Longhouse
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including Asia and North America. Many were built from timber and represent the earliest form of permanent structure in many cultures. Types include the Neolithic long house of Europe, the stone Medieval Dartmoor longhouse which housed livestock, the various types of longhouses built by different cultures among the indigenous peoples of the Americas; the Neolithic long house type was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BCE—7000 years ago. These were farming settlements built in groups of about six to twelve and were home to large extended families and kinship; the Germanic cattle farmer longhouses emerged along the southwestern North Sea coast in the third or fourth century BC and might be the ancestors of several medieval house types such as the Scandinavian langhus, the English and Scottish longhouse variants and the German and Dutch Low German house.
The longhouse is a traditional way of shelter. Some of the medieval longhouse types of Europe which some have survived are, among others: The Western Brittonic'Dartmoor longhouse' variants in Devon and Wales where it is known as the Ty Hir. Located along a slope, a single passage gives access to both human and animal shelter under a single roof; the northwest England type in Cumbria The Scottish longhouse, "blackhouse" or taighean-dubha The Western French longère or maison longue from Lower Brittany, Mayenne, Anjou, is similar to the western British type with shared livestock quarters and central drain. The Old Frisian longhouse or Langhuis that developed into the Frisian farmhouse which influenced the development of the Gulf house, which spread along the North Sea coast to the east and north; the Scandinavian or Viking Langhus/Långhus and mead hall Further developments of the Germanic longhouse during the Middle Ages were the Low German house in the North and Northwest Germany and its northern neighbor, the Geestharden house in Jutland including Schleswig, with its variant, the Frisian house.
With these house types the wooden posts rammed into the ground were replaced by posts supported on a base. The large and well-supported attic enabled large quantities of hay or grain to be stored in dry conditions; this development may have been driven. Good examples of these houses have been preserved, some dating back to the 16th century; the longhouse was 50 to 60 feet long. In North America two groups of longhouses emerged: the Native American/First Nations longhouse of the tribes connected with the Iroquois in the northeast, a shaped structure which arose independently among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast; the longhouses inhabited by the Iroquois were wood boards/bark-covered structures of standardized design "in the shape of an arbor" about 6 to 7 metres wide providing shelter for several related families. The longhouse had a 3 metres -wide central aisle and 2 metres -wide compartments, about 6 to 7 metres long, down each side; the end compartments were used for storage.
Hearths were spaced about 6 to 7 metres apart with smoke holes in the roof. Two families shared each hearth; each longhouse would house several generations of an extended family. It is possible to infer the population of an Iroquois town from the size and number of longhouses it contained. In South America, the Tucano people of Colombia and northwest Brazil traditionally combine a household in a single long house; the Xingu peoples of central Brazil build a series of longhouses in circular formations forming round villages. The ancient Tupi people of the Brazilian coast used to do this as well; the Yanomami people of Brazil and Venezuela build a round hut with a thatched roof that has a hole in the middle, called shabono, which could be considered a sort of longhouse. In Daepyeong, an archaeological site of the Mumun pottery period in Korea, longhouses have been found that date to circa 1100-850 B. C, their layout seems to be similar to those of the Iroquois. In these, several fireplaces were arranged along the longitudinal axis of the building.
The ancient Koreans started raising their buildings on stilts, so that the inner partitions and arrangements are somewhat obscure. The size of the buildings and their placement within the settlements may point to buildings for the nobles of their society or some sort of community or religious buildings. In Igeum-dong, an excavation site in South Korea, the large longhouses, 29 and 26 meters long, are situated between the megalithic cemetery and the rest of the settlement; the longhouse may be an old building tradition among the people of Austronesian origin or intensive contact. The Austronesian language group seems to have spread to south east Asia and the Pacific islands as well as Madagascar from the island of Taiwan. Groups like the Siraya of ancient Taiwan built longhouses and practiced head hunting, as did, for example the Dayaks of Borneo. Many of the inhabitants of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, the Dayak, live traditionally in buildings known as longhouses, Rumah panjang / Rumah Betang in Malay and Indonesian, rumah panjai in Iban.
