September 25, 2021 - Myrtle Edwards Park

 North of Broad Street, where much of Seattle's 'working' waterfront ends, are a series of connected small, narrow public areas that run along the shores of Elliott Bay.  From south to north they are the Olympic Sculpture Park, an extension of the Seattle Art Museum, Myrtle Edwards Park and Centennial Park.  These green spaces are sandwiched between the BNSF railroad tracks and Elliott Bay.  

The parks sit on what was an industrial area that included oil and petroleum operations. Material from the excavation of some portions of Interstate 5 had even been dumped here.  The land was purchased in 1972 and work began in 1975 to transform it from a rubble strewn toxic brownfield to the gem of a green space that it now is.

In 1976 "Adjacent, Against, Upon" was installed.  The art installation partly in view here, is made of three concrete plinths and three huge granite boulders quarried in the Cascades.  One is 28 tons and the other two weigh 45 tons.  

The shoreline was restored to provide public access to the water as well and to improve the marine habitat with pocket beaches and kelp beds.  Walking and biking trails run through the parks and connect with the rest of the Seattle waterfront. 

Across the railroad tracks, is the landmark globe and eagle Seattle Post Intelligencer.  The Seattle PI newspaper is longer in paper form, but the globe remains.

April 14, 2021 - Twilight to Downtown Dusk

Milder temperatures make for a pleasant way to pause and watch a cloudless day transform into a gorgeous evening, as the soft pink glow fades and is replaced by the lights of downtown. 

January 25, 2020 - Seattle Filter

A break in an otherwise wet first month of the year yields the city's own filter when the skyline is viewed from Alki looking across Elliott Bay.  It's not quite black and white.  It's not on Instagram.  It isn't "Inkwell", or "Moon", or "Walden."  "January Seattle Morning", is too long and certainly doesn't fit with the online photo application's naming conventions.  Suggestions, anyone?  "Elliott", perhaps?

The ferry M/V Tacoma heads across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island.

An image in black and white isn't much different from our Seattle filter!

September 6, 2016 - Another Ferry Photo

The ferries Kaleetan and Wenatchee leaves Seattle's Elliott Bay headed for Bremerton and Bainbridge Island respectively.  Beyond Alki Point point the ferry Tillikum sits at the ferry terminal on Vashon Island.

A few minutes earlier, they had passed by the cranes and dry docks of Harbor Island.

July 3, 2016 - Overlooked Gem

At the very southwest corner of Seattle's Elliott Bay is a small, often overlooked, 15 acre waterfront park owned by the Port of Seattle.  Even on a non-rainy holiday weekend just a handful of individuals were at Jack Block Park park at mid-afternoon while nearby Alki Beach was teeming with people.  The park includes public access to the water, a small beach and a 45 foot observation tower from which the city's entire skyline and Mount Rainier can be seen.  The park opened in 1998 after borders the Port's Terminal 5 and was once a wood treatment plant and shipbuilding site.  The creosote contamination was significant enough that the area was once an EPA Superfund site.

Even when the lighting conditions aren't ideal for a great skyline photo, the view, the scenery - both industrial and natural - and the wildlife - including a Caspian Tern, the world's largest tern - make this park an overlooked gem.

March 26, 2016 - Sunny Seattle Spring Saturday

The sun was out on an early spring Saturday morning and with it came all manner of Seattle residents and tourists.  They were out in kayaks, on stand up paddle boards, traveling on ferries, walking dogs, playing volleyball in bikinis (never mind that it was barely 50 degrees out), on roller blades, in running shoes, on skate boards, taking photos, on bicycles or barefoot playing in the sand.

From Alki one can see the Olympic Mountains across a calm Puget Sound to the west, the Cascade Mountains across Elliott Bay to the east and to the north east the Space Needle and the houses on Queen Anne Hill.

December 19, 2015 - Admiral View Two

Looking across Elliott Bay, the Seattle skyline, including the Great Wheel, Pike Place Market, the Alaskan Way viaduct, ferries, the Space Needle and a USCG HH-65 Dolphin based in Port Angeles were visible this morning from the Admiral Way viewpoint in West Seattle.

A service technician was visiting the  viewpoint's lone telescope.  The frequency of his visits depends on the time of the year.  During the winter months when fewer eyeballs are using the 50 cent view he'll visit every few weeks or so to ensure it is working and to collect the quarters.

November 8, 2015 - Terminal 18 Cranes

Four of the ten ZPMC quayside cranes on the Port of Seattle's Terminal 18 intermodal yard on Harbor Island as seen from West Seattle.

Terminal 18 has four berths on its 4400 foot length in which container ships can anchor, load and unload cargo.  With a depth of 50 feet, there is plenty of draft for most of the world's container ships, many of whom are over a 1000 feet long.  The standard measurement for intermodal shipping is the TEU, or twenty foot equivalent.  It represents the cargo that can be stored in a 20 foot long shipping container.  Through Terminal 18, and the other port terminals, over 2 million containers are handled each year.  This is enough to rank Seattle's port as the 57th largest in the world.  The cranes in the foreground are 210 feet high, have a capacity of over 65 long tons and can delicately hoist loads at 600 feet per minute.

In the background can be seen Century Link and Safeco Fields and Harborview hospital and the south end of the downtown skyline.

Below, Queen Anne Hill, the Space Needle and the north end of downtown Seattle are visible across Elliott Bay as one looks down the West Seattle Bridge.

May 30, 2015 - Elliot Bay

Elliott Bay is a busy place on a Saturday morning.  Ferries, freighters, kayakers, boats, sailboats, foot ferries, Shell Oil rigs and even a mermaid parade.  Above, the M/V Tacoma heads to Bainbridge Island.

Known originally as Seattle Harbor or Duwamish Bay, the US Board on Geographical Names settled on Elliott Bay in 1895.  It was named during an expedition in 1841, but with several Elliott surnames on the expedition, it isn't certain for whom it was named.

Protesters of the Shell oil rig, seen in the background, have anchored their "Solar Pioneer"off of Alki.

The British Courage, a 49,000 ton United Kingdom liquid petroleum gas freighter launched in 2006, in the process of setting their anchors.

Mermaid parade participants.

April 19, 2015 - Regarding Beauty

"Mary's Invitation - A Place to Regard Beauty", by Ginny Ruffner, was commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum to recognize one of the key benefactors of the SAM's Olympic Sculpture Park, Mary Shirley.  Located at the north end of Seattle's waterfront the nine acres of land underwent remediation after being reclaimed from industry, and transformed into a place from which one can accept Mary's invitation and regard beauty.

"The Eagle" by Alexander Calder

The sunset is reflected in "Seattle Cloud Cover" by Teresita Fernandez.

A ferry on Elliott Bay.

"Echo" by Jaume Plensa

What "Echo" regards.