Admiralty Inlet is a strait in the U.S. state of Washington connecting the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Puget Sound. It lies between Whidbey Island and the northeastern part of the Olympic Peninsula.
Admiralty Inlet is a strait in the U.S. state of Washington connecting the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Puget Sound. It lies between Whidbey Island and the northeastern part of the Olympic Peninsula.
It is generally considered to be the northern part of Puget Sound's Main Basin. Its northern boundary is defined as a line running between Point Wilson and Point Partridge, and it extends south to the southern end of Whidbey Island and Point No Point on the Kitsap Peninsula, where it joins the Central Basin of Puget Sound's Main Basin. Admiralty Inlet's area is 437 square kilometres (169 sq mi), with a volume of 15,200 cubic metres (540,000 cu ft). Its shoreline is 171 kilometres (106 mi) in length. Its mean depth is 35 metres (115 ft). [1] Though only 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) wide at the narrowest point (between the Point Wilson and Admiralty Head lighthouses), it is through this passage that nearly all the seawater flows into and from Puget Sound during daily tidal variations. Tidal currents can reach six knots in the area northeast of Point Wilson.
All sea vessels must pass through Admiralty Inlet to enter or leave Puget Sound, except those small enough to use Deception Pass or Swinomish Channel. This fact led to the selection of Port Townsend on the Quimper Peninsula as the official port of entry for the Puget Sound region during the early days of commerce in the area. It also led to the federal decision in the late 1890s to construct Fort Worden, Fort Casey, and Fort Flagler around Admiralty Inlet as a "Triangle of Fire" for the protection of Puget Sound from a hostile fleet.
The first Europeans to find and map Admiralty Inlet were the Spanish of the 1790 expedition of Manuel Quimper. It was Quimper's pilot, Juan Carrasco, who sighted the inlet. Thinking it was a bay he named it Ensenada de Caamaño, after the Spanish naval officer Jacinto Caamaño. [2] Two years later Admiralty Inlet was given its present name by George Vancouver, after his ultimate commanders, the Board of Admiralty. The Spanish name was later given to Camano Island. [3]
Today a great deal of maritime freight traffic passes through Admiralty Inlet to the major shipping ports at Seattle and Tacoma, and of United States Navy vessels to the Naval facilities in Puget Sound. The Keystone-Port Townsend run of the Washington State Ferries crosses the inlet and serves as a link for State Route 20.
A tidal power project was canceled due to costs of monitoring wildlife. [4]
Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island, in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Washington. It connects Skagit Bay, part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A pair of bridges known collectively as Deception Pass Bridge cross Deception Pass. The bridges were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Puget Sound, a sound on the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington, is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins. A part of the Salish Sea, Puget Sound has one major and two minor connections to the open Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and Deception Pass and Swinomish Channel being the minor.
Whidbey Island is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington state. Whidbey is about 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington. The island forms the northern boundary of Puget Sound. It is home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The state parks and natural forests are home to numerous old growth trees.
The San Juan Islands is an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of San Juan County.
The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a body of water about 96 miles long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre of the Strait.
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,977. The county seat and only incorporated city is Port Townsend. The county is named for Thomas Jefferson.
Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County.
Keystone is a small unincorporated community on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington, in the northwestern United States. It is near the Keystone ferry landing, a dock at Keystone Harbor for the Washington State Ferries' Coupeville to Port Townsend route. The route provides a maritime link for State Route 20 across Admiralty Inlet to the Olympic Peninsula. Since its establishment in the 1930s, the ferry route to Port Townsend was known as the Keystone-Port Townsend Ferry; the name was changed in 2010 at the suggestion of the Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce in order to avoid confusion from tourists and visitors to Whidbey Island.
