47°36′N 122°20′W · an unofficial invitation
Welcome aboard. Seattle is a city you arrive at by water, with mountains on two sides and the Sound in between. An unofficial invitation: ten places, its story, and a ferry you can steer.
Seattle keeps Pacific time.
The red line is the ferry to Bainbridge Island: about 35 minutes from Colman Dock to Eagle Harbor.
Ten marks on the chart
From the market at the water's edge to a garden on the lake. Scroll, and the chart sails along the shore to each one.
Pike Place Market opened on August 17, 1907, a damp Saturday, when eight farmers sold out to a crowd of nearly 10,000 shoppers. In 1971 Seattle voted to save it from the wrecking ball, and the neon Public Market Center sign and clock have glowed over the entrance since 1937.
Open in Google MapsWhere a double-decker highway stood until 2019, a 20-acre Waterfront Park now runs along Elliott Bay from Pioneer Square to Belltown. Overlook Walk carries you down nearly 100 vertical feet from the Market to the water. Downhill, for once.
Open in Google MapsOn Queen Anne's south slope, Kerry Park gives the postcard view: downtown, Elliott Bay, and Mount Rainier whenever the clouds allow. Albert and Katharine Kerry, who lived nearby, gave the land to the city in 1927.
Open in Google MapsThe locks lift boats between salt Puget Sound and the freshwater lakes, about 20 feet higher, and have done since 1917. Beside them, a fish ladder of 21 steps lets salmon climb home while you watch through underwater windows: sockeye in July, chinook in late August, coho in late September.
Open in Google MapsSeattle's largest park: more than 500 acres of forest, meadow and sea cliff on Magnolia Bluff, with two miles of protected beach. At the bottom of the bluff, the little West Point Lighthouse has marked the way into Elliott Bay since 1881.
Open in Google MapsTwo and a half miles of sand and path from Alki Point to Duwamish Head, facing the Olympics and a steady parade of ferries. The Denny Party came ashore here on November 13, 1851, in pouring rain; Si'ahl's people helped them through that first wet winter.
Open in Google MapsOn the north shore of the Ship Canal, Fremont modestly calls itself the Center of the Universe. Under the Aurora Bridge lives the Fremont Troll, built in 1990 and clutching a real Volkswagen Beetle; in 2005 the city renamed his street Troll Avenue North.
Open in Google MapsThe rusted towers of a plant that made the city's gas from 1906 to 1956, kept by landscape architect Richard Haag instead of torn down. Climb Kite Hill for a wide view across Lake Union to downtown.
Open in Google Maps230 acres on Lake Washington, run together by the University of Washington and the city, free and open every day. Its grand walk, Azalea Way, was once a horse-racing track, and the Seattle Japanese Garden inside has been growing its koi ponds and teahouse since 1960.
Open in Google MapsOn top of the hill, Volunteer Park is an Olmsted park with a glass conservatory and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Climb the spiral stairs of its 1906 water tower for a free view over the city. Your legs earn it.
Open in Google MapsBefore you sail
39 in
Seattle averages about 39 inches a year, less than New York, Boston, Atlanta or Miami. It just spreads it out, over about 156 days. Mostly a polite drizzle.
0.6 in
July averages just 0.6 inches of rain, while November brings more than 6. Come in July and you may not need the umbrella at all.
14,410 ft
The Olympics across the water to the west, the Cascades to the east, and Mount Rainier, 14,410 feet, to the southeast, when it decides to come out.
