnic and racial diversity as minorities and foreign-born populations grew to comprise 30 percent of the city's residents.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berner, Richard C. Seattle in the 20th Century. 3 vols. Seattle: Charles Press, 1991–1999.

Buerge, David. Seattle in the 1880s. Seattle: Historical Society of Seattle and King County, 1986.

Morgan, Murray. Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982.

Sale, Roger. Seattle Past and Present. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976.

ScottCline