Pierce County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 921,130, up from 795,225 in 2010, making it the second-most populous county in Washington, behind King County, and the 60th-most populous in the United States. The county seat and largest city is Tacoma. Formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory, it was named for U.S. President Franklin Pierce. Pierce County is in the Seattle metropolitan area.
Gig Harbor is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington,. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census.
Spanaway is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 35,476 at the 2020 census, up from 27,227 in 2010. Spanaway is an unincorporated area near Tacoma, and is often identified together with the more urban, less wealthy Parkland.
Tacoma is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of Seattle, 31 miles (50 km) northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The city's population was 219,346 at the time of the 2020 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of about 1 million.
The Kitsap Peninsula lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kitsap County except Bainbridge and Blake Islands, as well as the northeastern part of Mason County and the northwestern part of Pierce County. The highest point on the Kitsap Peninsula is Gold Mountain. The U.S. Navy's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and Naval Base Kitsap are on the peninsula. Its main city is Bremerton.
State Route 16 (SR 16) is a 27.16-mile-long (43.71 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, connecting Pierce and Kitsap counties. The highway, signed as east–west, begins at an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) in Tacoma and travels through the city as a freeway towards the Tacoma Narrows. SR 16 crosses the narrows onto the Kitsap Peninsula on the partially tolled Tacoma Narrows Bridge and continues through Gig Harbor and Port Orchard before the freeway ends in Gorst. The designation ends at an intersection with SR 3 southwest of the beginning of its freeway through Bremerton and Poulsbo. SR 16 is designated as a Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET) corridor within the National Highway System as the main thoroughfare connecting Tacoma to Naval Base Kitsap and a part of the Highways of Statewide Significance program.
Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington, United States, is a large urban park. The 760-acre (3.1 km2) park includes Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, the Rose Garden, Rhododendron Garden, beaches, trails, a boardwalk, a boathouse, a Washington State Ferries ferry dock for the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route to Vashon Island, Fort Nisqually, an off-leash dog park, and most notably a stand of old-growth forest. It receives more than three million visitors every year. Point Defiance Park is maintained and operated by Metro Parks Tacoma.
Purdy is a small unincorporated community and census-designated place north of the city of Gig Harbor, at the junction of Washington State Routes 16 and 302 on the northern boundary of Pierce County, Washington.
Tacoma Power is a public utility providing electrical power to Tacoma, Washington and the surrounding areas. Tacoma Power serves the cities of Tacoma, University Place, Fircrest, and Fife, and also provides service to parts of Steilacoom, Lakewood, and unincorporated Pierce County. It is a division of the Tacoma Public Utilities and owns the Click! Network, developed by Steven Klein, Tacoma Power's former superintendent.
State Route 512 (SR 512) is a suburban state-maintained freeway in Pierce County, Washington, United States. It travels 12 miles (19 km) from west to east, connecting Interstate 5 (I-5) in Lakewood to SR 7 in Parkland and SR 167 in Puyallup. The freeway travels north–south through Puyallup, concurrent with SR 161.
State Route 7 (SR 7) is a state highway in Lewis and Pierce counties, located in the U.S. state of Washington. The 58.60-mile (94.31 km) long roadway begins at U.S. Route 12 (US 12) in Morton and continues north to intersect several other state highways to Tacoma, where it ends at an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) and I-705. The road has several names, such as Second Street in Morton, the Mountain Highway in rural areas, Pacific Avenue in Spanaway, Parkland and Tacoma and 38th Street in Tacoma. Near the end of the highway there is a short freeway that has been proposed to be extended south parallel to an already existing railroad, owned by Tacoma Rail, which serves as the median of the short freeway.
Bethel School District No. 403 is a public school district in Pierce County, Washington, USA and serves 200 square miles (520 km2) of unincorporated Pierce County including Spanaway, Graham, Kapowsin and the city of Roy. Bethel was unique in the way that its high schools served grades 10-12 as opposed to the traditional grades of 9-12 of many other districts. In September 2011, Bethel School District planned to switch to a traditional 9-12 district, which occurred in the 2012-2013 school year.
State Route 704 is a state highway located entirely in Pierce County, Washington, United States. It is intended to provide access between Interstate 5 (I-5) and SR 7 by passing through a portion of Joint Base Lewis–McChord, a major U.S. military installation. The designated route comprises a short, 0.6-mile (0.97 km) section near SR 7 in Spanaway. The full 6-mile (9.7 km) highway is estimated to cost $480 million to construct, but remains unfunded.
Area code 253 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for a part of the U.S. state of Washington, including the area south of Seattle and of the southern Puget Sound area, centered at Tacoma and extending to include the areas around Gig Harbor, Auburn, and Roy. It also serves the western half of Pierce County, as well as southern King County.
The Daffodil Festival is a regional festival and royalty leadership program. The Grand Floral Parade is held in Pierce County, Washington every April. It consists of a flower parade and a year-long royalty program to select a festival queen from one of the 23 area high schools. Each year, the Royal Court spend thousands of hours promoting education, community pride and volunteerism in the county. In 2012, the Royal Court was named the "Official Ambassadors of Pierce County" by the County Executive and the Pierce County Council.
Pierce Transit, officially the Pierce County Public Transportation Benefit Area Corporation, is an operator of public transit in Pierce County, Washington. It operates a variety of services, including fixed-route buses, dial-a-ride transportation, vanpool and ride-matching for carpools. The agency's service area covers the urbanized portions of Pierce County, part of the Seattle metropolitan area, and includes the city of Tacoma. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 4,827,200, or about 18,300 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2022.
Lakewood station is a commuter rail station in Lakewood, Washington, United States. It is the terminus of the S Line of the Sounder commuter rail network, operated by Sound Transit in the Seattle metropolitan area. The station, located along Pacific Highway Southwest, includes a 620-stall parking garage and several bus bays served by Intercity Transit and Sound Transit Express. Lakewood station was originally scheduled to open in 2002 as part of a Sounder extension, but plans were delayed due to funding issues and the state government's work on the Point Defiance Bypass project. Construction on the $33 million station and garage began in March 2007 and it opened for use by buses on September 18, 2008. Sounder service to Lakewood began in October 2012 and the pedestrian bridge opened a few months later.
South Tacoma station is a commuter rail station in Tacoma, Washington, United States, served by the S Line of the Sounder commuter rail network. It is located near the Tacoma Mall along South Tacoma Way at South 56th Street and consists of a single platform and a 220-stall park-and-ride lot. Construction on the station began in early 2008 and the park-and-ride lot opened in February 2009, with service from a temporary express bus that operated until Sounder service began in October 2012.
The Harbor History Museum is a regional maritime and history museum in Gig Harbor, Washington. It hosts exhibits on regional culture and history, and Midway Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1893 and moved to the museum's grounds in 2009. The museum won the Washington Museum Association annual Award of Project Excellence for an ongoing living history program called Midway Pioneer School Experience that leads grade-school students through a day in an early 20th century classroom.
