Top 10 Facts about Seattle

Top 10 Facts about Seattle

Seattle is the northernmost major city in the United States, situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington. The city was settled on November 13, 1851, at what is now West Seattle. It was relocated the following year to a site across Elliott Bay near a Duwamish Indian village. It was named “Seattle” in 1852, in honor of Chief Si’ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

The city of Seattle is a lively place that thrives with industrial, commercial, and cultural activities all-round the year. Its waters teem with great oceangoing ships, its streets with automobiles, its rail lines with transcontinental freighters and passenger trains, and its skies with aircraft of every description.

Although the city is known worldwide for its financial and commercial success, here is a list of the top 10 facts about Seattle;

1. Pike Place Market started because of overpriced onions

Pike Place Market – Unsplash

Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was named after its central street, Pike Place, which runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street on the western edge of Downtown Seattle. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers’ markets in the United States.

Before the creation of the Pike Place Market, local Seattle area farmers sold their goods on consignment through the wholesalers on Western Avenue. As a result, the farmers would little to no profit and the consumers will be overcharged because of the dubious middleman practices. As consumers and farmers grew increasingly vocal in their unhappiness over the situation, Thomas P. Revelle took advantage of the precedent of an 1896 Seattle city ordinance that allowed the city to designate tracts of land as public markets.

2. Seattle has a real-life superhero turned to villain

Phoenix Jones – Wikipedia

Phoenix Jones is a real-life superhero who patrolled the city of Seattle and intervened in public assault. Initially he wore a ski mask but later developed a full costume which consists of a Dragon Skin brand bulletproof vest and stab plating, as well as equipment including a stun baton, pepper spray or tear gas, handcuffs and a first aid kit.

The man behind the mask was Benjamin John Francis Fodor born in 1988 in Texas. He was a mixed martial artist signed to World Series of Fighting, where he has fought at two catchweights, Strikeforce and ONE Championship fighter Caros Fodor.

Sadly, on January 9, 2020, Jones was arrested for allegedly selling Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) to an undercover police officer. At the time of his arrest, police alleged that he and his accomplice were also in possession of about 4 grams of cocaine.

3. Home to the world’s longest floating boat

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge – Flickr

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge officially the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge is a 7,710-foot-long (2,350 m) floating bridge that carries Washington State Route 520 across Lake Washington from Seattle to its eastern suburbs.

The original Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, also named after state governor Albert D. Rosellini, opened on August 28, 1963. The new bridge opened in April 2016 and replaced the old floating bridge, which was 130 feet (40 m) shorter. It was designed to be more stable in stronger winds and raised the bridge deck much higher above the surface of the lake than the old bridge.

It is the longest floating bridge in the world as well as the world’s widest, measuring 116 feet (35 m) at its midpoint.

4. Seattle is (allegedly) home to the world’s first gas station

Old Gas Pump – Flickr

In 1907, John McLean builds what some say is the world’s first gasoline service station at Holgate Street and Western Avenue in Seattle. However, this is disputed by a historian for the Shell Oil Co. maintained that Shell subsidiary, Automobile Gasoline Co., offered drive-through refueling services in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1905.

Before the gas station, motorists would purchase gasoline in wooden boxes containing two five-gallon cans from a general store or a livery stable. The cans were filled from a storage tank on the premises and because the size of the refillable cans was known, there was no need for a measuring device on the tank.   

5. Home to the larges man-made island in the United States

Harbor Island – Flickr

Harbor Island is an artificial island in the mouth of the Duwamish River in Seattle, built by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company and completed in 1909. Since 1912, the island has been used for commercial and industrial activities including secondary lead smelting, shipbuilding and repair, bulk petroleum storage, metal fabrication and containerized cargo shipping. Warehouses, laboratories and other buildings are located on the island.

Upon its completion, it was the largest artificial island in the world, at 350 acres (1.4 km2). It lost its title as the world’s largest artificial island in 1938 with the completion of Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, at 395 acres (1.60 km2). It regained the title in 1967, at which time its area had increased to nearly 397 acres (1.61 km2). However, it lost its title again in 2004, Rokkō Island in Kobe harbor in Japan is over 3.5 times larger.

Today, it remains as the largest man-made island in the United States.

6. Seattle has an entire wall filled with used gum

The Market Theater Gum Wall – Flickr

The Market Theater Gum Wall is a brick wall covered in used chewing gum under Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle, located on Post Alley near Pike Street, south of the market’s main entrance off 1st Avenue.

The concept originally started in 1990 when people waiting to get into shows at Unexpected Productions stuck their gum and coins on the wall to pass the time.

7. Seattle is home to the country’s first 24/7 radio station

Radio antenna – Flickr

KEXP-FM formerly called KCMU is a public radio station in Seattle, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys. It was started by University of Washington undergraduates John Kean, Cliff Noonan, Victoria (“Tory”) Fiedler, and Brent Wilcox.

Seattle’s KEXP FM was the country’s first 24/7 high-quality content radio station. It is also purportedly one of the first radio stations in the country to play legendary Bronx-born hip-hop artist and DJ Grandmaster Flash.

8. Seattle was the first major American city to elect a female mayor

Seattle Mayor Bertha Knight Landes, 1926 – Wikipedia

Bertha Ethel Knight Landes was the first female mayor of a major American city, serving as mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1926 to 1928. Just six years after American women won the right to vote.

Landes was the only female to serve as mayor of the city until Jenny Durkan assumed Seattle’s mayoral office on November 28, 2017.

9. The Space Needle in Seattle was originally sketched on a napkin

The Space Needle – Flickr

The Space Needle is an iconic observation tower in Seattle, located in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood. On April 19, 1999, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Board designated the tower a historic landmark.

Space Needle is the result of a compromise between the designs of Edward E. Carlson and John Graham. Jr. Edward E. Carlson’s sketch (on a napkin) of a giant balloon tethered to the ground (the gently sloping base) and architect John Graham’s concept of a flying saucer (the halo that houses the restaurant and observation deck). Victor Steinbrueck introduced the hourglass profile of the tower.

10. The Seattle General Strike of 1919 was the first general strike in the country

Seattle General Strike 1919 Participants Leaving Shipyard – Wikipedia

The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first 20th-century solidarity strike in the United States to be proclaimed a “general strike.” The massive strikes shut down the nation’s steel, coal, and other industries and threaten civil unrest in a dozen cities.

Big strikes in the past had usually led to big violence, but this one remained completely peaceful, and in doing so provided a model for later mobilizations.