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{{Infobox Settlement|official_name = City of Seattle|image_skyline = Seattle_Ferry.jpg|settlement_type = City|subdivision_type1 = [Political divisions of the United States|subdivision_type2 = List of counties in Washington|subdivision_name = United States|established_title = [Municipal corporation|established_date = December 2 1869|leader_name = [Greg Nickels [2006|population_footnotes ={{cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/SUB-EST2006.html |publisher=United States Census Bureau |title=Population Estimates for Places over 100,000: 2000 - 2006 |date=[2007-06-28 |accessdate=2007-09-27--> {{cite web| url=http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/cb07-51tbl2.pdf| title=Population Estimates for the 100 Most Populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas| publisher=United States Census Bureau| date=2007-04-05|utc_offset = -8|timezone_DST = [Pacific Daylight Time|utc_offset_DST = -7|postal_code_type =|postal_code =|area_code = Area code 206|latd = 47 |latm = 36 |lats = 35 |latNS = N|longd = 122 |longm = 19 |longs = 59 |longEW = W|elevation_m = 0–158|elevation_ft = 0–520|website = www.seattle.gov|blank_name = Federal Information Processing Standard|blank_info = 53-63000|blank1_name = Geographic Names Information System feature ID|blank1_info = 1512650|footnotes =-->Seattle () is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located in the U.S. state of Washington between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 96 miles (155 km) south of the United States–Canadian border in King County, Washington, of which it is the county seat.

Seattle was first settled by Europeans on November 13, 1851, by Arthur A. Denny and his crew, which would subsequently become known as the Denny party. Early settlements in the area were called New York-Alki and Duwamps. In 1853, David Swinson Maynard suggested that the main settlement be renamed "Seattle," which was an anglicized rendition of the name of Noah Sealth, the collective chief of the two indigenous tribes. As of 2006, the city had an estimated population of 582,174 and an estimated Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas of approximately 3.3 million. Seattle is the hub of the Seattle metropolitan area, which also includes Tacoma, Washington, Bellevue, Washington, and Everett, Washington. Seattle's official nickname is the "Emerald City," the result of a contest held in the early 1980s to designate a new nickname for the city; the reference is to the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area. It is also referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska,""Queen City," and "Jet City," the latter due to the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as List of people from Seattle.

Seattle is often regarded as the birthplace of grunge music, and has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee,(1)
(2)
The company (under various names) originated in Coupeville, Washington (1968), moved to Seattle (1971), then moved to Vashon Island (1983), before being sold to Atlanta, Georgia owners (1998) and sold to Starbucks in 2003. and Tully's Coffee. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes. Seattle was the site of the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 of the World Trade Organization, and the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity by anti-globalization activists. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle the most literate city in America in 2005. Moreover, analysis conducted in 2004 by the United States Census Bureau of 2002 survey data indicated that Seattle was the most educated city in the U.S. with 48.8 percent of residents 25 and older having at least bachelor degrees. Based on per capita income, in 2006 the Seattle metropolitan area ranked 17th out 363 metropolitan areas in a study by the Census Bureau.

