128 Fun Facts About Seattle

Seattle is named after a chief of which two Native American peoples?

Chief Seattle (siʔaɫ) led the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples; settler Doc Maynard pushed to name the town after him, and the Duwamish name survives in the city's river.

Where did the Denny Party land on November 13, 1851?

The Denny Party landed at Alki Point, in today's West Seattle, on November 13, 1851, after sailing from Portland, and moved across Elliott Bay the following spring.

What was the name of the schooner that carried the Denny Party to their landing site?

The schooner Exact sailed from Portland and landed the Denny Party on November 13, 1851, then continued north carrying gold prospectors bound for the Queen Charlotte Islands.

What did the settlers first call the settlement at present-day Pioneer Square?

The settlers called their Elliott Bay site Duwamps, after the Duwamish people, until Doc Maynard persuaded them to rename the town Seattle in 1853.

The Chinook word "alki" in New York Alki means roughly what?

Alki is Chinook Jargon for by and by or someday, so New York Alki meant New York eventually, Charles Terry's hopeful name for the landing-site settlement.

Which European explorer was the first to visit the area, in May 1792?

George Vancouver, charting the coast for the Royal Navy aboard HMS Discovery, entered Puget Sound in May 1792, decades before American settlers arrived.

Puget Sound is named after whom?

Vancouver originally applied the name only to the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows.

Which nickname officially replaced "Queen City" as Seattle's epithet in 1982?

The Emerald City won a 1982 contest run by the Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau, replacing Queen City and nodding to the region's evergreen forests.

Which Seattle street is the supposed origin of the term "Skid Row"?

Timber was skidded down the hill to Henry Yesler's sawmill; the area's later dereliction may have given the term its meaning.

What accidentally started the Great Seattle Fire of 1889?

It burned less than a day but took the entire central business district, and the city rebuilt in brick.

Why does the Seattle Underground exist beneath Pioneer Square?

Pedestrians at first climbed ladders between the new street level and the old sidewalks below.

Which ship docked in Seattle in July 1897 with its famed "ton of gold"?

The steamer Portland tied up on July 17, 1897 carrying more than a ton of Klondike gold, and Seattle made itself the outfitting and supply point for the rush that followed.

Which 1909 fair largely shaped the layout of the University of Washington campus?

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 was built on the University of Washington grounds to an Olmsted Brothers plan, whose Rainier Vista axis became the campus's central spine.

Which delivery giant was founded in Seattle in 1907 with a $100 loan?

UPS began as the American Messenger Company, started in 1907 by nineteen-year-old James E. Casey with $100 borrowed from a friend; it took the United Parcel Service name in 1919.

What early labour milestone did Seattle see in 1919?

The Seattle General Strike of February 1919 was the first citywide general strike in the United States; some 65,000 workers walked out for five days after a shipyard wage dispute.

Who became the first female mayor of a major American city, in Seattle in 1926?

Bertha Knight Landes, a former city council president, was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926 and served one two-year term before losing her 1928 re-election bid.

Which world's fair was held in Seattle in 1962?

The Century 21 Exposition ran from April 21 to October 21, 1962, drew nearly 10 million visitors, and, unusually for a world's fair of its era, turned a profit.

What did a famous early-1970s billboard ask the last person leaving Seattle to do?

The April 1971 billboard read 'Will the last person leaving Seattle — Turn out the lights'; the Boeing Bust, after the SST cancellation and a slump in airliner orders, had halved the company's local workforce.

In which year did Boeing move its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago?

Boeing announced the move in March 2001 and opened its Chicago headquarters that September, later relocating the head office again to Arlington, Virginia, in 2022.

Who founded the aircraft company that bears his name in Seattle in 1916?

William E. Boeing, a timber businessman and pilot, incorporated Pacific Aero Products Co. in Seattle in July 1916; it was renamed Boeing Airplane Company the following year.

Where is Boeing's wide-body aircraft plant in the Seattle area?

Renton builds the narrow-body jets; Paine Field in Everett opened as a passenger airport in 2019.

Where did the first Starbucks open on March 30, 1971?

The first Starbucks opened at 2000 Western Avenue beside Pike Place Market in 1971, selling whole beans rather than drinks, and moved a block to its longtime Pike Place storefront in 1976.

From which city did Microsoft move to the Seattle suburbs in 1979?

Bill Gates and Paul Allen had founded it in 1975 to sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800; it is now in Redmond.

