Seattle - called "The Emerald City" is defined by water & mountains. 

Lake Washington lies to the east, Elliott Bay & Puget Sound lie to the west, the Duwamish River empties into the bay from the south & the Lake Washington Ship Canal bisects the city. The Cascade Mountains rise in the east & to the west across the sound are the Olympic Mountains. 

Seattle's beginnings were muddy. Flooded out of its first location of Alki Point in the 1850s the town shifted to what's now Pioneer Square renaming itself after the Native American Chief Sealth (hence Seattle). This was soggy ground & the small logging community built its houses on stilts. As the surrounding forest was gradually felled & the wood shipped out, Seattle grew slowly until the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 put it firmly on the national map. World War I boosted shipbuilding & the city was soon a large industrial center.

Seattle had great fire in 1889 & 33 blocks burned.  It was too much work to tear down & rebuild so the people just built the city on top of the old one & a layer of the city can still be seen intact beneath the street.

Since the beginning of the 20th century the Boeing airline corporation was a major factor in to the city's well being. Booming during World War II & employing one in five of Seattle's workforce by the 1960s.

The prosperity that Boeing & more recent success stories such as Microsoft & internet shopping site Amazon.com have brought the city is obvious, reflected in a restored old center, a nationally acclaimed arts scene with vibrant movie & music industries & a flood of coffee houses & excellent seafood restaurants.

Over the years through Boeing's booms & busts, the rise & fall of grunge, the coming & going of Frazier & the bursting of the high-tech bubble economy one thing has stayed the same here in Seattle the beautiful landscape that surrounds the city.

Visitors can take in the cafe culture, beautiful ski slopes an hour away or hike the lowlands of Mount Rainier.

Seattle offers shopping, art museums, a philharmonic orchestra, a ballet company & many outdoor activities from golf to hiking to sailing to watching pods of killer whales.

The Seattle Space Needle is a famous landmarks which tourists can ride to the top for great views of the city & some fine dining.

Seattle is also home to several museums & cultural attractions.