Olympic Peninsula in the context of "Kitsap Peninsula"

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.

The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak the Coast Salish languages and Tsamosan languages.

The Coast Salish are a large, loose grouping of many nations with numerous distinct cultures and languages. Territory claimed by Coast Salish peoples span from the northern limit of the Salish Sea on the inside of Vancouver Island and covers most of southern Vancouver Island, all of the Lower Mainland and most of Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula (except for territories of the Chemakum people). Their traditional territories coincide with modern major metropolitan areas, namely Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle. The Tillamook or Nehalem around Tillamook, Oregon are the southernmost of the Coast Salish peoples.

Juan de Fuca (10 June 1536  – 23 July 1602) was a Greek sailor and explorer under the patronage of Philip II of Spain. He is best known for his claim to have explored the Strait of Anián—now known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca—between Vancouver Island (now part of British Columbia, Canada) and the Olympic Peninsula (northwestern Washington state in the United States).

Whidbey Island (historical spellings Whidby, Whitbey, or Whitby) is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington state. Whidbey is about 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle, and is separated from the Olympic Peninsula in the southwest by Admiralty Inlet. The island forms the northern boundary of Puget Sound. It is home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The state parks and natural forests are home to numerous old growth trees.

As of the 2020 U.S. census, Whidbey Island has 69,501 total residents. The majority live in the center of the island, which includes its most populous city, Oak Harbor.

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.

Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,977. The county seat and only incorporated city is Port Townsend. The county is named for Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson County was formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory, and included the northern 4,854-square-mile (12,571.8 km) portion of the Olympic Peninsula. On April 26, 1854, the legislature of Washington Territory created Clallam County from the northwestern 2,670-square-mile (6,915.3 km) portion of this original area.

Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

As is typical of the Northwest Coast, Wakashan languages have large consonant inventories—the consonants often occurring in complex clusters.

The Makah language is the indigenous language spoken by the Makah. Makah has not been spoken as a first language since 2002, when its last fluent native speaker died. However, it survives as a second language, and the Makah tribe is attempting to revive the language, including through preschool classes. The endonym for the Makah is qʷi·qʷi·diččaq.

The Makah reside in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is closely related to Nuu-chah-nulth and Ditidaht, which are languages of the First Nations of the west coast of Vancouver Island on the north side of the strait, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Makah is the only member of the Wakashan language family in the United States, with the other members spoken in British Columbia, from Vancouver Island to the Central Coast region.