Bitter Lake is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, named after its most notable feature, Bitter Lake

Bitter Lake (Seattle)

Bitter Lake is a small lake in northwest Seattle, Washington, USA.The lake covers 19 acres , with a mean depth of 16 feet and a maximum depth of 31 feet . Until 1913, a sawmill was located at its southwest corner. Tannic acid from logs dumped into the lake gave its water a bitter taste and the...

. It was a mostly natural forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 of Douglas-fir

Douglas-fir

Douglas-fir is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. Other common names include Douglas tree, and Oregon pine. There are five species, two in western North America, one in Mexico, and two in eastern Asia...

 and Western Redcedar, inhabited by Native Americans, until the late 19th century. Development especially picked up when the Seattle-to-Everett

Everett, Washington

Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and...

 Interurban streetcar reached the lake in 1906. A sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 operated in the area until 1913, when most of the trees had been cut down.

To its east, across Aurora Avenue N.

Washington State Route 99

State Route 99, abbreviated SR 99, commonly called Highway 99, is a numbered state highway in the U.S. state of Washington extending just under from Fife in the south to Everett in the north, with a gap in Tukwila.-Southern division:...

, is the neighborhood of Haller Lake; to its west, across Greenwood Avenue N., is Broadview

Broadview, Seattle, Washington

Broadview is a neighborhood in northwestern Seattle, Washington, USA.Broadview is bounded on the west by Puget Sound; on the north by N.W. 145th Street, beyond which is the city of Shoreline; on the east by Greenwood Avenue N., beyond which lies the neighborhood of Bitter Lake; and on the south by...

; to its north, across N. 145th Street, is the city of Shoreline

Shoreline, Washington

Shoreline is a city in King County, Washington, United States, north of Downtown Seattle bordering the northern Seattle city limits. As of the 2010 census, the population was 53,007, making it the 19th largest city in the state of Washington....

; and to its south is Greenwood

Greenwood, Seattle, Washington

Greenwood is a neighborhood in north central Seattle, Washington, USA.The neighborhood's primary north/south arterial is Greenwood Avenue North. The primary east/west arterial is North 85th Street, which carries traffic east to Interstate 5 and west to Golden Gardens Park...

. N. 130th Street is often considered its southern boundary, although some place it further south, at N. 125th Street, N. 115th Street, or even N. 105th Street.
Bitter Lake played a more prominent role in Seattle at mid-20th century—when it was not yet officially part of the city—than it does today. From May 24, 1930 to 1961, it was home to Playland, one of several amusement parks built by the Washington Amusement Company. It was purchased a year after it opened by Carl E. Phare, a designer and builder of roller coaster

Roller coaster

The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

s, who designed The Dipper, a roller coaster with 3400 feet (1,036.3 m) of track and a maximum altitude of 85 feet (25.9 m). Other notable attractions included The Canals of Venice, 1200 feet (365.8 m) of darkness that may have been Seattle's most famous makeout spot for two generations, and a 9600 square feet (891.9 m²) hardwood floor dance pavilion. During the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, it was home to dance marathon

Dance marathon

A dance marathon is an event in which people stay on their feet for a given length of time. It started as a popular fad in the 1920s and 1930s, when organized dance endurance contests attracted people to compete to achieve fame or win monetary prizes...

s and flagpole sitting contests.

The 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) amusement park, with parking for 12,000 cars, closed at the end of the 1961 season, under three economic pressures: the rise of television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, the rising value of its lakefront real estate, and the impending Century 21 Exposition

Century 21 Exposition

The Century 21 Exposition was a World's Fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962 in Seattle, Washington.Nearly 10 million people attended the fair...

 (the 1962 Seattle world's fair

World's Fair

World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...

), which would dwarf a relatively small amusement park on the edge of town.

Part of the site of Playland is now the R.H. Thomson

Reginald H. Thomson

Reginald Heber Thomson was a self-taught American civil engineer. He worked in Washington state, mainly in Seattle, where he became city engineer in 1892 and held the position for two decades. Alan J...

Elementary School; the Bitter Lake Community Center sits near the onetime site of the Dipper.