Hood Canal in the context of "Salish Sea"

The Hood Canal Bridge (officially William A. Bugge Bridge) is a floating bridge in western Washington state, United States. It carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal in Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. At 7,869 feet (1.490 mi; 2.398 km) in length (floating portion 6,521 feet (1.235 mi; 1.988 km)), it is the longest floating bridge in the world located in a saltwater tidal basin, and the third longest floating bridge overall. It opened in 1961 and was the second concrete floating bridge constructed in Washington. Since that time, it has become a vital link for local residents, freight haulers, commuters, and recreational travelers. The convenience it provides has had a major impact on economic development, especially in eastern Jefferson County.

The bridge is officially named after William A. Bugge (1900–1992), the director of the Department of Highways from 1949 to 1963, who was a leader in the planning and construction of the bridge.

State Route 104 (SR 104) is a 31.75-mile-long (51.10 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, serving four counties: Jefferson on the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap on the Kitsap Peninsula, and Snohomish and King in the Puget Sound region. It begins south of Discovery Bay at U.S. Route 101 (US 101) and crosses the Hood Canal Bridge over Hood Canal to the terminus of SR 3 near Port Gamble. SR 104 continues southeast onto the Edmonds–Kingston Ferry to cross the Puget Sound and intersects SR 99 and Interstate 5 (I-5) before ending at SR 522 in Lake Forest Park. SR 104 also has a short spur route that connects the highway to SR 99 at an at-grade signal on the Snohomish–King county line.

Established during the 1964 state highway renumbering, SR 104 was formed out of four highways, themselves created in 1937: Secondary State Highway 9E (SSH 9E) from Discovery Bay to Port Gamble, Primary State Highway 21 (PSH 21) from Port Gamble to Kingston, SSH 1W within Edmonds, and SSH 2B from Edmonds to Lake Forest Park. PSH 21 was originally part of State Road 21, added to the state highway system in 1915 to connect the Port Gamble–Shine ferry to the Kingston ferry landing. The Edmonds–Kingston ferry at the end of State Road 21 has been in operation under various companies since 1923 and was served by the 14-car City of Edmonds. SSH 9E extended from Discovery Bay to Port Ludlow initially and was moved south and extended to the South Point ferry landing in the late 1940s. The bridge replaced the South Point–Lofall ferry when it opened in 1961, but the ferry was re-used during the construction of the second Hood Canal Bridge after the first bridge sank in 1979 and before the new bridge opened in 1982. The Edmonds–Kingston ferry was added to the state ferry system in 1951 before it was incorporated into SR 104 in 1994.

The Olympic Peninsula is a large peninsula in Western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Hood Canal. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States, and Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point, are on the peninsula. Comprising about 3,600 square miles (9,300 km), the Olympic Peninsula contained many of the last unexplored places in the contiguous United States. It remained largely unmapped until Arthur Dodwell and Theodore Rixon mapped most of its topography and timber resources between 1898 and 1900.

The Kitsap Peninsula (/ˈkɪtˌsæp/) lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kitsap County except Bainbridge and Blake islands, in addition to the northeastern part of Mason County and the northwestern part of Pierce County. The highest point on the Kitsap Peninsula is Gold Mountain. The U.S. Navy's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and Naval Base Kitsap (comprising the former NSB Bangor and NS Bremerton) are on the peninsula. Its main city is Bremerton.

The 1841 United States Exploring Expedition, led by Charles Wilkes of the U.S. Navy, named it the Great Peninsula or Indian Peninsula. While "Great Peninsula" remains the official name, the name "Kitsap Peninsula" is more commonly used and is derived from Kitsap County, which occupies most of the peninsula. The county was named for Chief Kitsap, a late 18th- and 19th-century warrior and medicine man of the Suquamish Tribe. The Suquamish were one of the historical fishing tribes belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, and their ancestral grounds were based on the eastern shores of the Kitsap Peninsula. The city of Seattle is named after the tribe's most famous leader, Chief Seattle.