In which Seattle suburb did Jeff Bezos found Amazon in 1994?

Bezos launched Amazon from the garage of a rented house in Bellevue in July 1994, and the site sold its first book online in July 1995.

Amazon's move to which neighbourhood set off a historic construction boom?

Amazon began moving into South Lake Union in 2010, and the neighbourhood's former warehouses and car lots filled with office towers and thousands of new apartments over the following decade.

Where is Costco's worldwide headquarters?

Costco moved its headquarters to Issaquah in 1996; its Kirkland Signature label keeps the name of its previous home, another Eastside suburb.

What did Nordstrom sell exclusively when it opened in 1901?

Wallin & Nordstrom opened in downtown Seattle in 1901 as a shoe shop, and the company sold nothing but shoes until it bought the Best Apparel clothing chain in 1963.

How is the outdoor retailer REI, founded by Lloyd and Mary Anderson, structured?

REI is a consumers' co-operative founded in 1938 by Lloyd and Mary Anderson with 21 fellow Seattle mountaineers; members pay a one-time fee and elect its board of directors.

Which airline is headquartered in the city of SeaTac?

Alaska Airlines keeps its headquarters on International Boulevard in SeaTac, a short drive from the terminal; it began in 1932 as McGee Airways in Anchorage.

The city of SeaTac took its name from what?

The city, incorporated in 1990, took the airport's nickname Sea-Tac, short for Seattle-Tacoma International, which the Port of Seattle operates about 14 miles south of downtown.

Where in Seattle did the Battle of Seattle protests of November 1999 take place?

Tens of thousands of demonstrators blocked the streets around the WTO Ministerial Conference at the downtown convention center on November 30, 1999, a day remembered as N30.

What magnitude was the 2001 Nisqually earthquake that damaged Pioneer Square?

The magnitude 6.8 Nisqually quake struck on February 28, 2001, a day after the Mardi Gras riot, cracking Pioneer Square's old brick buildings and damaging the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which sealed its replacement.

What was Bertha, commissioned for the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement?

Bertha was the world's largest-diameter tunnel boring machine when built, 57.5 feet across; it stalled for two years, and the SR 99 tunnel opened in February 2019 instead of December 2015.

Which Seattle neighbourhood hosted a self-declared autonomous zone in 2020?

The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, later called CHOP, occupied several blocks around the East Precinct police station in June 2020 before the city cleared it on July 1.

In 2023 Seattle became the first US city to ban discrimination based on what?

Seattle's council voted 6-1 on February 21, 2023 to add caste to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance, a measure sponsored by councilmember Kshama Sawant.

Seattle sits on an isthmus between Puget Sound and which body of water?

The two are joined by the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which runs through Lake Union and the Ballard Locks.

What is the name of Seattle's chief harbour?

Elliott Bay, an inlet of Puget Sound, has been Seattle's harbour since the Denny Party moved to its eastern shore in 1852; the Port of Seattle's container terminals line its southern edge.

Roughly how far is Seattle from the Canadian border?

Seattle lies roughly 100 miles south of the Peace Arch border crossing at Blaine, Washington, and about 140 road miles from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Like Rome, Seattle is said to lie on how many hills?

Seattle's seven hills are usually given as Capitol Hill, First Hill, Beacon Hill, Queen Anne, Magnolia, West Seattle and Denny Hill, echoing Rome's seven.

Which of Seattle's traditional seven hills was flattened in the regrades?

Denny Hill was sluiced and carted away in the Denny Regrade between 1898 and 1930, creating the flat Belltown and Denny Triangle area north of downtown.

Which is the only road that runs unbroken from the harbour to the big lake on the city's east side?

Madison Street runs unbroken from the downtown waterfront to the lakeshore at Madison Park; glacial north-south ridges and Lake Union interrupt every other east-west street.

Where is the highest point within the city limits, 520 feet above sea level?

Myrtle Reservoir Park, in West Seattle's High Point neighbourhood, sits at 520 feet, edging out Queen Anne Hill's roughly 456-foot summit.

What percentage of Seattle's total area is water?

Water covers 41% of Seattle: of its roughly 142 square miles, about 58 are water, chiefly Lake Washington, Lake Union and the Puget Sound shoreline.

How tall is Mount Rainier, the volcano 59 miles south-southeast of Seattle?

Mount Rainier stands about 14,406 feet (4,391 m), the most topographically prominent peak in the contiguous United States, and is known to local Salish peoples as Tahoma.

