Seattle

se-at'l, the metropolis of the state of Washington. It is situated on the eastern shore of the southern lobe of Puget Sound, 125 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The immediate site of the city is hilly. It is surrounded in part by fresh water lakes. One of these, Lake Washington, is twenty-two miles long and from two to four miles in width. The site is one of great beauty. Puget Sound and its green islands lie in front of the city. Snow-capped mountains lie in the rear. The rainfall averages 37.65 inches. In December, January, and February there are from fifteen to nineteen rainy days per month. In July and in August there are about five rainy days. The air is invigorating. Malaria is unknown. The summer temperature rarely reaches 90 deg. F. The winter temperature has never been known to fall below zero.

The site of the city was formerly a favorite meeting place of the Indians. Many Indian councils were held here. The town was laid out in 1853. The name is that of an Indian chieftain, a friend of the early settlers. In 1880 there were 3,533 inhabitants. The Great Northern railroad reached the town in 1884. In 1889 the business portion of the city was destroyed by fire. The census of 1890 showed a population of 41,847; that of 1900, a population of 80,671. In 1909 the population was estimated at 260,000.

Seattle is primarily a commercial city. The arm of Puget Sound, on which it is located, forms an extensive deep-water harbor, perfectly protected from storms and accessible at all seasons of the year and at every stage of the tide to the largest vessels afloat. The harbor is a body of deep water four miles long and two miles wide, affording anchorage and perfect shelter. It is alive with shipping. Aside from the fleet of coastwise vessels there is regular steamship service by six lines plying between Seattle and Yokohama, Liverpool, Hamburg, Hongkong, Shanghai, Manila, and a large number of intermediate ports. Endless freight trains pour in from the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Canadian Pacific, the Union Pacific, the Burlington, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul systems. As a local writer has said well:

Flour and wheat from the Western and Middle States, cotton from the South, iron from Birmingham and Pittsburg, agricultural implements from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, locomotives from New Jersey, lumber from the forests of Washington, and a thousand other products of our farms, mills, factories, and forests come to Seattle for shipment to Australia, the Orient, Alaska, the South Sea Islands, and the countries of Europe and Africa, while tea, coffee, sugar, silk, mattings, copra, spices, wool, hides, manila, jute, and many other products of those countries come to her gates for distribution among the eighty-five million consumers of the United States. Her gates swing outward to send American products to all the nations of the earth; they swing inward to receive the products of the world, and everything that passes through her harbor adds something to the material welfare of the city.

The principal staples of export are wheat, flour, lumber, salmon, and coal. Statistics of commerce for 1908 are:

Total exports . . . . . $65,331,866

Total imports . . . . . $59,630,415

The shipments to Alaska alone amounted to $11,736,128, and the receipts from Alaska amounted to $6,264,859. The commerce of the port for the year 1905 amounted to $114,349,524; for 1906, to $129,325,619; for 1907, to $140,372,357; and for 1908, as stated above, to $124,962,281.

Seattle is situated favorably for manufacturing. What between railroads and shipping, not only the Northwest but the whole world is a market. Transportation facilities are unsurpassed. The timber supply is simply immense. Cheap coal lies within one hundred miles of the city. Snoqualmie Falls, only nineteen miles distant, are over one hundred feet higher than Niagara, and the water never fails. These falls and others already harnessed by incorporated companies furnish the city with power.

The nation has treated Seattle generously. The Puget Sound navy yard is large enough to dock a battleship. It is well equipped to give employment to half a thousand mechanics. The shipbuilding industry has been fostered. The Nebraska, one of the large battleships of the American navy, was built by a Seattle firm. Fort Lawton, a United States military post, is maintained within the city limits. The parade ground is a beautiful park. The United States assay office located here had paid out up to January 1, 1909, the large sum of $175,000,000 for gold, chiefly Alaskan.

The city owns its own water and lighting plants. Clear, soft water is brought by gravity from Cedar River in the foothills of the Cascades, twenty-eight miles away. The Seattle electric plant for light and power is situated on the same stream. The free public library has over 100,000 bound volumes. Andrew Carnegie gave $220,000 for a building and the city invested as much more in a site and equipment. Five branch libraries are maintained. Public schools are supported without stint.

The University of Washington is situated here. Its grounds lie between two lakes. The bank clearings which are ever indicative of business conditions crept up from $36,000,000 in 1897 to $488,000,000 in 1908. Bank deposits grew in the same ten years from $4,600,000 to $73,000,000. The harbor is full of shipping. Immense quantities of freight are to be seen on the wharves. Seattle is a bustling, thriving city, with fine business blocks, electric lights, electric railways, and every modern improvement.

An interesting landmark is a sixty-foot cedar totem pole from Alaska. It stands in a public square. It is a genuine Eskimo pole carved and colored in totem style. The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1908 drew a large number of visitors.