Eastside (King County, Washington)

Not to be confused with Eastern Washington.

The Eastside is to the right (east) of Seattle.

The Eastside of the King County, Washington area in the United States is a collective term for the suburbs of Seattle located on the east side of Lake Washington.

The most common definitions of the Eastside include the cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah, Newcastle, and Mercer Island. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

The towns west of Bellevue, collectively known as the Gold Coast, are usually considered part of the Eastside. These include Beaux Arts Village, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Medina, and Yarrow Point.

The Northshore cities of Kenmore, Bothell, and Woodinville may be considered part of the Eastside, as each city contains portions that are east of the lake and south of its northernmost tip. Similarly, on the southeast tip of Lake Washington, Renton may also be included. ^[4]

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

In politics, the area is sometimes referred to as the "suburban crescent". ^[5]

History

Peter Kirk Building, built 1889–1890 as the Kirkland Investment Company Building. Now Kirkland Arts Center.

Several Indigenous peoples have lived on the Eastside for thousands of years prior to American colonization. The various subgroups of the Hachuamish, as well as the Sammamish, had many villages along the eastern coast of Lake Washington and the Sammamish River. ^[6] Although they were more contained to the southernmost reaches of the Eastside, the modern-day site of Renton was the center of Duwamish society. ^[7] Farther out in the Snoqualmie Valley, the Snoqualmie were historically one of the most populous tribes in the Puget Sound region. ^[8]

The cities on the Eastside mostly began as centers of logging or mining in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Once logged, the land was eventually cleared (supplemented by some Japanese immigrant labor) to support farming. ^[9] 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. This was made possible by the 1940 construction of the Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge across Lake Washington, as well as the later construction of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge in 1963; additional traffic later led to the construction of an additional bridge paralleling the Murrow bridge, Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, as well as the replacement of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. Currently, the area is growing several edge cities.

Economy

Microsoft Building 17

View from Bellevue Downtown Park

See also: List of companies based in Bellevue, Washington and List of companies based in Kirkland, Washington

Bellevue is the largest city on the Eastside and fifth 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 US, Nintendo of America, AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular), the former Western Wireless (now part of Verizon Wireless), Vulcan Ventures, 180 Solutions and InfoSpace. Companies like Paccar, Puget Sound Energy, Symetra Insurance, Boeing, Verizon Wireless, Google, Amazon, 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, Steve Ballmer, John Stanton, and Craig McCaw, live in the Eastside's cities. The Eastside is also home to many video game and interactive media companies. These include Bungie, Valve, ArenaNet, Sucker Punch, Monolith Productions, Sony Online Entertainment, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Microsoft Game Studios, Epic Games, Unity Technologies and DigiPen Institute of Technology.

Kirkland hosts the annual Junior League Softball World Series. Kirkland Signature is also the own brand of Costco, which founded its first warehouse in Seattle (#1), and operates from its corporate headquarters in the Eastside city of Issaquah.

Demographics

For the purposes of population estimates, Eastside includes Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah, Newcastle, Mercer Island, Woodinville, Kenmore, and Bothell.

City	Population (Jan 1, 2026) [10]	2020 [11]	! 2010 [12]	! 2000	! 1990	! 1980	! 1970	! 1960
Bellevue	159,532	151,854	122,363	109,569	86,874	73,903	61,196	12,809
Kirkland	98,418	92,175	48,787	45,054	40,052	18,785	14,970	6,025
Redmond	83,581	73,256	54,144	45,256	35,800	23,318	11,020	1,426
Sammamish	68,514	67,455	45,780	34,104	–	–	–	–
Bothell	31,886	48,161	33,505	30,150	12,345	7,943	5,420	2,237
Issaquah	41,591	40,051	30,434	11,212	7,786	5,536	4,313	1,870
Mercer Island	25,860	25,748	22,699	22,036	20,816	21,522	19,047	–
Kenmore	24,605	23,914	20,460	18,678	8,917	7,281	–	–
Woodinville	14,142	13,069	10,938	9,194	–	–	–	–
Newcastle	14,046	13,017	10,380	7,737	14,736	12,245	–	–
Eastside altogether	562,175	548,700	399,490	332,990	227,326	170,533	115,966	24,367
King County	–	2,269,675	1,931,249	1,737,034	1,507,319	1,269,749	1,156,633	935,014
Eastside as percent of King County	–	24.18%	20.69%	19.17%	15.08%	13.43%	10.03%	2.61%
Seattle	–	737,015	608,660	563,374	516,259	493,846	530,831	557,087
Seattle as percent of King County	–	32.47%	31.52%	32.43%	34.25%	38.89%	45.89%	59.58%

Transportation

The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge on Lake Washington with Downtown Bellevue in the background

Air

See also: Category:Airports in King County, Washington

There are public and private airfields on the Eastside. Major facilities include:

• Kenmore Air Harbor provides scheduled seaplane service to various points in the Northwest United States and southwest British Columbia.
• Renton Municipal Airport adjacent to the Boeing factory has a 1-mile (1.6 km) runway.
• Bellevue Airfield was closed in 1983.

There is also a landing zone for paragliding at the base of Tiger Mountain. ^[13]

Rail

Main article: Eastside Rail Corridor

The Woodinville Subdivision is a rail line built in the late 19th century. In 2008, the Wilburton Tunnel was eliminated, severing the line. The right-of-way was purchased the same year by the Port of Seattle. ^[14] Eastside cities and King County purchased portions of the Port property for conversion to a rail trail called the Eastside Rail Corridor. ^[15]

Road

The Eastside is connected to Seattle by the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge from Medina (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.

References

1. "Eastside Business Journal (Masthead)". Eastside Business Journal. December 2007. Archived from the original on January 6, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
2. "Eastside Transportation Partnership Subareas (Map)" (PDF). Metro King County. April 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 19, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
3. "Subarea equity". Sound Transit. December 2007. Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
4. Vermillion, Allecia (October 23, 2024). "Which Towns Are Officially Part of the Eastside?". Seattle Met. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
5. KOMO Staff; News Services (September 17, 2002). "Primary Election Results". KOMO News. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
6. Buerge, David (August 1, 1984). "Indian Lake Washington" (PDF). Seattle Weekly . pp. 29–33. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
7. Tollefson, Kenneth D. (1989). "Political Organization of the Duwamish" . Ethnology. 28 (2): 135–149. doi: 10.2307/3773671 . ISSN   0014-1828. JSTOR   3773671 . Retrieved January 10, 2024.
8. Krishnan, Sonia (January 4, 2005). "Snoqualmie Tribe on road to self-sufficiency". National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
9. Neiwert, David (2005). Strawberry Days . Palgrave Macmillan. pp.  11, 31. ISBN   978-1403967923.
10. "April 1 Population Estimates". Washington State Office of Financial Management. 2025.
11. "2020 Decennial Census". U.S. Census Bureau. September 3, 2024.
12. "2010 Decennial Census". U.S. Census Bureau.
13. "Site guide: Tiger Mountain". Northwest Paragliding Club. Archived from the original on August 2, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2012.
14. Eastside Rail Corridor, Port of Seattle
15. Cross Kirkland Corridor, City of Kirkland, 2012^{[ permanent dead link ]}

47°36′N122°10′W / 47.600°N 122.167°W / 47.600; -122.167