- Seattle is the largest city in Washington state and its economic capital. Settled in 1851, its deep harbor and acquisition of Puget Sound’s first steam-powered sawmill quickly established it as a center of trade and industry. It gained the Territorial University (now University of Washington) in 1861, but was snubbed by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1874 when it picked Tacoma as its western terminus. Despite this, the town prospered thanks to independent railroad development fueled by local coal deposits…
- Seattle Neighborhoods: Interbay — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Once a salt marsh between two extensions of Elliott Bay, the Interbay neighborhood is home to businesses and industries representing the wide sweep of Seattle’s history. A transcontinental railroad, first completed in the nineteenth century, runs next to the home of a twenty-first century biotechnology company. A food bank, a fishing fleet, and a golf course round out the wide variety of activities where once deranged hermits hid from society.