King County, Washington in the context of "Kirkland, Washington"

Seattle (/siˈætəl/ see-AT-əl) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It is the 18th-most populous city in the United States with a population of 780,995 in 2024, while the Seattle metropolitan area at over 4.15 million residents is the 15th-most populous metropolitan area in the nation. The city is the county seat of King County, the most populous county in Washington. Seattle's growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 made it one of the country's fastest-growing large cities.

Seattle is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and Lake Washington. It is the northernmost major city in the United States, located about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canadian border. A gateway for trade with East Asia, the Port of Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2021.

The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. The United States Census Bureau defines the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA metropolitan statistical area as the three most populous counties in the state: King, Pierce, and Snohomish. Seattle has the 15th largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States with a population of 4,018,762 as of the 2020 census, over half of Washington's total population.

The area is considered part of the greater Puget Sound region, which largely overlaps with the Seattle Combined Statistical Area (CSA). The Seattle metropolitan area is home to a large tech industry and is the headquarters of several major companies, including Microsoft and Amazon. The area's geography is varied and includes the lowlands around Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains; the highest peak in the metropolitan area is Mount Rainier, which has a summit elevation of 14,411 feet (4,392 m) and is one of the tallest mountains in the United States.

The Puyallup River (/pjuːˈæləp/ pyew-AL-əp) is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About 45 miles (72 km) long, it is formed by glaciers on the west side of Mount Rainier. It flows generally northwest, emptying into Commencement Bay, part of Puget Sound. The river and its tributaries drain an area of about 948 square miles (2,460 km) in Pierce County and southern King County.

The lower, northwestern half of the river's watershed is a complex amalgam of glacial and tectonic features dating back to the Pleistocene, as well as more recent (Holocene) changes caused by a series of lahars which flowed down from Mount Rainier between 5,600 and 800 years Before Present. The valley's 150,000 residents are at risk from future lahars. For this reason, the United States Geological Survey has installed a lahar warning system.

The White River is a white, glacial river in the U.S. state of Washington. It flows about 75 miles (121 km) from its source, the Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier, to join the Puyallup River at Sumner. It defines part of the boundary between King and Pierce counties.

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.

Lake Washington (Lushootseed: x̌ačuʔ) is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south, and Kenmore on the north, and encloses Mercer Island. The lake is fed by the Sammamish River at its north end and the Cedar River at its south.

Lake Washington has been known to the Duwamish and other Indigenous peoples living on the lake for millennia as x̌ačuʔ (lit. "lake" in Lushootseed). At the time of European settlement, it was recorded as At-sar-kal in a map sketched by engineer Abiel W. Tinkham; and the Chinook Jargon name, Hyas Chuck ("great/large water"), was also used. Other English names historically used for the lake include Lake Geneva by Isaac N. Ebey; and Lake Duwamish in railroad surveys under Governor Isaac Stevens. Lake Washington received its present name in 1854 after Thomas Mercer suggested it be named after George Washington, as the new Washington Territory had been named the year before.

Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located 15 miles (24 km) east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census.

Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. The city has a large technology industry in addition to being a bedroom community for Seattle, which lies across Lake Washington on State Route 520.