West Seattle is Seattle's oldest and biggest neighborhood, situated on a peninsula in Elliott Bay. Early public transportation between West Seattle and Seattle was mostly limited to the irregular and infrequent service provided by “Mosquito Fleet” steamships that traveled from port to port around Puget Sound. In 1888 the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company built a dock and launched the region's first true regular ferry service. Operating from a spot near today’s Seacrest Marina, their steam-powered sidewheeler "City of Seattle" made the crossing to downtown Seattle in just eight minutes.
Over 100 years later the King County Metro Transit Department reintroduced a passenger-only ferry service to give commuters an alternative to the congested West Seattle Bridge and Highway 99. The poster pictured here advertises the Elliott Bay Water Taxi, which continues today as the King County Water Taxi. The service remains popular with both locals and tourists, and operates trips from Downtown Seattle to either West Seattle or Vashon Island.
Caption information sources: "Puget Sound's Mosquito Fleet," by Larry E. Johnson, HistoryLink.org Essay 869; and "Seattle Neighborhoods: West Seattle — Thumbnail History," by Cassandra Tate, HistoryLink.org Essay 3428.
Physical Description: 1 poster : color ; 19 x 14 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
Credit: MOAHI, Richard Sandaas Collection on King County Metro, 2012.26.654
