Washington

Washington entered the Union on November 11, 1889, as the forty-second state. Located on the Pacific coast of the northwestern United States, it borders Canada, Idaho , Oregon , and the Pacific Ocean.

The first known Europeans to visit the Washington coast were Spaniards who explored the coastline in 1774 and 1775. While searching for a northwest passage across America, the English captain James Cook (1728–1779) arrived in 1778. He recognized the value of sea otter fur, and the maritime fur trade began.

The Lewis and Clark expedition visited the area in 1805. As their account of the trip became known, many British and American fur traders followed their route to the Pacific coast.

By the time Washington became a state in 1889, the population had grown thanks to the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad line six years earlier. Settlers and immigrants made their livings in the lumber, farming, and livestock industries. The city of Seattle became a major seaport in the early 1900s, and the Puget Sound area was the center of shipbuilding activity.

As was true in most states, the economy in Washington suffered during the Great Depression (1929–41). Federally funded public-works projects brought to the state much-needed jobs and revenue. Boeing established the aerospace industry in Washington during World War II (1939–45). At the same time, the federal government built the Hanford Reservation nuclear research center.

The 1960s and 1970s saw rising public concern for the protection of Washington's natural resources. In May 1980 Mount St. Helens erupted and destroyed everything within 230 square miles (600 square kilometers). The volcanic eruption killed fifty-seven people, almost seven thousand deer, elk, and bear, and an estimated twelve million fish. More than two hundred homes were demolished, and 185 miles (300 kilometers) of highway and 15 miles (24 kilometers) of railway were destroyed.

In the early 1990s, when it was confirmed that plutonium produced at the Hanford nuclear facility had leaked into the Columbia River, Washington launched a cleanup program that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

After enjoying economic growth in the 1990s, Boeing announced in 2001 that it was relocating its headquarters to Chicago, Illinois . That same year saw the downward spiral of thousands of dot-com companies in the United States, as well as the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. The state's economy was hard hit, and by the end of 2002 Washington had the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation.

Washington was home to just under 6.4 million people in 2006. Most of the population (81.2 percent) was white, 8.8 percent was Latino or Hispanic, and 6.6 percent was Asian. Seattle was the largest city, followed by Spokane and Tacoma.

Washington's economic activity centers around services, financial institutions, manufacturing, agriculture, and lumber. Tourism is the fourth-largest industry in the state and employs almost 127,000. The state is consistently ranked among the nation's top ten tourist destinations. Seattle is a particularly popular attraction for its Space Needle tower, opera house, and Pacific Science Center, but there are also numerous national parks and historic sites throughout the state.