Kirkland (Washington)

King County

53-35940

Kirkland is a city in King County in the U.S. state of Washington, USA. It is an eastern suburb of Seattle and this through the Lake Washington separately. The city has 48 787 inhabitants (as of 2010), its area is 28.5 km ².

Kirkland has a low old town, which runs along the lake shore, with many restaurants and art galleries. She is known for many public parks, including urban beaches, and art in public spaces that invite interaction. The inhabitants of the neighboring cities, such as Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond, frequently used in the famous Marina Bay Park on the shores of Lake Washington.

  • 2.1 Town twinning

History

The steel entrepreneur Peter Kirk decided in 1886 to expand in the state of Washington after he heard of new iron ore discoveries in the Cascade Mountains. Other Aggregates for smelting, such as limestone, were also available on site. Here are a few coal mines come in the little eastern Newcastle, and a railway line was already under construction. He also knew that there are already plans for a canal between Lake Washington and Puget Sound, gave the strait to the Pacific, located at Seattle.

Kirk was aware that it is very convenient for further processing of steel to have plenty of fresh water available, so that the location on a lake is well suited. The connection to the Pacific allowed the sale also in more distant regions. However, Kirk was not a U.S. citizen and therefore could not get land to realize his idea. Here offered Leigh S. J. Hunt, the owner of the newspaper Seattle Post- Intelligencer, his help. Kirk and his partners soon began the construction of a steel mill, called Moss Bay Iron and Steel Works east of Seattle on Lake Washington. This was the foundation of the city of Kirkland in a development that Kirk imagined as Pittsburgh of the West.

The steel mill was completed represents the end of 1892, but before the actual commissioning it came to financial problems, and the Panic of 1893 ( due to a wave of bankruptcies in railroad and steel companies ), the hut was closed even before it had produced only once steel. Nevertheless, the settlement received municipal rights in 1905 for the 400 residents. Below developed the wool processing and shipbuilding to the main industrial branches.

For a long time Kirkland only a quiet bedroom community for Seattle. Kirkland was associated with Seattle 1900-1950 by ferry across Lake Washington. However, the construction of a bridge on floating pontoons in 1940 made ​​the ferry service unprofitable, so he was later discontinued. The compound was later strengthened by the motorway bridge on the route 520, which established in 1963 a direct connection with Seattle, and the construction of Interstate 405 in the 1960s.

During the 1920s, the population grew to several thousand who worked mostly in Seattle. With the outbreak of the Second World War, from the resident Anderson Steamship Company, the Lake Washington Shipyard. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the military contracts allowed a fourfold increase - and employed a workforce of 8,000 workers alone in the yard. The Kirkland Houghton region was almost overnight an industrial metropolis with an estimated 13000-14000 inhabitants.

However, the industrial production caused severe damage to the natural resources, the banks were soiled and gone wild animals. After closing the shipyard end of 1946 Houghton reserved the water line exclusively for residential areas. In the following decades were persecuted in Kirkland Houghton systematically the goal is to create a consistent public shoreline. This was achieved with various acquisitions, overrides and donations in part - and the manicured grounds on the shores of Lake Washington today are also a major attraction for the inhabitants of the surrounding towns.

By the time Kirkland grew, as well as the other cities in the region. Kirkland united in 1968 with the adjacent Houghton, other settlements were incorporated, including North Rose Hill and South Juanita in 1968, and Totem Lake in 1974, the share of industry in the city is low -. Them is as before especially the residence for the employees in adjacent cities. In the second half of the 20th century this was also true for the cities to the east, who produce a modern industry, including Microsoft in Redmond adjacent.

Population Development

¹ 1980 - 2010: census results

Policy

Kirkland is led by a city council of seven councilors who are elected in direct public election and serve four-year terms. The councilors appointed administrative head, and from among its members a President of the Council, who held the position of mayor, but otherwise has no extended rights. Since 2006, Jim Lauinger, the mayor and David Ramsay administrative head.

Twinning

Kirkland maintains with the following cities twinning:

  • Germany Emmerich am Rhein ( Germany, 1995 )

Sons and daughters of the city

477592
de