- Seattle Neighborhoods: Fremont — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Fremont, one of Seattle’s liveliest neighborhoods, modestly calls itself “the Center of the Universe.” Located north of the Ship Canal that connects Lake Union with Puget Sound, it is home to sculptural curiosities and a lively mix of bistros, artist studios, boutiques, and coffee shops. Starting out as cluster of small industries on the north Lake Union shore, it prospered from railroads and trolleys and went into decline when passenger transit faded out in the 1930s and 1940s. It became an artsy Mecca in the 1960s. Today, with the arrival of high tech companies, it is undergoing another transition.
- Seattle Neighborhoods: Queen Anne Hill — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Queen Anne Hill is a largely residential community, rising 456 feet above Puget Sound. Named for a style of architecture popular in the 1880s, the hill’s steep slopes made it one of the last neighborhoods in Seattle to be completely developed.
- The Fremont Bridge, the first double-leaf bascule drawbridge spanning the Lake Washington Ship Canal, opened June 15, 1917, 19 days before the Government Locks at Ballard were officially dedicated. The bridge links the neighborhoods of Fremont and north Queen Anne, previously connected by a streetcar-carrying wooden trestle.
- Seattle Neighborhoods: Magnolia — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood, a peninsula situated at the northern entrance to Elliott Bay, is home to pairs of nesting eagles as well as 20,000 human residents (in 2001) dependent upon bridges to gain access to the rest of the city. Magnolia consists of two hills once blanketed by forests and separated by a natural meadow. The area’s development started in 1853 with a dreamer’s vision of a transcontinental railroad, which arrived four decades later. Also at home in Magnolia’s four square miles is the oldest lighthouse on Puget Sound, Discovery Park (Fort Lawton), a state-of-the-art water treatment plant largely hidden by foot paths and creative landscaping, and Fishermen’s Terminal, which berths much of Puget Sound’s fishing fleet.