History of Seattle

Even by North American standards, Seattle is a young city, its modern history dating to as recently as 1851 when a group from back East set up camp across the Bay, calling it “New York Alki” meaning New York eventually”. Within a year they relocated to the part of town now called Pioneer Square.

One of the earliest settlers, Dr David Swinson Maynard was the impetus for the town’s early growth. Blacksmith and all around visionary, Doc Maynard set aside his medical skills to the first store, named the town for his friend – the Duwamish Indian chief Sealth.

Largely destroyed in 1889 by a disastrous fire, the town was rebuilt with raised streets to obviate what had earlier been inevitable flooding whenever the tide came in. This created “Underground Seattle”, a maze of sidewalks and former ground floors which today are the basis of a popular Downtown tour.

The greater Seattle area is a leading center for high-tech industries. The region’s most important employer is Boeing, which is the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world and consistently one of the top three exporters in the United States.

Restaurants are abundant and good – more than 2200 in the greater Seattle area, drawing from the region’s renowned fresh seafood and local farm produce. And to wash it all down? Well, this is where the “espresso craze” all started and the city is headquarters of that ubiquitous haven for coffee-lovers – Starbucks.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.