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.

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.

April 11, 2015 - Pier Peer

The Seattle skyline and the 750 foot Hong Kong flagged bulk carrier BBG Hope at the Port of Seattle Terminal 86 Grain Facility as seen from Centennial Park on the north end of Elliott Bay.