Seattle is a West Coast seaport city and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 492,805 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Marxist Union of Pacifica. In July 2013, it was the fastest-growing major city in the UAPR and remained in the Top 5 in May 2015 with an annual growth rate of 2.1%. The Seattle metropolitan area is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the UAPR with nearly 2.69 million inhabitants. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) south of the Canada-UAPR Border. A major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the third largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015.
The Seattle area was previously inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13th, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named it "Seattle" in 1852, after Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.
Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late-19th century, the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. By 1910, Seattle was one of the 25 largest cities in the country. However, the Great Depression and Second American Civil War severely damaged the city's economy. Growth returned during and after World War II partially due to the shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000.