Common to most of these is that they are built raised off the ground on stilts and are divided into a more or less public area along one side and a row o
Electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Electric locomotives with on-board fueled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas turbines, are classed as diesel-electric or gas turbine-electric and not as electric locomotives, because the electric generator/motor combination serves only as a power transmission system. Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors above 90%. Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. Electric locomotives are quiet compared to diesel locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise and less mechanical noise; the lack of reciprocating parts means electric locomotives are easier on the track, reducing track maintenance.
Power plant capacity is far greater than any individual locomotive uses, so electric locomotives can have a higher power output than diesel locomotives and they can produce higher short-term surge power for fast acceleration. Electric locomotives are ideal for commuter rail service with frequent stops. Electric locomotives are used on freight routes with high traffic volumes, or in areas with advanced rail networks. Power plants if they burn fossil fuels, are far cleaner than mobile sources such as locomotive engines; the power can come from clean or renewable sources, including geothermal power, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, solar power and wind turbines. The chief disadvantage of electrification is the high cost for infrastructure: overhead lines or third rail and control systems. Public policy in the U. S. interferes with electrification: higher property taxes are imposed on owned rail facilities if they are electrified. The EPA regulates exhaust emissions on locomotive and marine engines, similar to regulations on car & freight truck emissions, in order to limit the amount of carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons, nitric oxides, soot output from these mobile power sources.
Because railroad infrastructure is owned in the U. S. railroads are unwilling to make the necessary investments for electrification. In Europe and elsewhere, railway networks are considered part of the national transport infrastructure, just like roads and waterways, so are financed by the state. Operators of the rolling stock pay fees according to rail use; this makes possible the large investments required for the technically and, in the long-term economically advantageous electrification. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen, it was powered by galvanic cells. Davidson built a larger locomotive named Galvani, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841; the seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, simple commutators. It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour for a distance of one and a half miles, it was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use.
It was destroyed by railway workers. The first electric passenger train was presented by Werner von Siemens at Berlin in 1879; the locomotive was driven by a 2.2 kW, series-wound motor, the train, consisting of the locomotive and three cars, reached a speed of 13 km/h. During four months, the train carried 90,000 passengers on a 300-metre-long circular track; the electricity was supplied through a third insulated rail between the tracks. A contact roller was used to collect the electricity; the world's first electric tram line opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin, Germany, in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens. Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton. In 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria, it was the first in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years in the U. S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague. Much of the early development of electric locomotion was driven by the increasing use of tunnels in urban areas.
Smoke from steam locomotives was noxious and municipalities were inclined to prohibit their use within their limits. The first electrically-worked underground line was the City and South London Railway, prompted by a clause in its enabling act prohibiting the use of steam power, it opened in 1890, using electric locomotives built by Platt. Electricity became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. Surface and elevated rapid transit systems used steam until forced to convert by ordinance; the first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile stretch of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1895 connecting the main portion of the B&O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Parallel tracks on the Pennsylvania Railroad had shown that coal smoke from steam locomotives would be a major operating issue and a public nuisance. Three Bo+Bo units were used, at the south end of the electrified section.
Kent, Washington
Kent is a city located in King County, United States. It is the sixth largest city in the state. Kent is in the heart of the Seattle–Tacoma metropolitan area, located 19 miles south of Seattle and 19 miles northeast of Tacoma. Incorporated in 1890, it is the second oldest incorporated city in King County, after Seattle. Kent's population as of April 2010 was 92,411 according to the 2010 census; the total grew to an estimated 128,458 as of July 1, 2017, owing to annexation. The Kent area was first permanently settled by European Americans in the early to mid-1850's along the banks of what was the White River; the first settler was Samuel Russell, who sailed the White and Duamish rivers until he claimed a plot of land southeast of modern-day downtown Kent in the spring of 1853. Russell was followed by several other settlers who staked claims in the area; the settlements were known as "White River" and the town was called "Titusville" after an early settler by the name of James Henry Titus.. In 1861 a post office was established under the name White River and was located at the farm of David and Irena Neely who settled in modern-day Kent in 1854.
