Seattle, a Superlative City

Did you know that Seattle's Pike Place Market, established in1907, is the longest continuously operating farmer's market in the US?

The Washington State Ferry System is the largest ferry system in the nation and the third largest in the world.  Seattle'a Coleman Park/Pier 52 is the busiest ferry terminal in the US.

Harbor Island in Seattle is the largest man-made island in the nation.

At low tide, there can be as many as 786 islands in Puget Sound.

The world's first floating bridge was the I-90 bridge, also known as the Mercer Island Floating Bridge, opened in 1950; the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (SR-520) is the world's longest floating bridge; three of the world's six floating bridges are found in Washington State.

Seattle boasts the first:

enclosed shopping mall (Northgate Shopping Center which opened in 1950);

revolving restaurant in the US (the Space Needle, built in 1961 for the 1962 World's Fair);

espresso cart (1980), located at the Monorail Station at the Westlake Center in 1980.
police who patrol on bicycle in the US (started in 1987).

Seattle sells more sunglasses per capita than any other major city in the U.S.  (Surely this data was collected before the summer of 2011!)

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If you'd like to see a brief slideshow about Seattle's history, check out the History Link, a free online encyclopedia of Washington State history.  It's a wonderful website and well worth the time to check it out.

Thanks to Jet City Orange and Legends of America for the trivia tidbits.