History Founding What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last Ice age#Glaciation in North America. Archaeological excavations at West Point (Seattle) in Discovery Park (Seattle), Magnolia, Seattle, Washington, confirm that the Seattle area has been inhabited by humans for at least 4,000 years, and probably much longer.Talbert tohl-AHL-too ("herring house") and later hah-AH-poos ("where there are horse clams") at the mouth of the Duwamish River in what is now the Industrial District, Seattle, Washington has been inhabited since the 6th century BC.Dailey (map with village 33, referencing his footnotes 2, 9, and 10) The Dkhw'Duw'Absh and Xachua'Bsh people (now called the Duwamish (tribe)) occupied at least 17 villages in the mid-1850s,After historical epidemiology 62% losses due to introduced diseases. living in some 93 permanent Native American long houses (khwaac'ál'al) along Elliott Bay, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish, and the lower Duwamish, Black River (Duwamish River), and Cedar River (Washington)s.(1) Anderson & Green (2) (3) Dailey (4){{cite web| last = | first = | date =c. 2003-07-04 per http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?WHEN=PAST&eventID=2926 "Native Art of the Northwest Coast: Collection Insight" | year = | month = | url =http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/Learn/Teach/SongStorySpeech/Content/SalishArtCulture.htm | title ="The people and their land" | work =Puget Sound Native Art and Culture | publisher =Seattle Art Museum | accessdate =2006-04-21 --> (5) {{cite web| last =Crowley | first =Walt | coauthors = |date=2003-03-13 | year = | month = | url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5402 | title ="Native American tribes sign Point Elliott Treaty at Mukilteo on January 22, 1855." | work=HistoryLink.org Essay 5402 | publisher = | accessdate =2007-10-14-->

The first Caucasian race to attempt settlement in the area were the Collins Party, who filed legal claim to land at the mouth of the Duwamish River on September 14, 1851. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party were on the way to their claim when they passed the scouts of the group of settlers that would eventually found Seattle, the Denny Party. The scouts for the Denny Party, Terry Lee, David Denny, and John Low, would lay claim to land on Alki, Seattle, Washington on September 28, 1851, with Terry Low returning to Portland, Oregon carrying a message from David Denny telling his brother, Arthur Denny, to "Come at once."{{cite web| last =Crowley | first =Walt | authorlink = Walt Crowley | coauthors = |date=1998-08-31 | year = | month = | url =http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=303 | title ="Seattle -- a Snapshot History of Its Founding" | work =HistoryLink.org Essay 303 | publisher = | accessdate =2007-10-14 --> Following the instructions of David Denny, the rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland and landed on Alki during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851. The landing party's first sight of their new homestead was the roofless cabin that David had been unable to complete due to a fever.

After spending a winter of frequent rainstorms and high winds on Alki Point, most of the Denny Party moved across Elliott Bay and settled on land where present day Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington is located and established the village of "Dewamps" or "Duwamps." The only members of the party that did not migrate to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay were Charles Terry and John Low, who remained at the original landing location and established a village they initially called "New York," after Terry's hometown, until April 1853 when they renamed it "Alki," a Chinook Jargon word meaning, roughly, by and by or someday. The villages of New York-Alki and Duwamps would compete for dominance in the area for the next few years, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers.

David Swinson ("Doc") Maynard, one of the village's founders, was the primary advocate for renaming the village to "Seattle" after Chief Sealth (si'áb Si'ahl) of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.(1){{cite web| editor=Thomas R. Speer, editor | date =[2004-07-22 | url =http://www.duwamishtribe.org/Life_siahl.doc | title ="Chief Si'ahl" | format=DOC | work =http://www.duwamishtribe.org/html/chief_si_ahl.html "Chief Si'ahl" | publisher =Duwamish Tribe | accessdate =2007-10-14 --> Includes bibliography. (2){{cite web| author=Kenneth G. Watson | date =[2003-01-18 | url =http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5071 | title ="Seattle, Chief Noah" | publisher =HistoryLink | accessdate =2007-10-14 --> (3) Morgan (1951, 1982), p.20 Doc Maynard's advocacy bore fruit, because when the first plats for village were filed on May 23, 1853, it was for the Town of Seattle. In 1855, nominal legal land settlement were established and the city was incorporated in 1865 and again in 1869, after having existed as an unincorporated town from 1867 to 1869.{{cite web| author=Greg Lange | coauthors =Cassandra Tate | date =[1998-11-04 | url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=168 | title =Legislature incorporates the Town of Seattle for the first time on January 14, 1865. | publisher =HistoryLink | accessdate =2007-10-14-->

Major events skyline, and Mount Rainier (to the right).Major events in Seattle's history include the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which destroyed the central business district (but took no lives); the History of Seattle before 1900#Relations between whites and Chinese; Kinnear's article originally appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and was later privately published in a small volume. the Klondike gold rush, which made Seattle a major transportation center; the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of the University of Washington campus; the Seattle General Strike of 1919, the first general strike in the country; the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, a World's Fair; the 1990 Goodwill Games; the APEC leaders conference in 1993, and the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, marked by street protests and a series of riots.

