The U.S. state of Washington is home to a number of public and private ferry systems, most notably the state-run Washington State Ferries.
The U.S. state of Washington is home to a number of public and private ferry systems, most notably the state-run Washington State Ferries.
Due to Washington's geography which features large, deep bodies of water with many peninsulas and islands, ferries are a convenient means of connecting communities in the region. Most were operated by private companies until later acquisitions by governments, beginning with the state's takeover of the Keller Ferry on the Columbia River in 1930. [2]
Washington State Ferries, owned and operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), serves communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands. It is the largest fleet of passenger and automobile ferries in the United States and the third largest in the world.
| Route name | Terminals | State route designation [3] | Annual Ridership [4] | Annual Vehicles Carried [4] | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anacortes–Sidney BC | Sidney, British Columbia | Friday Harbor, San Juan Island | Anacortes |   SR 20 Spur | 123,001 | 42,589 | Route out of service due to vessel availability issues
| |
| Anacortes–San Juan Islands | Friday Harbor, San Juan Island | 2,009,438 | 947,064 |
| ||||
| Lopez Island | ||||||||
| Shaw Island | ||||||||
| Orcas Island | ||||||||
| Interisland | Friday Harbor, San Juan Island | Orcas Island | Shaw Island | Lopez Island |
| |||
| Port Townsend–Coupeville | Port Townsend | Coupeville, Whidbey Island | SR 20 | 819,285 | 372,130 |
| ||
| Mukilteo–Clinton | Clinton, Whidbey Island | Mukilteo |  SR 525 | 4,073,761 | 2,234,650 | |||
| Edmonds–Kingston | Kingston | Edmonds |  SR 104 | 4,114,181 | 2,127,315 | |||
| Seattle–Bainbridge Island | Winslow, Bainbridge Island | Seattle (Colman Dock) |  SR 305 | 6,429,853 | 1,929,617 | |||
| Seattle–Bremerton | Bremerton | Seattle (Colman Dock) |  SR 304 | 2,739,926 | 673,815 | |||
| Fauntleroy–Vashon | Vashon Island | West Seattle (Fauntleroy) |  SR 160 | 3,059,587 | 1,738,721 |
| ||
| Fauntleroy–Southworth | Southworth | West Seattle (Fauntleroy) | ||||||
| Southworth–Vashon | Southworth | Vashon Island | 200,672 | 109,548 | ||||
| Point Defiance–Tahlequah | Tahlequah, Vashon Island | Tacoma (Point Defiance) |  SR 163 | 812,786 | 473,924 | |||
| Keller Ferry | Clark | Colville Indian Reservation |  SR 21 | ? | ~159,000 |
| ||
Many private ferries exist to serve residents of islands throughout Puget Sound and beyond into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. For example:
Kitsap County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 275,611. Its county seat is Port Orchard; its largest city is Bremerton. The county, formed out of King County and Jefferson County on January 16, 1857, is named for Chief Kitsap of the Suquamish Tribe. Originally named Slaughter County, it was soon renamed.
Washington State Ferries (WSF) is a government agency that operates automobile and passenger ferry service in the U.S. state of Washington as part of the Washington State Department of Transportation. It runs ten routes serving 20 terminals located around Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands, designated as part of the state highway system. The agency maintains a fleet of 21 vessels that are able to carry passengers and vehicles.
State Route 104 (SR 104) is a 31.75-mile-long (51.10 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, serving four counties: Jefferson on the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap on the Kitsap Peninsula, and Snohomish and King in the Puget Sound region. It begins south of Discovery Bay at U.S. Route 101 (US 101) and crosses the Hood Canal Bridge over Hood Canal to the terminus of SR 3 near Port Gamble. SR 104 continues southeast onto the Edmonds–Kingston Ferry to cross the Puget Sound and intersects SR 99 and Interstate 5 (I-5) before ending at SR 522 in Lake Forest Park. SR 104 also has a short spur route that connects the highway to SR 99 at an at-grade signal on the Snohomish–King county line.
Kitsap Transit is a public transit agency serving Kitsap County, Washington, part of the Seattle metropolitan area. The system is based in Bremerton and operates bus service on 40 fixed routes, a foot ferry, a vanpool system, worker-driver services, and dial-a-ride services. The Kitsap Fast Ferries are also operated by Kitsap Transit. In 2023, the system had a total ridership of 2,739,600 and over 8,000 passengers on an average weekday in 2022.
