Best US Ports Of Departure - Seattle, Washington

Near the north west coastline of the United States, positioned between Lake Washington to the east and Puget Sound to the west lies Washington's largest city, Seattle. To the far side of these waters lie two rugged mountain ranges, the Olympics on the west and the Cascades to the east.

White pioneers came to the Seattle area in 1850 to found a town they first called New York. The settlers then moved a short distance to the other side of Elliott Bay to the district now called Pioneer Square, where a well protected sea harbor was available. This second village was called Seattle, honoring a local Indian chief who had assisted the new arrivals.

Initially the new township's principal commercial support was Henry Yesler's timber mill at the bottom of Mill St (which later became Yesler Way) built in 1853. In the fall of 1863, surveyor Edwin Richardson found coal beside a stream draining into Lake Washington. It did not take long before extensive coal mining began, and coal joined lumber as a principal export from Seattle docks. In the 1880s the city's population grew strongly when Seattle was connected to the Northen Pacific railroad. In 1889 the city was largely ruined when a raging fire swept through its center. The burnt-out buildings were replaced during a busy period of reconstruction. The new layout included municipal sewer works, reconstructed wharves and wider streets.

The early 1900s saw a period of strong growth, as people from all over the world flooded in to labor in the business, resource and service sectors. Ship building surged during World War I, to keep up with strong demand. In 1919, the general strike of over 60000 employees led to the press and politicians to compare the population of the city to Russian revolutionaries. Unemployment and hardship were commonplace among the city's population throughout the deep 1930s Depression years.

The city's manufacturing industries rebounded in WWII, led by the manufacturer Boeing, who boosted their workforce considerably to cope with the soaring demand. Boeing's winning ways continued after the war, especially with the huge success of the 707 jet airliner launched in the late 1950s. In 1962 Seattle took an opportunity to host an enormous world's fair, the exciting Century 21 Exposition. The world fair gave the city well-known facilities like the Monorail, the Space Needle, the Seattle Center and the Pacific Science Center. Today the city is a main commercial harbor, and the heart of a thriving industrial zone.

The city's harbor has for many years been important to its economic development. In the beginning the port was utilized for the shipping of coal and lumber. Apart from large cargo vessels, smaller boats followed the coastal route north from the city, supplying resource-based ventures in mining, timber and fishing. Summer vacations to Alaska were fashionable as long ago as the early 19th century, with Alaska Steamship Company selling week long cruises. By (the 1950s demand had slumped, and the Alaska Steamship Company closed. No cruise line businesses operated out of Seattle for the following five decades.

But in 2000 the Port of Seattle completed the Bell Street Pier cruise terminal, and since then the growth of Seattle as a cruise departure port has been remarkable. In 2009 the Smith Cove port was built to further passenger capacity. During 2010 over 900,000 passengers departed on cruises leaving from Seattle.