Economic history Seattle has a history of boom and bust cycles, common in cities of its size. Seattle has several times risen as a company town or through economic specialization, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to successfully rebuild infrastructure. Author has granted blanket permission for material from that paper to be reused in Wikipedia. This article is no longer available. Now available at wikisource:Seattle: Booms and Busts.

, designed by Rem Koolhaas, is the result of a public vote on the "Libraries for All" bond measure approved by Seattle voters on November 3 1998.The first such boom, covering the early years of the city, was fueled by the lumber industry. (During this period the road now known as Yesler Way was nicknamed "Skid row" after the timber skidding down the street to Henry Yesler's sawmill. The term later entered the wider American vocabulary as Skid Row.) This boom was followed by the construction of an Olmsted Brothers-designed park system.

The second and most dramatic boom was the direct result of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, which ended the national depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893. On July 14 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed "ton of gold", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for those heading north. The boom lasted well into the early part of the 20th century and funded the start-up of many new Seattle companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey borrowed $100 from a friend and founded the American Messenger Company (later United Parcel Service). Other Seattle companies founded during this period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer.

Next came the shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century, followed by the unused city development plan of Virgil Bogue. Seattle was the major point of departure during World War II for troops heading to the North Pacific, and Boeing manufactured many of the war's bombers.

The local economy dipped after the war, but rose again with the expansion of Boeing, fueled by the growth of the commercial aviation industry. When this particular cycle went into a major downturn in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard (advertising) reading "Will the last person leaving Seattle — Turn out the lights."

The real estate agents were Bob McDonald and Jim Youngren, as cited at Don Duncan, Washington: the First One Hundred Years, 1889–1989 (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 1989), 108, 109–110; The Seattle Times, February 25, 1986, p. A3; Ronald R. Boyce, Seattle-Tacoma and the Southern Sound (Bozeman, Montana: Northwest Panorama Publishing, 1986), 99; Walt Crowley, Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), 297. , the southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail.Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company announced a desire to separate its headquarters from its major production facilities. Following a bidding war among a number of major cities, Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago. The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Boeing Renton Factory (where the Boeing 707, 720, Boeing 727, and Boeing 757 were assembled, and the Boeing 737 is assembled today), and Boeing Everett Factory (assembly plant for the Boeing 747, Boeing 767, Boeing 777 and the upcoming Boeing 787); and BECU, formerly the Boeing Employees Credit Union.

Next, technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com, RealNetworks, McCaw Cellular (now AT&T Wireless), VoiceStream (now T-Mobile), and biomedical corporations such as Philips, Boston Scientific, ZymoGenetics and Amgen, found homes in Seattle and its suburbs. Even locally-headquartered coffee company Starbucks held investments in numerous Internet and software interests. This success brought an influx of new citizens with a population increase within city limits of almost fifty thousand between the 1990 and 2000 United States Census and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country, along with that of San Francisco, California, New York City, Los Angeles, California, and Boston, Massachusetts. Many of these companies remain relatively strong, but the frenzied dot-com bubble years ended in early 2001. Gomes considers the bubble to have ended with the peak of the March 2000 peak of NASDAQ. Ewalt refers to the advertising on Super Bowl XXXIV (January 2000) as "the dot-com bubble's Waterloo".

Geography Topography Seattle is located between Puget Sound--an inlet of the Pacific Ocean--and Lake Washington. West beyond the Sound are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains; east beyond Lake Washington and the Eastside (King County, Washington) suburbs are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range. The rivers, forests, lakes, and fields were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary (or semi-sedentary) hunter-gatherer societies. Opportunities for sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking are nearby and accessible almost all the year.