The Keller Ferry or Clark Ferry, is a ferry crossing on Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake in the US state of Washington. The crossing carries State Route 21 between the Colville Indian Reservation in Ferry County and Clark in Lincoln County. The ferry has been in operation since the 1890s and under state control since 1930. During that time, five vessels have served the crossing, including the Martha S., which operated from 1948 to 2013, and the current ferry, the M/V Sanpoil.
The MV Walla Walla is a Jumbo-class ferry operated by Washington State Ferries.
The MV Cathlamet is an Issaquah-class ferry operated by Washington State Ferries.
The MV Hyak is a Super-class ferry that was operated by Washington State Ferries. Built in 1966 at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company shipyard in San Diego, the ferry began service on July 20, 1967, and normally ran on the Seattle–Bremerton route or the Anacortes–San Juan Islands run.
The Steel Electric-class ferries are a class of auto/passenger ferries that became part of the Washington State Ferry System when Puget Sound Navigation Company was acquired in 1951. They were built in San Francisco Bay for service on Southern Pacific and Northwestern Pacific Railroad routes across the bay.
The King County Water Taxi is a passenger-only fast ferry service operated by the King County Metro Transit Department, Marine Division. It operates two routes between Downtown Seattle and West Seattle or Vashon Island.
The Puget Sound mosquito fleet was a multitude of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock. The historical period defining the beginning and end of the mosquito fleet is ambiguous, but the peak of activity occurred between the First and Second World Wars.
State Route 304 (SR 304) is a state highway in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It connects SR 3, a regional freeway, to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and downtown Bremerton. The designation of SR 304 continues onto the Seattle–Bremerton ferry operated by Washington State Ferries to Colman Dock in Downtown Seattle, terminating at SR 519 on Alaskan Way.
State Route 305 (SR 305) is a 13.50-mile-long (21.73 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, primarily serving Bainbridge Island in Kitsap County and connecting it to Seattle in King County via the Seattle–Bainbridge Island ferry. The highway travels north through Bainbridge Island and leaves the island on the Agate Pass Bridge into the Kitsap Peninsula. SR 305 continues northwest through Poulsbo, intersecting SR 307 and ending at the SR 3 freeway. The highway was created during the 1964 highway renumbering and was preceded by Secondary State Highway 21A (SSH 21A), established in 1937. The ferry, part of the highway since 1994, is served by the Jumbo Mark-II-classMV Tacoma and MV Wenatchee and operates on a 35-minute crossing time.
The Seattle–Bremerton ferry is a ferry route across Puget Sound between Seattle and Bremerton, Washington. Since 1951, the route has primarily been operated by the state-run Washington State Ferries system, currently the largest ferry system in the United States. Kitsap Transit also runs passenger-only "fast ferries" service on the route.
State Route 409 (SR 409) is a short Washington state highway in Wahkiakum County. The highway runs north from the Wahkiakum County Ferry on Puget Island to SR 4 in the county seat of Cathlamet over a distance of 3.84 miles (6.18 km). The route connects Westport, Oregon, which is served by the county ferry, and Cathlamet. The highway was referred to as Secondary State Highway 12F (SSH 12F) from 1943 until 1964.
Colman Dock, also called Pier 52, is the primary ferry terminal in Seattle, Washington, United States. The original pier is no longer in existence, but the terminal, now used by the Washington State Ferries system, is still called "Colman Dock". The terminal serves two routes to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton and has an adjacent passenger-only facility at Pier 50 for King County Water Taxi and Kitsap Fast Ferries routes.
The Guemes Island ferry, the M/V Guemes, carries passengers and vehicles across Guemes Channel between Anacortes, Washington and Guemes Island. The ferry is operated by the Skagit County Public Works Department's Ferry Division.
The Melissa Ann is a 77-foot (23 m), 172 passenger passenger-only ferry owned by Four Seasons Marine and operated by Kitsap Transit as part of the Kitsap Fast Ferries fleet.
The MV Samish is the second vessel of the Olympic-class auto ferries built by Vigor Industrial for the Washington State Ferries system. The vessel started service with her maiden voyage to Friday Harbor as the #3 Boat in the San Juans on June 14, 2015.
Kitsap Fast Ferries is a passenger ferry service operating between Seattle and Kitsap County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is funded and operated by Kitsap Transit and began service in July 2017, with a single boat traveling between Seattle and Bremerton. A second route, from Seattle to Kingston, launched in November 2018, and a third route serving Seattle and Southworth began operating in March 2021. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 1,091,400, or about 40,500 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.