Which range to the west puts Seattle partly in a rain shadow?

The Hoh Rainforest on the windward side gets about 142 inches a year; Sequim in the shadow gets about 16.

Which of these cities averages more than 200 cloudy days a year?

Seattle averages about 201 fully cloudy and 93 partly cloudy days a year, yet its total rainfall trails New York's, Miami's and Houston's.

What is Seattle's climate classified as under the Koppen system?

Seattle is warm-summer Mediterranean (Csb) under Köppen: its driest month, July, averages under an inch of rain, while November, the wettest, tops six inches.

What is the name for the atmospheric-river storms that bring subtropical moisture to Seattle?

The Pineapple Express is an atmospheric river that streams warm, subtropical moisture from near Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest and can dump several inches of rain in a day.

The Columbus Day storm of 1962 brought sustained winds above what speed to western Washington?

It killed 46 people across the region and remains the benchmark windstorm.

What was Seattle's population in the 2020 United States census?

The 2020 census counted 737,015 residents in Seattle, up 21% from 608,660 in 2010, making it the largest city in Washington and the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle is the seat of which Washington county?

King County, Washington's most populous county, has Seattle as its seat; it was formally rededicated in 2005 to honour Martin Luther King Jr. rather than Vice President William Rufus King.

For which event was the Seattle Center's landmark observation tower built?

The Space Needle was built as the centrepiece of Seattle's 1962 World's Fair and, at its April 1962 opening, was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi.

How tall is the Space Needle?

The Space Needle tops out at 605 feet; its elevators reach the 520-foot observation deck in 41 seconds.

Whose napkin sketch of a tethered balloon inspired the 1962 tower's sloping base?

Architect John Graham contributed the flying-saucer top after Carlson was inspired by the Stuttgart TV tower.

What was the original name of the tower's revolving restaurant, closed in 2000?

The Eye of the Needle opened with the tower in 1962, turning a full circle about once an hour; it and the Emerald Suite closed in 2000, replaced by SkyCity.

How long is the Seattle Center Monorail?

The Seattle Center Monorail runs 0.9 miles between Westlake Center and Seattle Center, a ride of about two minutes; it opened on March 24, 1962, a month before the fair.

Which was the only daily-operating monorail in the US before Seattle's opened in 1962?

Disneyland's monorail, opened in 1959, was the first daily-operating monorail in the United States; both it and Seattle's were built on the Alweg system.

In what year did the city's famous public market open?

Pike Place Market opened on August 17, 1907, when a handful of farmers sold out of their wagons to a crowd by noon, and it kept the motto Meet the Producer.

What do employees at the market's famous fish stall do with the fish?

When a customer orders, a three-foot salmon gets hurled over the counter to be wrapped.

Where is the Gum Wall?

The Gum Wall lines Post Alley beneath the market, started around 1993 by patrons queuing at the Market Theater for improv shows, and was first fully steam-cleaned in November 2015.

What is the Fremont Troll clutching?

The troll crushes a real Volkswagen Beetle in its left hand; the car wears a California plate and once held a time capsule with a bust of Elvis, later stolen.

Beneath which span does the Fremont Troll lurk?

The troll sits under the north end of the Aurora Bridge at North 36th Street, sculpted in 1990 after a Fremont Arts Council competition to reclaim the space under the span.

Which building was the tallest on the US West Coast for nearly half a century until 1962?

Smith Tower, completed in 1914 for typewriter and firearms magnate Lyman Cornelius Smith, rises 38 storeys and 484 feet, and kept its West Coast title until the Space Needle rose in 1962.

What is the tallest building in Washington state?

Columbia Center, finished in 1985, has 76 storeys and rises 933 feet, about 330 feet more than the Space Needle; its Sky View Observatory sits on the 73rd floor.

Which architect designed the 2004 Seattle Central Library?

Rem Koolhaas and his firm OMA, with Seattle's LMN Architects, designed the library's stacked glass-and-steel platforms, which opened in 2004 with room for about 1.45 million books.

Who founded the Museum of Pop Culture, originally the Experience Music Project?

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen opened the Experience Music Project in June 2000 as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix; it was renamed the Museum of Pop Culture in 2016.

Who designed the MoPOP building?

Frank O. Gehry designed the 140,000-square-foot museum, opened in 2000 beside the Monorail at Seattle Center, its swooping sheet-metal skin said to evoke smashed guitars.