The city itself, somewhat like San Francisco, is hilly, though not uniformly so. Like Rome, the city is said to lie on Seven hills of Seattle; the lists vary, but typically include Capitol Hill, First Hill, West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Queen Anne, and the former Denny Hill. Many of the hilliest areas are near the city center, with Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill collectively constituting something of a ridge along an isthmus between the chief harbor, Elliott Bay (an inlet of Puget Sound) and Lake Washington. The topography of Downtown has been reshaped by History of Seattle 1900-1940#Leader of the Northwest: 1900 to 1915, a seawall, and the construction of an artificial island, Harbor Island (completed 1909), at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway.

The man-made Lake Washington Ship Canal incorporates four natural bodies of water: Lake Union, Salmon Bay, Portage Bay, and Union Bay, connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington.

Seattle is in an earthquake zone and has experienced a number of significant quakes, most recently (as of 2007) the Richter Scale Nisqually Earthquake, February 28, 2001, which did significant architectural damage, especially in the Pioneer Square area (built on landfill, as are the Industrial District and part of Downtown), but caused no fatalities.Other strong quakes occurred on December 14 1872 (estimated at 7.3 or 7.4 magnitude), April 13 1949 (7.1), and April 29, 1965 (6.5). The 1949 quake caused 8 known deaths, all in Seattle; the 1965 quake caused three deaths in Seattle directly, and one more by heart failure. Although the Seattle Fault passes just south of downtown, neither it nor the Cascadia subduction zone has caused an earthquake since the city’s founding. The Cascadia subduction zone poses the threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, especially in zones built on fill.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 369.2 square kilometre (142.5 square mile), 217.2 km² (83.9 mi²) of which is land and 152.0 km² (58.7 mi²) water. The total area is 41.16% water.

Climate is bounded by Elliott Bay and the Alaskan Way Viaduct (lower left) and I-5 (from upper left to lower right)Seattle's mild climate is usually classified as Marine west coast (Cfb). However, its wet-winter dry-summer pattern shows some characteristics of a Mediterranean climate (Csb), and it is sometimes classified this way. Temperature extremes are moderated by adjacent Puget Sound and Lake Washington as well as the more distant Pacific Ocean. The region is partially protected from Pacific storms by the Olympic Mountains and from Arctic air by the Cascade Range. Despite being on the margin of the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, the city has a reputation for frequent rain. In reality, the so-called "rainy city" receives an unremarkable of precipitation (meteorology) a year, which is much less than New York City, Atlanta, and Houston and most cities of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Seattle's worldwide reputation for rain derives from the fact that it is cloudy (not rainy) an average of 226 days per year (vs. 132 in New York City). Most of the precipitation falls as drizzle or light rain, with only occasional downpours. The spring, late fall, and winter are filled with days when it does not rain but looks as if it may because of cloudy, overcast skies. As for temperature, winters are cool and wet with average lows around 35–40°F (2–4°C) on winter nights. Colder weather can occur, but seldom lasts more than a few days. Summers are dry and warm, with average daytime highs around 73–80°F (22.2–26.7°C). Hotter weather usually occurs only during a few summer days. Seattle's hottest official recorded temperature was on July 20 1994; the coldest recorded temperature was 0°F (-18°C) on January 31, 1950.

To the west 80 miles (130 km), the Hoh Rain Forest, in Olympic National Park on the western flank of the Olympic Mountains, receives an annual average rainfall of , and the state capital, Olympia, south of the rain shadow, receives an annual average rainfall of 52 inches (132 cm). Snowfall is very infrequent, especially at lower altitudes and near the coast, and is usually light and fleeting, lasting only a few days. Average annual snowfall, as measured at Sea-Tac Airport, is 13 inches (33 cm). Seattle's record snowfall was on January 13, 1950. Sunnier and drier "Climate of California" typically dominates from mid-July to mid-September. An average of of rain falls in July and an average of in August. Although the summer climate in the Seattle area is considerably drier and less humid than areas with humid continental climates, a slight dampness can be occasionally felt, usually when temperatures reach above . This dampness is typically more noticeable during the evening when the temperatures have dropped. Because of this, Seattle experiences occasional summer thunderstorms.

The Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an important feature of Seattle's weather. In the convergence zone, air arriving in the area from the north meets air flowing in from the south. Both streams of air originate over the Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains to Seattle's west, then reunited by the Cascade Mountains to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced upward, resulting in convection.

Thunderstorms caused by this activity can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself rarely receives worse weather than occasional thunder and ice pellet showers. Nonetheless, the Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006 in December 2006 brought heavy rain and winds gusting up to . One Seattleite drowned in her collapsed and flooded basement; power failures were widespread, with some left without power for up to eleven days.

An exception to Seattle's dampness often occurs in El Niño years, when the marine weather systems track as far south as California and little precipitation falls in the Puget Sound area. Since the region's water comes from mountain snowpacks during the drier summer months, El Niño winters can not only produce substandard skiing but can result in water rationing and a shortage of hydroelectricity the following summer.

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Neighborhoods Seattle mayor Greg Nickels is among those who have called Seattle "a city of neighborhoods,"There is a book about Seattle by Arthur J O'Donnell, In the City of Neighborhoods, iUniverse, Inc., 2004), ISBN 0595337929. although the boundaries (and even names) of those neighborhoods are often open to dispute. For example, a Department of Neighborhoods spokeswoman reported that her own neighborhood has gone from "the 'CD' to 'Madrona' to 'Greater Madison Valley' and now 'Madrona Park.'"

Over a dozen Seattle neighborhoods have Neighborhood Service Centers, originally known in 1972 as "Little City Halls". At least twenty of these neighborhoods have one or more annual street fairs, parades, etc.Official pages of several street fairs and similar events, all accessed 20 October 2007: Ballard Seafood Fest and Sustainable Ballard Festival; Central Area Community Festival; Wallingford Wurst Fest; Fremont Fair and Fremont Oktoberfest; Lake City Pioneer Days; South Lake Union Block Party; University District Street Fair; West Seattle Summer Fest; LakeFest (Eastlake); Pioneer Square Fire Festival; Greenwood Seafair Parade.

Mentions of several others, all accessed 20 October 2007:

Pike Place Market Street Festival 2007 on Pike Place Market site
Chinatown-International District Festival, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 16, 2007 and Seattle's Chinatown-International District Night Market on Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Association site
Mount Baker Day in the Park: Joe Hagen There's Something for Everyone, Seattle Press online, August 15, 2002
Capitol Hill Block Party: Travis Hay, Capitol Hill will block 'n' roll and Auburn will jam, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 26, 2007
Georgetown Music Festival: Andrew Matson, Georgetown Music Festival sizzles, Seattle Times, June 3, 2007.
Rainier Valley SummerFest and Rainier Valley Heritage Parade: Rainier Valley Chamber of Commerce, official site

The official Seafair site Community Events page, archived June 25, 2007 on the Internet Archive, accessed 20 October 2007, lists the following events associated with particular neighborhoods within city limits and not in neighborhoods mentioned above: The Crown of Queen Anne Fun Run, Walk & Children's Parade, Roosevelt Bull Moose Festival, Magnolia Summer Festival and Art Show. It also lists the following parades in neighborhoods for which a street fair is mentioned above: West Seattle Grand Parade, Wallingford Seafair Kiddie Parade & Street Fair, Chinatown Seafair Parade.The largest of the street fairs feature hundreds of craft and food booths and multiple stages with live entertainment, and draw more than 100,000 people over the course of a weekend. In addition, at least half a dozen neighborhoods have weekly farmers' markets, some with as many as fifty vendors.For an overview of Seattle's neighborhood farmers markets see For the scale of one of the larger markets (in the University District, Seattle, Washington, see

