
Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle in 1994, and major airline Alaska Airlines is based in SeaTac, Washington, serving Seattle's international airport, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The Seattle area developed into a technology center from the 1980s onwards with companies like Microsoft becoming established in the region Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a Seattleite by birth. Growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late 19th century, the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Today, Seattle has high populations of Native, Scandinavian, Asian American and African American people, as well as a thriving LGBT community that ranks sixth in the United States by population. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named "Seattle" in 1852, in honor of Chief Si'ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers.

A major gateway for trade with East Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2021. It is the northernmost major city in the United States, located about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canadian border. Seattle is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 20 makes it one of the nation's fastest-growing large cities. The Seattle metropolitan area's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America.

It is the seat of King County, Washington. Seattle ( / s i ˈ æ t əl/ ( listen) see- AT-əl) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States.
