POPULATION: 608,660 (City), 3,671,478 (Metro) | TIME ZONE: Pacific | CLIMATE: Oceanic or temperate marine (cool, wet winters and warm, relatively dry summers)
Moving to Seattle? You almost ended up moving to New York. In the 1850s, a couple of explorers claimed the land now known as Alki Point and named it New York Alki. Why? Uncertain. Possibly because some of the expedition members were form New York. And Alki is a Chinook word meaning by and by. Eventually, a more sensible head prevailed and the area was name for Chief Seattle. Despite the ostensible honor, relations with the Native American tribes were iffy, and at one point culminated in an only moderately enthusiastic battle.
The city of Seattle is like many others that have relied on natural and mineral resources: it has a history of going boom and bust repeatedly. Seattles first boom was as a lumber town—which eventually wiped out extraordinary, old-growth forests towering to 400 feet. During this time, there was plenty of labor tensions as well as ethnic tensions. Violent riots by out-of-work whites against Chinese laborers inspired a declaration of martial law and intervention by federal troops. The first bust came with the Panic of 1893, a nationwide depression that hit Seattle especially hard.
NICKNAME(S)
The Emerald City
The Jet City
Rain City
The City of Flowers
The City of Goodwill
MOTTO(S)
Alki (Washington state motto, Chinook phrase meaning by and by)
RANDOM SONG ABOUT THE CITY
Seattle, by Perry Como (also covered by Bobby Sherman)
PRO SPORTS TEAMS
Seattle Seahawks (NFL)
Seattle Mariners (MLB)
Seattle Sounders FC (MLS)
Seattle Sounders FC2 (USL)
Seattle Storm (WNBA)
Seattle Reign FC (NWSL)
ALSO KNOWN FOR...
Coffee
Rain
Giant geoduck clams (pronounced gooey-duck)
Grunge rock
The birthplace of Starbucks
Amazon
Microsoft
Costco
Sleepless In Seattle
Frasier
Grey's Anatomy
The Space Needle
Pike Place Market and fish throwing
The worlds longest floating bridge
The countrys most literate city
More library-card holders per capita than any other U.S. city
The first Beatles song played on the radio in the U.S.
The largest man-made island
Mt. Rainier
Jimi Hendrix, Kenny G, Bill Gates, Adam West, Rainn Wilson, Carol Channing, Judy Collins, Mario Batali, Macklemore, Gypsy Rose Lee, Gail Devers, Macklemore, Apolo Ohno, Cameron Crowe, Dave Grohl, Gary Hall, Jr., Quincy Jones, Dave Matthews, Bill Nye, Bill Russell, Tom Robbins, Howard Schultz, Eddie Vedder, Ann Wilson, Ray Charles, Kurt Cobain, Alex Haley, Frank Herbert, Bruce Lee, August Wilson