Seattle has grown through a series of annexations of smaller neighboring communities, many of which now constitute prominent neighborhoods:

Magnolia, Wallingford, Seattle, Washington, Green Lake, Seattle, Washington, and University District, Seattle, Washington: May 3 1891
South Seattle: October 20 1905
Southeast Seattle, Ravenna, Seattle, Washington, South Park, Seattle, Washington, Columbia City, Seattle, Washington, Ballard, Seattle, Washington, and West Seattle, Seattle, Washington: from January 7 1907 to September 12 1907
Georgetown, Seattle, Washington: March 29 1910
Northernmost suburbs: January 4 1954

In November 2007, the residents of the unincorporated North Highline neighborhood will vote on whether they will be annexed by Seattle or Burien and in 2009, the community will be incorporated.

Cityscape Among Seattle's notable buildings are: The Columbia Center, the tallest building in Seattle. With 76 stories, it has a greater number of floors than any other building west of the Mississippi River. The Space Needle, perhaps the most iconic building in Seattle, built for the Century 21 Exposition, a World's Fair. The Smith Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast from its completion in 1914 until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962. The Washington Mutual Tower, the second tallest building on the Seattle skyline and the former headquarters of Washington Mutual. The Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University, designed by Steven Holl. The Seattle Central Library, designed by Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The Starbucks Center, just south of Downtown, is the largest building in Seattle by volume, at just over . The building, once Sears, Roebuck and Company' Northwest catalog distribution center, now serves as Starbucks headquarters as well as containing Sears and OfficeMax stores.

Landmarks The Space Needle is Seattle's most recognizable landmark, having been featured in the logo of the television show Frasier and the backgrounds of the television series Grey's Anatomy, not to mention several films. "The Needle" dates from the 1962 Century 21 Exposition. Contrary to popular belief, the Space Needle is neither the tallest structure in Seattle nor is it in Downtown Seattle, Seattle, Washington. This misconception results from the Space Needle often being photographed from Kerry Park (Seattle) on Queen Anne, Seattle, Washington, where it is closer to the viewer than are the downtown skyscrapers. The fairgrounds surrounding the Needle have been converted into Seattle Center, which remains the site of many local civic and cultural events, such as Bumbershoot, Northwest Folklife, and the Bite of Seattle. Seattle Center shares a combination of roles within the city, ranging from a public fair grounds to a civic center, though recent economic losses have called its viability and future into question. The Seattle Center Monorail runs from Seattle Center to Westlake Center, a downtown shopping mall: a distance of a little over a mile.

Other notable Seattle landmarks include the Smith Tower, Pike Place Market, the Fremont Troll, the Experience Music Project (at Seattle Center), the Seattle Central Library, the Washington Mutual Tower, and the Columbia Center, which is the fourth tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River and the seventeenth tallest in the nation. (On June 16 2004, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001 attacks included the Columbia Center as one of ten targeted buildings.) 9/11 Commission. Al Qaeda Aims at the American Homeland. 9/11 Commission Report. July 22, 2004. Retrieved June 12 2006.

Starbucks Coffee has been at Pike Place Market since the coffee company was founded there in 1971. The first store is still operating a block south of its original location.

Street layout Seattle's streets are laid out in a cardinal directions street grid, except in the central business district: early city leaders Denny party and Carson Boren insisted on orienting their plats relative to the shoreline rather than to true North, so streets meet at unusual angles where Denny's plat meets "Doc" Maynard's to the south and Boren's to the north. This inconsistency creates frequent confusion for visitors and newcomers when they attempt to navigate the streets at the edges of the business district. Largely as a result of Seattle's topography, only one street and one freeway run uninterrupted through the city from north to south.