How tall is the Seattle Great Wheel on Pier 57?

The Seattle Great Wheel stands 175 feet tall at the end of Pier 57 and was the tallest Ferris wheel on the West Coast when it opened on June 29, 2012.

Building the Ballard Locks lowered the big lake and Lake Union by how much?

Piers were left high and dry, new waterfront appeared and rivers reversed course.

The Ballard Locks are officially named after whom?

The locks are officially the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, after the Army Corps of Engineers district commander who championed the ship canal; they opened on July 4, 1917, and Carl S. English Jr. later laid out the gardens beside them.

Which sculpture stands in front of the Seattle Art Museum?

Hammering Man, Jonathan Borofsky's 48-foot steel figure, was installed outside the Seattle Art Museum in 1992 after the 1991 attempt dropped it; its motorized arm rests only on Labor Day.

What nickname does the neighbourhood around Harborview, Virginia Mason and Swedish carry?

First Hill earned the nickname Pill Hill from its cluster of hospitals; Harborview, among them, is the sole Level I trauma centre serving Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

What did a 1974 60 Minutes report call Seattle, thanks to its Medic One paramedics?

60 Minutes called Seattle the best place in the world to have a heart attack in 1974 because Medic One, launched in 1970 by Dr. Leonard Cobb and the fire department, trained firefighters as paramedics.

Washington State Ferries operates the largest ferry network in the US and ranks where globally?

Its boats link Seattle to Bainbridge and Vashon Islands and to Bremerton.

What is unusual about the light-rail link between Seattle and the Eastside?

The 2 Line reached Seattle in March 2026.

Which Seattle museum, opened in 1927, was the first public art museum in Washington?

The Henry Art Gallery opened on the University of Washington campus in 1927 with Horace C. Henry's gift of his painting collection, making it Washington's first public art museum.

Which zoo opened as a private menagerie in 1889?

Woodland Park Zoo began on lumber baron Guy Phinney's Woodland Park estate in 1889, and the city bought the grounds and animals from his widow in 1899.

Which thoroughfare was home to nearly two dozen jazz clubs between 1918 and 1951?

Jackson Street, running from the International District into the Central District, held nearly two dozen jazz clubs and nurtured the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson.

Which independent label, founded in 1986, signed Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney?

Sub Pop, the label Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman built out of Pavitt's fanzine, released Nirvana's debut Bleach in 1989 and is credited with popularising grunge.

In which Washington town was Nirvana formed in 1987?

Cobain and Novoselic formed Nirvana in their hometown of Aberdeen, a logging town on Grays Harbor, in 1987 and went through several drummers before Dave Grohl joined in 1990.

Which grunge band, formed in Seattle in 1990, is fronted by Eddie Vedder?

Pearl Jam formed in 1990 from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, with Eddie Vedder recruited from San Diego; its debut album Ten came out in 1991.

Which guitar legend grew up in Seattle carrying a broom to school to mimic a guitar?

Jimi Hendrix's broom habit at Horace Mann Elementary caught the attention of the school's social worker; he bought his first acoustic guitar for $5 at 15.

Which martial-arts star opened his first school in Seattle and is buried at Lake View Cemetery?

Bruce Lee moved to Seattle in 1959, finished high school at Edison Technical, opened his first kung fu school there, and was buried at Lake View Cemetery in 1973 with Steve McQueen and James Coburn among the pallbearers.

Which Seattle festival takes over Seattle Center every Labor Day weekend?

Bumbershoot, named for an old slang word for umbrella, started in 1971 as the city-funded Festival '71 with a $25,000 budget and settled into Labor Day weekend at Seattle Center.

Which summer festival features hydroplane races and a Blue Angels air show?

Seafair has run each summer since 1950, climaxing with the hydroplane races on Lake Washington, the Blue Angels over the lake, and the Torchlight Parade downtown.

Which sitcom followed a psychiatrist who returned to his hometown of Seattle as a radio host?

Frasier ran for eleven seasons from 1993 to 2004, following Kelsey Grammer's Dr. Frasier Crane from the Cheers bar in Boston to a radio call-in show in Seattle.

What was the call sign of Dr. Crane's radio station in the sitcom?

Frasier dispensed advice on KACL, AM 780, with producer Roz Doyle in the booth; the fictional call letters nod to the show's creators Angell, Casey and Lee.

Who directed the 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle?