In 1855 their farm was attacked by Native Americans when David Neely served as a lieutenant in the Territorial Army. By 1870 the population was 277 and all of the quality bottom-land had been claimed. Throughout the 1860s and 70's, grain and forage crops such as wheat, oats and timothy accounted for much of the annual return of farmers in the valley. During the late 1870s the town discovered hops production as a major source of income. Due to an aphid invasion which affected hops crops in Europe, hops from the Puget Sound area began to command high prices. Hops were shipped by the river or via rail. In 1889 the town was renamed for the County of the major hops-producing region in England. Hops production in the White River valley came to an end soon after its own invasion of aphids in 1891. Kent was incorporated on May 28, 1890, with a population of 793, the second city incorporated in King County. Seattle was the first. After the turn of the 20th century the area turned to dairy farming and was home to a Carnation condensed milk plant.
Flooding from both the Green and the White Rivers was a constant problem. In 1906, flooding changed the course of the White River; the Green River continued to present problems until the creation of the Howard A. Hanson Dam at Eagle Gorge in 1962. During and after the Great Depression, Kent was known as the "Lettuce Capital of the World". After WWII, Kent began to grow more rapidly. From 1953 to 1960 the city's size grew twelve-fold. In 1965 Boeing began building in Kent, followed a few years by other aerospace and high-tech companies. In 1992, the Greater Kent Historical Society was formed to promote the discovery and dissemination of knowledge about the history of the greater Kent area. In 1996, the City of Kent purchased the historic Bereiter house, the home of one of Kent's early mayors, for use as the Kent Historical Museum; the museum is operated by the Greater Kent Historical Society. Kent is divided into three major regions: East Hill, the Valley, West Hill. Downtown Kent is located on the east side of the valley.
Mt. Rainier is a prominent geographical landmark to the southeast. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 29.19 square miles, of which, 28.63 square miles is land and 0.56 square miles is water. Major waterways include the Green River; the largest lake is Lake Meridian on the city's East Hill. Nearby cities include Renton and Tukwila to the north and Maple Valley to the east, Auburn to the south, Federal Way, Des Moines and SeaTac to the west. There are several major freeways and highways in or near Kent, including Interstate 5, State Route 167, State Route 516, State Route 18, State Route 99, which produce high traffic density during rush hour. Kent is central to King County Metro transit, with the Kent Station providing service to many destinations, including downtown Seattle by multiple commuter buses, the Sounder Commuter Rail, local bus service. Heavy rail service includes two major north–south lines through the Kent Valley, with freight traffic operations by the BNSF and Union Pacific railroads.
Kent's park system includes 73 parks, playfields, skateparks and other related facilities. These parks range in size from as little as 4,300 square feet to over 310 acres. Kent has designated the following landmarks: The city is governed by a mayor–council government, with a directly elected mayor and a seven-member city council; each is elected at-large to four-year terms. The current Mayor is Dana Ralph and the current city council members are:Council President Bill Boyce, Councilmember Satwinder Kaur, Councilmember Marli Larimer, Councilmember Brenda Fincher, Councilmember Dennis Higgins, Councilmember Toni Troutner, Councilmember Les Thomas; the city maintains its own municipal police department. Public primary and secondary education in Kent and a number of neighboring cities and unincorporated areas is governed by the Kent School District; the district includes four high schools, seven middle schools, twenty-eight elementary schools and two academies. Federal Way Public Schools has several schools within the city limits.
