Eastside (King County, Washington)

The Eastside is to the right (east) of Lake Washington. Seattle is to the west of the lake.

The Eastside is the collective term for the eastern suburbs of Seattle, Washington. The name derives from the fact that these communities lie east of Lake Washington and east of Seattle.

There is no formal definition of the Eastside and the exact cities and towns that comprise the Eastside are a matter of dispute. The following cities are included in most definitions. .: Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Newcastle, and Redmond. Sammamish is most often grouped with these core cities, so that all of the cities and towns between Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish, as well as the Sammamish Plateau, are included within the Eastside.

Mercer Island is often considered part of the Eastside, even though it is located in the middle of Lake Washington rather than to the east.

The incorporated neighborhoods west of Bellevue are usually considered part of the Eastside. These areas include Beaux Arts Village, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Medina, and Yarrow Point.

The Northshore cities of Kenmore, Bothell, and Woodinville can be considered part of the Eastside, as each city has portions that are east of the lake and south of its northernmost tip. On the southeast tip of Lake Washington, Renton is also sometimes included for similar reasons.

The most expansive definitions of the Eastside can include one or more of the incorporated cities in the Snoqualmie Valley, including Duvall, Carnation, Fall City, North Bend, and Snoqualmie.

History

The cities on the Eastside mostly began as centers of logging or mining in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the years prior to World War II they became centers of dairy and berry farming. During the post-war boom, they became bedroom communities for Seattle. Currently, the area is growing several edge cities.

Economy

Bellevue is the largest city on the Eastside and 5th largest in the state. A major technology center, the Eastside is home to many large high-tech companies, mainly in the software and wireless industries, including Microsoft, T-Mobile USA, Nintendo of America, AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular), the former Western Wireless (now part of Alltel), Vulcan Ventures, Expedia, Inc., 180 Solutions and InfoSpace. Companies like PACCAR, Puget Sound Energy, Symetra Insurance, Boeing, Verizon Wireless, Google, Yahoo, Walt Disney, and FOX Sports also have national, major divisional or regional offices in the Eastside. The Eastside is also a hub for biotech and medical companies including Amgen, Icos, and Merck. Many local magnates, including Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, John Stanton, and Craig McCaw, live in the Eastside's more exclusive cities. The Eastside is also home to the largest concentration of video game and interactive media companies. These include Sucker Punch, Monolith Productions, Sony Online Entertainment, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Microsoft Game Studios, and DigiPen Institute of Technology.

The Eastside is connected to Seattle by the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge from Medina (Washington State Route 520) and the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Third Lake Washington Bridge from Bellevue via Mercer Island (Interstate 90). It is also served by Interstate 405, a loop route of Interstate 5 that runs to the east of Lake Washington from Tukwila to Lynnwood.

The headquarters of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team will move from Kirkland, where the team has headquartered since 1986, South to the city of Renton in the summer of 2008. Kirkland also hosts the annual Junior League Softball World Series.