Nora Ephron directed and co-wrote Sleepless in Seattle, in which Tom Hanks's widowed architect lives on a Lake Union houseboat and his son phones a radio show to find him a wife.

What was Grey's Anatomy's fictional workplace originally called?

Seattle Grace Hospital became Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital and finally Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

What is the "Seattle Freeze"?

The Seattle Freeze is the much-discussed difficulty newcomers have making friends with locals, who are polite but reserved; a 2005 Seattle Times article popularized the term.

Which Japanese-derived fast-food meal is a Seattle-area speciality?

Seattle teriyaki, grilled chicken in a sweet soy-mirin glaze over rice, took off after Toshi Kasahara opened Toshi's Teriyaki on lower Queen Anne in 1976.

Which seafood chain was founded by a folk singer who built the city's first aquarium?

Ivar Haglund, a folk singer, opened Seattle's first aquarium on Pier 54 in 1938 with a fish-and-chips stand beside it, the seed of the Ivar's chain and its Acres of Clams restaurant.

Which public radio station affiliated with the UW was a pioneer of internet radio?

KEXP, at 90.3 FM, grew out of the UW student station KCMU and in 2001 relaunched with Paul Allen's backing, becoming among the first stations to stream CD-quality audio online.

Which composer is Seattle Opera particularly known for staging?

Seattle Opera built its reputation on Richard Wagner, staging Der Ring des Nibelungen every summer from 1975 to 1984 and repeatedly thereafter, the last cycle in 2013.

Seattle is often said to be second only to which city for its number of equity theatres?

The claim puts Seattle behind only New York, with some 28 local companies holding Actors' Equity contracts, among them ACT, Seattle Rep and the 5th Avenue Theatre.

What is Real Change?

It is sold as an alternative to panhandling.

Which team was the first American club to win the Stanley Cup?

The Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association beat the Montreal Canadiens in 1917, the first US team to win the Stanley Cup; the club folded in 1924.

What happened to the Seattle Pilots after their single 1969 season?

The city sued and was offered a second expansion team, the Mariners, as settlement.

How many regular-season games did the 2001 Mariners win, tying the MLB record?

The 2001 Mariners went 116-46, matching the 1906 Chicago Cubs' regular-season record, with Ichiro Suzuki winning both Rookie of the Year and MVP.

Which Seattle stadium, home to the Mariners and Seahawks, was imploded in 2000?

The Kingdome came down by implosion on 26 March 2000, and Lumen Field was built on the same site.

What was T-Mobile Park called when it opened in 1999?

Safeco Field opened on July 15, 1999 under a 20-year naming deal with the Seattle insurer; T-Mobile bought the rights in December 2018 and the retractable-roof ballpark became T-Mobile Park in 2019.

By what score did the Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII?

Seattle routed Denver 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014, scoring a safety on the game's first snap, with linebacker Malcolm Smith named MVP after a pick-six.

What are Seahawks fans collectively known as?

The 12th Man, honoured with a retired number 12 since 1984, twice set the Guinness crowd-noise record in 2013, peaking at 137.6 decibels against the Saints that December.

The Seahawks are named after which bird?

A seahawk is another name for the osprey, a fish-eating raptor common around Puget Sound; the team joined the NFL in 1976 and took the name from a fan contest.

In which year did the SuperSonics win the NBA championship?

The SuperSonics beat the Washington Bullets in five games for the 1979 NBA title, a year after losing the Finals to the same team, with Dennis Johnson named Finals MVP.

Who headed the group that owned the SuperSonics from 2001 to 2006?

Howard Schultz's Basketball Club of Seattle bought the Sonics in 2001 and sold them in 2006 to Clay Bennett's out-of-state group, which moved the team after the 2007-08 season.

How many WNBA titles had the Seattle Storm won by the end of the 2025 season?

The Storm's four titles came in 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020, tying the WNBA record at the time; the 2018 and 2020 teams were led by Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart.

In which season did the Seattle Kraken begin NHL play?

The Kraken played their first NHL game on October 12, 2021, opening the 2021-22 season at Vegas; the 2018 ticket drive had taken 10,000 season-ticket deposits in 12 minutes.

What name did the rebuilt KeyArena reopen under in 2021?

KeyArena reopened as Climate Pledge Arena in October 2021 after Amazon bought the naming rights, keeping the landmarked Paul Thiry roof while a far larger arena was excavated beneath it.