Residents of far east Kent are zoned in the Tahoma School district. A branch of Green River Community Colle
Duwamish people
The Duwamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American tribe in western Washington, the indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle, where they have been living since the end of the last glacial period. The Duwamish tribe descends from at least two distinct groups from before intense contact with people of European ancestry—the People of the Inside and the People of the Large Lake —and continues to evolve both culturally and ethnically. By historic language, the Duwamish are Lushootseed. Adjacent tribes throughout the Puget Sound-Strait of Georgia basin were, are and interrelated, yet distinct. Today, some Duwamish people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tulalip Tribes of Washington; the present-day Duwamish tribe developed in parallel with the times of the Treaty of Point Elliott and its aftermath in the 1850s. Although not recognized by the U. S. federal government, the Duwamish remain an organized tribe with 500 enrolled members as of 2004. In 2009, the Duwamish tribe opened the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center on purchased land near their ancient settlement of Ha-AH-Poos in West Seattle, near the mouth of the Duwamish River.
What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period. Sites at West Point in Discovery Park date back at least 4,000 years. Villages at the then-mouth of the Duwamish River in what is now the Industrial District had been inhabited since the 6th century CE. Thirteen prominent villages were in; the people living around Elliott Bay, the Duwamish and Cedar Rivers were collectively known as the doo-AHBSH, "People of the Inside". There were four prominent villages on Elliott Bay and the then-estuarial lower Duwamish River. Before civil engineering, the area had extensive tidelands, abundantly rich in marine life, eaten as seafood; the people living around Lake Washington were collectively known as the hah-choo-AHBSH, "People of the Large Lake". Another group strong culturally associated with the "People of the Large Lake" are the Ha-achu-abshs / Ha-achu-AHBSH living around Lake Union. At the time of initial major European contact, these people considered themselves distinct from the related People of the Inside, with whom they are joined in today's Duwamish tribe.
Prior to the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in the 1910s, Lake Washington drained into the Black River in what is now Renton. The Black River joined the Cedar and White rivers to become the Duwamish River and empty into southeast Elliott Bay. With ever-increasing European contact, the People of the Large Lake and the People of the Inside became unified under the rubric of the Duwamish Tribe. There were numerous villages in what would become the Seattle metropolitan area as well as the nearby Snoqualmie River valley. Common to Coast Salish, villages were diffuse: people dispersed in the spring, congregated for the salmon in the summer, wintered in village longhouses. In spring, salmonberry shoots and bracken fern fiddleheads were foraged, while men hunted deer or elk grazing on the skunk cabbage or the anthropogenic grasslands. Camas from nearby prairies would be traded; the grasslands encouraged berries, fern roots and other useful plants. Garry oaks, whose thick bark helps them survive fires, are associated with prairies, their presence at Seward Park and Martha Washington Parks suggests that anthropogenic grasslands extended between them.
They may have been planted for their edible acorns. In summer and fall, salal, salmonberries, trailing blackberries, strawberries and others were foraged; the berries dried and formed into cakes to preserve them for winter. Mixed with dried fish and oil in recipes, pemmican made hearty late winter fare or compact, hardy provision for travel. Women and children would gather important wetland plants such as cattails for mats and wapato for food. Crayfish and freshwater mussels were available in the lake. Shellfish and tidal resources were available year round, limited only by red tide or similar infrequent closures. From midsummer through November, life revolved around the iconic salmon s√ʔuládxʷ and realization of its inspiring power and wealth, both corporeal and spiritual. Salmon returned to every stream with enough flow; the name of the creek suggests that a fishing weir in place blocked the mouth of the stream during part of the spawning season. Such weirs were made from the willows. Fish were dried on racks to preserve them for the winter months.
