Visit Seattle

30 November -0001

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Curved around the shore of Elliott Bay, with Lake Washington behind and the snowy peak of Mount Rainier hovering faintly in the distance, SEATTLE has a magnificent setting. The insistently modern skyline of glass skyscrapers gleams across the bay, an emblem of three decades of aggressive urban renewal.

Seattle's beginnings were inauspiciously muddy. Flooded out of its first location on the flat little peninsula 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, and the small logging community built its houses on stilts. As the surrounding forest was gradually felled and 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, and the city was soon a large industrial center. Trade unions, based around the shipworkers, grew strong, and the Industrial Workers of the World, or "Wobblies," coordinated the US's first general strike here on February 6, 1919.

Flights land at Seattle/Tacoma's Sea-Tac Airport (tel 206/431-4444, ), on Hwy-99 (the Pacific Highway) fourteen miles south of downtown. Outside, the Gray Line Airport Express bus ($8.50 one-way, $15 round-trip; tel 206/626-6088, ) leaves every twenty minutes for the 25-minute journey to various hotels downtown. ShuttleExpress (tel 206/622-1424 or 1-800/487-RIDE, ) offers door-to-door service for $18-30. Metro express city bus #194 ($1.10, peak hours $1.75) takes thirty minutes to reach downtown's Transit Tunnel. A taxi to the city center costs $25-30.

It's best to get around either on foot or on the free downtown buses. Cross out of the free zone - bordered by Jackson and Battery streets, 6th Avenue, and the waterfront - and you pay as you get off; come back in and you pay as you enter. Single fares vary between $1 and $1.75, and tickets are valid for an hour. Day-passes ($2; bought from the driver) are available on weekends and holidays: ticket books (for 10 and 20 rides; $10 and $20) can be purchased from the Metro Customer Assistance Offices at the Metro Transit Tunnel, Westlake Station, Fifth Avenue and Vine Street (Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm), or in the King Street Center, 201 S Jackson St (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm; call 24-Hour Rider Information tel 206/553-3000 or Bus-Time tel 206/287-8463 for automated schedule, ), and can be used on the overhead monorail ($1.25) between downtown and the Seattle Center, and on the waterfront streetcar ($1 off-peak, $1.75 peak).

Seattle's nightlife doesn't quite live up to the expectations aroused by the city's musical notoriety, but it's still compelling and not bad for a beer or two, either - like other West Coast cities, Seattle boasts an excellent selection of microbrewed beers. The Pike Pub & Brewery , 1415 First Ave, and Pyramid Brewery & Ale House , 1201 First Ave S, both make unique hand-crafted brews, and the Irish pubs Kells , 1916 Post Alley, and Tir na nog , 801 First Ave, serve fine pints of Guinness plus the usual selection of European ales. Note, though, that in the state of Washington taverns sell beer and wine but not spirits, while bars sell everything but must be attached to a restaurant. The tavern scene is most accessible, and touristy, in Pioneer Square , where lively establishments like Doc Maynard's, Old Timer's Café and the Central Saloon host jazz, reggae and blues bands. Look out for "joint cover nights" ($10 weekends/$5 weeknights), when you can get into about ten different live music venues. Although Seattle's grunge heyday is long gone, there's still a thriving music scene. The better-known bands play at the old, atmospheric Moore Theater downtown, 1932 Second Ave ( ), or the Seattle Center Arena .

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