Which club did the Sounders beat in penalties to win their first MLS Cup in 2016?

They lost the 2017 rematch, then beat Toronto again 3-1 at home in 2019 before a record 69,274.

In which year did Seattle Sounders FC begin play in Major League Soccer?

Seattle Sounders FC joined MLS in 2009 and set a league attendance record in their debut season, averaging more than 30,000 fans a match at Qwest Field.

Which Major League Rugby team won the league's first two championships in 2018 and 2019?

The Seattle Seawolves won Major League Rugby's first two championships, beating Glendale in 2018 and San Diego in 2019, playing home games at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.

In which year was the University of Washington founded?

The University of Washington opened in 1861 as the Territorial University of Washington on a downtown site donated by Arthur Denny, and moved to its present campus in 1895.

Which minimum wage did Seattle's 2014 ordinance phase in by 2017?

Seattle's 2014 ordinance phased the minimum wage up to $15 per hour, reached by large employers in 2017 and by all employers in 2021, with inflation adjustments thereafter.

Which mayor took office in Seattle in January 2026?

Katie Wilson, a transit and housing activist who led the Transit Riders Union, narrowly defeated incumbent Bruce Harrell in November 2025 and took office in January 2026.

The SuperSonics left Seattle in 2008 to become which NBA franchise?

The SuperSonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008 after owner Clay Bennett moved them; a settlement kept the banners, trophies and retired jerseys in Seattle for any future NBA club.

Roughly how many plants fill the three glass domes of the Amazon Spheres downtown?

The Amazon Spheres, opened in January 2018, hold some 40,000 plants from cloud-forest regions on five continents, including a decades-old ficus nicknamed Rubi that was craned in through the roof.

Chihuly Garden and Glass opened in 2012 on the former site of which Seattle Center attraction?

Chihuly Garden and Glass opened in May 2012 where the Fun Forest amusement park had stood at the foot of the Space Needle; its Glasshouse holds a 100-foot suspended sculpture, one of Chihuly's largest.

Gas Works Park on Lake Union preserves the remnants of what kind of former industrial site?

Landscape architect Richard Haag won a national design award for the park, which opened in 1975.

Through 2025, what unwanted distinction did the Mariners hold among MLB franchises?

Edgar Martínez's 1995 walk-off double against the Yankees is credited with helping keep baseball in Seattle.

Which Storm legend was the first overall pick of the 2002 WNBA draft?

Sue Bird, taken first overall out of UConn in 2002, played her entire 19-season career with the Storm and is one of only two basketball players with five Olympic gold medals.

Discovery Park, Seattle's largest public park, occupies the grounds of which former Army post?

Discovery Park occupies the former Fort Lawton, an Army post opened in 1900 that the city took over in the 1970s; its West Point Lighthouse marks the city's westernmost point.

Kerry Park, famed for its skyline view of the Space Needle, sits on the south slope of which neighbourhood?

Kerry Park sits on the south slope of Queen Anne Hill, on 1.26 acres the Kerry family gave the city in 1927 'so that all who stop here may enjoy the view'.

What historic 1909 building was barged up the Duwamish River to become part of the Museum of Flight?

Boeing's original Red Barn, built in 1909 as a boatyard on the Duwamish and bought by William Boeing in 1910, was barged to the Museum of Flight site in 1975 and restored as its centerpiece.

In which Seattle neighbourhood did the burger chain Dick's Drive-In open its first restaurant in 1954?

Wallingford got the first Dick's on January 28, 1954; founders Dick Spady, H. Warren Ghormley and Dr. B.O.A. Thomas kept the menu to burgers, fries and shakes.

The Museum of Flight sits at the southern end of Boeing Field in which city just south of Seattle?

Tukwila, on Seattle's southern border, holds the Museum of Flight at the south end of Boeing Field; its collection includes the first jet-powered Air Force One, flown in for display in 1996.

Which Seattle-raised rapper topped the Hot 100 in 1992 with 'Baby Got Back'?

Sir Mix-a-Lot, born Anthony Ray, was raised in the Central District, co-founded the Nastymix label in 1983 and won a Grammy for the double-platinum hit.

Which landscape architect was brought to Seattle in 1903 to design its park system, including Volunteer Park?

John Charles Olmsted, of the Olmsted Brothers firm, drew up Seattle's 1903 park and boulevard plan, which shaped Volunteer Park, Lake Washington Boulevard and Seward Park.