The City of Seattle was a side-wheel driven steam-powered ferry built in 1888. This vessel was the first ferry to operate on Puget Sound. City of Seattle was also used in the San Francisco Bay area starting in 1913. The ferry was known as YFB54 when owned by the U.S. navy in World War II, and as Magdalena during naval service and for a time following the war. The upper works of the ferry have been mounted on a barge hull, and are now in use as a houseboat in Sausalito, California.

The West Seattle Land and Improvement Company was a real estate development concern that conducted business in West Seattle starting in 1888. Through a subsidiary, the Oregon and Washington Ferry and Navigation Company, the company also owned and operated two ferries that operated between the company's developments in West Seattle and Seattle itself, which was then a separate city which was difficult to reach over land routes of the time.