Culture Seattle has been known as a significant center for regional performing arts for many years. The century-old Seattle Symphony Orchestra is among the world's most recorded orchestras and performs primarily at Benaroya Hall. The Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet, which perform at McCaw Hall (which opened 2003 on the site of the former Seattle Opera House at Seattle Center), are comparably distinguished, This press release from New York's Metropolitan Opera describes the Seattle Opera as "one of the leading opera companies in the United States… recognized internationally…" with the Opera being particularly known for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner and the PNB School (founded in 1974) ranking as one of the top three ballet training institutions in the United States. The Seattle Youth Symphony (SYSO) is the largest symphonic youth organization in the United States.

The historic 5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, has continued to stage Broadway quality musical shows featuring both local talent and international stars. In addition, Seattle has about twenty other live theatre venues, a slim majority of them being associated with fringe theatre. An example of these is Seattle's 900-seat, Romanesque Revival Town Hall (Seattle) on First Hill.

Seattle is often thought of as the home of grunge rock due to artists like Nirvana (band), Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Green River (band), and Mudhoney (band), all of whom reached vast audiences in the early 1990s. The city is also home to such varied musicians as avant-garde jazz musicians Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, rap music Sir Mix-a-Lot, smooth jazz saxophonist Kenny G, heavy metal music band Nevermore, industrial rockers KMFDM, and such pop music rock bands as Aiden, Goodness (band) and the Presidents of the United States of America (band). Such musicians as Jimi Hendrix, Duff McKagan, Nikki Sixx, and Quincy Jones spent their formative years in Seattle. Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson (guitarist) of the band Heart (band), often attributed to Seattle, were actually from neighboring Bellevue, as were progressive metal band Queensrÿche.

Since the grunge era, the Seattle area has hosted a diverse and influential alternative music scene. The Seattle-based record label Sub Pop—the first to sign Nirvana—has signed such non-grunge bands as Murder City Devils, Sunny Day Real Estate, Skinny Puppy and The Postal Service. Other Seattle-area bands of note in this period include Death Cab for Cutie (Bellingham, Washington), Foo Fighters, Modest Mouse (Issaquah), MXPX (Bremerton), and Sleater-Kinney (Olympia, Washington).

Earlier Seattle-based popular music acts include the collegiate folk group The Brothers Four; The Wailers (rock band), a 1960s garage band; The Ventures, an instrumental rock band; the Allies and the Heaters (later "the Heats"), 1980s teen-pop bands; from that same era, the more sophisticated pop of the short-lived Visible Targets and the still-performing Young Fresh Fellows and Posies; and the pop-punk of The Fastbacks and the outright punk of the Fartz (later Ten Minute Warning), The Gits, and Seven Year Bitch.

Spoken word and poetry are also staples of the Seattle arts scene, paralleling the explosion of the independent music scene during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Seattle's performance poetry scene blossomed with the importation of the poetry slam from Chicago (its origin) by transplant Paul Granert. This and the proliferation of weekly readings, open mics, and poetry-friendly club venues like the Weathered Wall, the OK Hotel, and the Ditto Tavern (all now defunct), allowed spoken-word/performance poetry to take off in a big way. Seattle annually sends a team of slammers to the National Poetry Slam and considers itself the home of some of the most talented performance poets in the world: Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champ; Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ; and Danny Sherrard, 2007 National Poetry Slam Champ. Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival is a biennial poetry festival that (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry.

Tourism Among Seattle's best-known annual cultural events and fairs are the 24-day Seattle International Film Festival, Northwest Folklife over the Memorial Day week, numerous Seafair events throughout July and August (ranging from a Bon Odori celebration to hydroplane races), and the Bite of Seattle. Bumbershoot, over the Labor Day weekend, and Capitol Hill Block Party provide Seattleites with alternative and independent music concerts. All are typically attended by over 100,000 people annually, as are The Seattle Hempfest and two separate Independence Day (United States) celebrations., popular among runners, contains a trail circling the lake.