Fort Flagler State Park is a public recreation area that occupies the site of Fort Flagler, a former United States Army fort at the northern end of Marrowstone Island in Washington. The state park occupies 1,451 acres (587 ha) at the entrance to Admiralty Inlet and the Marrowstone Point Light lying adjacent. Port Townsend is visible to the northwest, the cranes at the Navy base on Indian Island to the west, and Whidbey Island to the east across Admiralty Inlet. Flagler Road terminates at the park entrance.
Point Wilson is at the end of the Quimper Peninsula, a northeast extension of the Olympic Peninsula and the northeasternmost point of Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately two miles north of the Port Townsend business district.
Point Partridge is the most westerly point of Whidbey Island, the largest island in Puget Sound. The point lies north of the Fort Ebey military reservation and south of West Beach. The primary importance of Point Partridge is as the northern and eastern reference point for the dividing line between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The other reference is Point Wilson.
Fort Worden Historical State Park is located in Port Townsend, Washington, on 433 acres originally known as Fort Worden, a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps base constructed to protect Puget Sound from invasion by sea. Fort Worden was named after U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden, commander of USS Monitor during the famous Battle of Hampton Roads during the American Civil War.
The Quimper Peninsula is a narrow peninsula forming the most northeastern extent of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state in the northwestern United States of America.
Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey was the first permanent white resident of Whidbey Island, Washington.
Rosario Strait is a strait in northern Washington state, separating San Juan County and Skagit and Whatcom Counties. It extends from the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 23 kilometres (14 mi) north to the Strait of Georgia. The USGS defines its southern boundary as a line extending from Point Colville on Lopez Island to Rosario Head on Fidalgo Island, and its northern boundary as a line from Point Migley on Lummi Island to the east tip of Puffin Island and then to Point Thompson on Orcas Island. Rosario Strait runs north-south between Lopez, Decatur, Blakely, and Orcas Islands on the west, and Fidalgo, Cypress, Sinclair, and Lummi Islands on the east.
Saratoga Passage lies in Puget Sound between Whidbey Island and Camano Island.
Francisco de Eliza y Reventa was a Spanish naval officer, navigator, and explorer. He is remembered mainly for his work in the Pacific Northwest. He was the commandant of the Spanish post in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, and led or dispatched several exploration voyages in the region, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia.
Skagit Bay is a bay and strait located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of the Whidbey Island Basin of Puget Sound. The Skagit River empties into Skagit Bay. To the south, Skagit Bay connects with the rest of Puget Sound via Saratoga Passage and Possession Sound. The boundary between Saratoga Passage and Skagit Bay is between Polnell Point on Whidbey Island and Rocky Point on Camano Island. To the northwest, Skagit Bay connects to the Strait of Juan de Fuca via the narrow strait of Deception Pass. A third waterway, the Swinomish Channel, connects Skagit Bay with Padilla Bay to the north.
Princess Royal was a British merchant ship that sailed on fur trading ventures in the late 1780s, and was captured at Nootka Sound by Esteban José Martínez of Spain during the Nootka Crisis of 1789. Called Princesa Real while under the Spanish Navy, the vessel was one of the important issues of negotiation during the first Nootka Convention and the difficulties in carrying out the agreements. The vessel also played an important role in both British and Spanish exploration of the Pacific Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands. In 1790, while under Spanish control, Princesa Real carried out the first detailed examination of the Strait of Juan de Fuca by non-indigenous peoples, finding, among other places, the San Juan Islands, Haro Strait, Esquimalt Harbour near present-day Victoria, British Columbia, and Admiralty Inlet.
South Puget Sound is the southern reaches of Puget Sound in Southwest Washington, in the United States' Pacific Northwest. It is one of five major basins encompassing the entire Sound, and the shallowest basin, with a mean depth of 37 meters (121 ft). Exact definitions of the region vary: the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife counts all of Puget Sound south of the Tacoma Narrows for fishing regulatory purposes. The same agency counts Mason, Jefferson, Kitsap, Pierce and Thurston Counties for wildlife management. The state's Department of Ecology defines a similar area south of Colvos Passage.
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