Feature Stories

• Trucker Appreciation Day in Seattle turns Eight Years Old
• Peaks and Valleys of Cargo
• From Ship to Sushi
• Coffee Drinkers Help Port Stay Green
• Students Learn, Have Fun in Popular Port Educational Programs
• Alaska: Helping Drive Prosperity in Seattle
• Your Perfect Vacation Starts Here: New Facilities and Services for Air and Cruise Passengers
• Sister and Friendship Ports: Building Partnerships, Strengthening Trade
• Year-end Stats Exceed All Records
• Fishing industry still strong and vital
• Port of Seattle Celebrates 25 Years of Friendship with China
• Sapphire Princess joins Seattle Cruise Ship market
• It's a grand new Sea-Tac Airport - Concourse A opened
• Creating Partnerships and Promoting Tourism
• Seattle: A City Built on Trade
• Port JOBS wins state's "Best Practice" award
• Planning by Numbers
• North Bay
• Central Waterfront

You are here: Home » News » Feature Article

Seattle: A City Built on Trade

Seattle’s earliest white settlers arrived in 1851 and established a settlement for the purpose of trading. A year later, those same settlers established a permanent home on the eastern shore of Elliot Bay where some of the Port of Seattle container terminals operate today.

The Great Northern Railway chose Seattle as the terminus of the railroad’s transcontinental route in 1890, spurring economic growth and making Seattle the commercial capital of the region. Seattle emerged as the Pacific Northwest’s center for trade, transportation and commerce and its lead grew with the discovery of gold in Alaska in 1896.

By the early 1900s Seattle’s waterfront was a maze of piers, canneries, sawmills, warehouses and railroad tracks. But the economic benefits of all that activity were not generating prosperity for the community at-large. In 1911 the voters of Seattle turned out in record numbers to establish the Port of Seattle and approve a bond measure for waterfront development that would stimulate economic growth that continues today.

By 1916 Seattle was the West Coast’s leading port in terms of dollar value of goods shipped. Within two years it was the second largest port in the country.

In addition to handling cargo moving to and from Asia and Alaska, the Port became a major player in the North Pacific fishing industry, taking on ownership and management of Fishermen’s Terminal in 1913.

After World War II the Port diversified its activities with expansion of Fishermen’s Terminal, the construction of Shilshole Bay Marina, ambitious developments on Harbor Island and along the Duwamish River, as well as the creation of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

In the 1960s, Seattle became one of the first ports in the country to recognize the value of containerized trade and developed terminals specifically geared toward handling containers. Seattle now supports three mega-terminals and is a major West Coast container port.

The 1990s saw the Port emerge as a center for the passenger cruise industry as well as a steward for redevelopment of the city’s central waterfront and other properties with the potential to add value to the regional economy. What began with a few sporadic cruise ship calls has grown to 140 calls annually and millions of dollars in business and tax revenue generated with each vessel visit.

Today the Port of Seattle remains a leading center for trade, transportation and tourism that generates tens of thousands jobs, billions of dollars in business and tax revenues and serves as a vital link to the global economy.

Additional information about Port of Seattle history can be found at Historylink.org