Other significant events include numerous Native Americans in the United States pow-wows, a Greece Festival hosted by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake, Seattle, Washington, and numerous ethnic festivals associated with Festál at Seattle Center.

As in most large cities, there are numerous other annual events of more limited interest, ranging from book fairs; an anime, Sakura-Con; Penny Arcade Expo, a gaming convention; and specialized film festivals, such as the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, to a two-day, 9,000-rider Seattle to Portland bicycle ride and a Gay Pride parade and festival. In the past, the Gay Pride parade and festival have been centred on Capitol Hill. Since 2006, festivities have been held city-wide, and the parade has followed a route in Downtown to the Seattle Center amusement park.

The Henry Art Gallery opened in 1927, making it the first public art museum in Washington. The main Seattle Art Museum opened in 1933 which has finished a major renovation and reopened in 2007. Art collections are also housed at the Frye Art Museum and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Regional history collections are at the Loghouse Museum in Alki, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, the Museum of History and Industry and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Industry-specific collections are housed at the Center for Wooden Boats, the Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, and the Museum of Flight. Regional ethnic collections include the Nordic Heritage Museum and the Wing Luke Asian Museum.

In addition, Seattle has a thriving artist-run gallery scene, including 10 year veteran Soil Art Gallery, and the newer Crawl Space Gallery.

is a shopping center located in downtown Seattle. The Woodland Park Zoo opened as a private menagerie in 1889, but was sold to the city in 1899. The Seattle Aquarium has been open on the downtown waterfront since 1977 (undergoing a renovation 2006). The Seattle Underground Tour, an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire, is also popular. There are also many Community Centers of Seattle for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, Loyal Heights north of the Canal, and a newly remodeled center at Meadowbrook.

Sports {| class="wikitable"! Club! Sport! League! Stadium|-| Seattle Mariners| Baseball| [Safeco Field| National Football League (NFL) - [National Football Conference| Qwest Field| [Football (soccer)| USL First Division (men's)
W-League (women's)]|-| Seattle SuperSonics| Basketball| [Ice hockey| Western Hockey League| [Mixed Martial Arts| Varies|-| [Seattle Sockeye| [UPA| [Rugby union| Rugby Super League (US) history began at the start of the 20th century with the [Pacific Coast Hockey Association Seattle Metropolitans, which in 1917 became the first American ice hockey team to win the Stanley Cup. Today Seattle has teams in nearly every major professional sport. The four major professional teams are the 1979 National Basketball Association champions Seattle SuperSonics, the National Football League Seattle Seahawks, the Major League Baseball Seattle Mariners, and the 2004 Women's National Basketball Association champions, Seattle Storm. Seattle also boasts a strong history in collegiate sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I school University of Washington and the NCAA Division II schools Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University. The Major League Baseball All-star game was held at Safeco Field in Seattle during the 2001 season.

Outdoor activities Seattle's cool mild climate helps a huge proportion of its population engage in outdoor recreation, including walking, bicycling, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, boating, team sports, and swimming, among others. The downtown REI is that chain's flagship store, and carries gear for most of those activities. In town many people walk around Green Lake, through the forests and along the bluffs and beaches of Discovery Park (the largest park in the city) in Magnolia, along the shores of Myrtle Edwards Park on the Downtown waterfront, or along Alki Beach in West Seattle. Also popular are hikes and skiing in the nearby Cascades or Olympic Mountains and kayaking and sailing in the waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia. The San Juan Islands, with their sunny climate and labyrinthine waterways, are especially popular among sailing enthusiasts and passengers aboard the Washington State Ferries on their way to Victoria.

Media Seattle's leading newspapers are the daily The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer; they share their advertising, circulation, and business departments under a Joint Operating Agreement.

The most prominent weeklies are the Seattle Weekly, The Stranger (newspaper), and the Puget Sound Business Journal. The Seattle Weekly and The Stranger consider themselves weekly|"alternat

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