Newsletter Article Series Issue 7 - Scenic Seattle

4. Seattle and Its Surrounding Natural Beauty

One may think that Seattle, the 24th largest city in America, is nothing but a sprawling metropolis where skyscrapers pollute the horizon and freeways flow like rivers.

Certainly, Seattle has some of the trappings of a concrete jungle, but those drawbacks are dwarfed by city’s numerous parks and the magnificent beauty of the surrounding area which includes immense bodies of water, amazingly lush islands and majestically sweeping mountains.

Inside the city limits of Seattle there are over 400 hundred parks, over 120 playgrounds, and numerous other outdoor facilities dedicated to the city’s natural beauty.

These sites are maintained by an organization called Seattle Parks and Recreation. This department oversees more than 6,000 acres, or 11% of the total area of Seattle. The department also oversees the Volunteer Park Conservatory, the Washington Park Arboretum, the Seattle Aquarium, and the Woodland Park Zoo.

The city’s biggest park is the 534-acre Discovery Park located in the neighborhood of Magnolia. Situated on Magnolia Bluff, Discovery Park offers visitors spectacular views of Puget Sound and both the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges. It’s also one of the best places in the city to observe bird and marine wildlife.

Located within the park’s boundaries are ample shorelines, wooded areas, over ten miles of walking trails, Fort Lawton, the West Point Lighthouse, the Daybreak Star Cultural Center and a sewage treatment plant. Don’t worry the treatment plant is almost entirely concealed from the park. Your nose won’t even notice it’s there.

Seattle is bordered to the east by Lake Washington. This long and narrow lake (described by geologists as a ribbon lake) is 22 miles long. The Lake Washington Ship Canal, which connects the lake to Puget Sound, cuts the city of Seattle in half. The southern half of Seattle is cut in half again, this time by the Duwamish River.

Seattle has three more major . . .

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