Harbor Island
Encyclopedia
Artificial island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
in the mouth of Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, Washington's Duwamish Waterway where it empties into Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay
Elliott Bay is the body of water on which Seattle, Washington, is located. A line drawn from Alki Point in the south to West Point in the north serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound...
. Built by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company
Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company
Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company was a major shipbuilding and construction company, located in Seattle, Washington. The firm was established in 1898 on Elliott Bay in Puget Sound. The company was engaged in construction projects around the United States and built ships for the U.S. Navy at...
, Harbor Island was completed in 1909 and was then the largest artificial island in the world, at 350 acres (1.4 km²). Since 1912, the island has been used for commercial and industrial activities, including secondary lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
, shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
and repair, bulk petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
storage, metal fabrication, and containerized cargo shipping. Warehouses, laboratories, and other buildings are located on the island.
Harbor Island was made from 24 million yd³ (18 million m³) of earth removed in the Jackson and Dearborn Street regrades
Regrading
Regrading is the process of raising and/or lowering the levels of land; such a project can also be referred to as a regrade. Regrading may be done on a small scale or on quite a large scale...
and dredged from the bed of the Duwamish River.
Harbor Island lost its title as the world's largest artificial island
Artificial island
An artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...
in 1938 with the completion of Treasure Island
Treasure Island, California
Treasure Island is an artificial island in the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, and an emerging neighborhood of San Francisco....
in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, at 395 acres (1.60 km²). It regained the title in 1967, at which time its area had increased to nearly 397 acres (1.61 km²), but has been far surpassed in area since; as of 2004 Rokko Island
Rokko Island
is the second major artificial island in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan located in the southeast region at Port of Kobe. The island was constructed from reclaimed land between 1973 and 1992. It has a 3.4 km by 2 km rectangular shape, and covers 5.80 km². The island was one of the hardest hit areas in...
in Kobe harbor
Harbor
A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships, boats, and barges can seek shelter from stormy weather, or else are stored for future use. Harbors can be natural or artificial...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
is over 3.5 times larger. The official land area as reported by the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
was 406.91 acres (164.7 ha), at the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
. There was also a permanent population of three persons reported on the island at that time.
West Seattle Bridge
The high-level West Seattle Bridge is a cantilevered segmental bridge that serves as the primary connection between West Seattle and the rest of the city. It was built between 1981 and 1984 after the previous bascule bridge was deemed inoperable as a result of being struck by the Chavez freighter...
passes over the island, as does the newer Spokane Street Bridge
Spokane Street Bridge
The Spokane Street Bridge is a concrete double-leaf swing bridge that crosses the Duwamish River, connecting Harbor Island to West Seattle. It has a span. Its construction was finished in 1991....
, a swing bridge
Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...
across the West Waterway. The East Waterway is crossed by a causeway supported a few feet above high tide by pilings.
Todd Pacific Shipyards
Todd Pacific Shipyards
Vigor Shipyards was founded in 1916 as the William H. Todd Corporation through the merger of Robins Dry Dock & Repair Company of Erie Basin, Brooklyn, New York, the Tietjen & Long Dry Dock Company of Hoboken, New Jersey, and the Seattle Construction and Dry Dock Company...
is based on the island, which is also home to some of the Port of Seattle
Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle is a port district that runs Seattle's seaport and airport. Its creation was approved by the voters of King County, Washington, on September 5, 1911, authorized by the Port District Act. It is run by a five-member commission. The commissioners' terms run four years...
's terminals and the publishing branch of The Mountaineers
The Mountaineers (Pacific NW)
The Mountaineers is an outdoor recreation, education, and conservation group based in Seattle, Washington and is the third largest group of its kind in the country. Its central Program Center located in Seattle's Magnuson Park is complete with education facilities for all aspects of the alpine...
(Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills is often considered the standard textbook for mountaineering and climbing. The book was first published in 1960 by The Mountaineers of Seattle, Washington...
, among others).