During the long wet winter and early spring, the diet of dried fish and berries was supplemented by hunting ducks, muskrat, raccoon and bear. Winters were for construction and repair, for the arts and ceremonies, for stories in a rich oral tradition. Life was, not quite idyllic. Northern Coast Salish and Wakashan from harder climates to the north were wont to raid. Food resources varied, resources were not always sufficient to last through to spring. There is evidence that an extensive trade and potlatch network evolved to help distribute resources to areas in need that varied year to year, a
Renton, Washington
Renton is a city in King County, an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated 11 miles southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. After a long history as an important salmon fishing area for Native Americans, Renton was first settled by people of European descent in the 1860s, its early economy was based on coal mining, clay production, timber export. Today, Renton is best known as the final assembly point for the Boeing 737 family of commercial airplanes, but it is home to a growing number of well known manufacturing and healthcare organizations, including Boeing Commercial Airplanes Division, Kaiser Permanente, IKEA, Providence Health & Services, Wizards of the Coast; as of 2016, the population in Renton is 101,300, up from 90,927 at the 2010 census. Renton is the eighth-largest city in Washington and is the fourth largest in King County; the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks have a training facility in Renton, the second-largest facility in the NFL at 200,000 square feet.
Among the first European settlers in the present-day Renton area were Henry Tobin and his wife Diana. The town of Renton was accessed via the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, the first railroad to be built to Seattle, was in the vicinity of several coal mines that attracted entrepreneurs like Erasmus M. Smithers, credited with the founding and establishment of the town in 1875. Smithers named Renton in honor of Captain William Renton, a local lumber and shipping merchant who invested in the coal trade. Smithers brought in Charles D. Shattuck as the coal mine operator. Renton was incorporated as a city on September 6, 1901, when coal mining and timber processing were the most important economic industries in the area; the town was prone to flooding from the Black Rivers. In 1916 the completion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal lowered the surface of Lake Washington several feet which eliminated drainage of Lake Washington through the Black River; the Cedar River was diverted to drain into Lake Washington instead of the Black River.
The culmination of these actions reduced the threat of annual flooding. The population increased during World War II when Boeing built their Renton Factory to produce the B-29 Superfortress; the game company Wizards of the Coast is headquartered in Renton. Providence Health System has centralized its administrative offices in Renton, along with Group Health Cooperative. Owing to its location at the confluence of three major freeways, Renton's economic development team has lured a number of specialty retailers that draw consumers from around the region, including Fry's Electronics and IKEA; some retail establishments were unwanted though, the city defended zoning restrictions on pornographic theaters before the U. S. Supreme Court in Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc; the Renton Public Library was built directly over the Cedar River and opened in 1966. It stretches 80 feet across the river, next to Liberty Park, was the main branch of the city's independent library system until its 2010 annexation into the King County Library system.
Synonymous with the large industrial companies such as Boeing, Kenworth, a pattern of future development was established with the attraction of the first IKEA in the Pacific Northwest to Renton in 1994. A new branch of the Federal Reserve Bank now calls Renton home, beginning operations in the spring of 2008 on the site of the former Longacres horse-racing track. To date, myriad development of major retail and revitalization projects are amidst planning, in construction, or have been executed. Among which include Port Quendall, a land parcel in north Renton, that has become the new home to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, housing the Seattle Seahawks Headquarters and training facility that opened in August 2008; the team's new state-of-the-art Renton facility, at an expansive 200,000 square feet, is the second-largest facility in the NFL. In the mid-1990s, Renton undertook a major redevelopment effort to revitalize its downtown core, which had declined in commercial prominence since the opening of the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila in 1968.
The many car dealerships that had occupied the center of downtown Renton were encouraged through economic incentives to relocate to a newly created auto sales zone close to the I-405/SR-167 interchange. In place of the old dealerships downtown, a new transit center and parking garage were built in partnership with King County Metro. A number of developed mixed-use residential and retail buildings were built within a one block radius of the transit center, allowing for one-bus commutes to Seattle, Bellevue and other employment centers. A new town square, The Piazza, was constructed next to the transit center, an existing car dealership building was remodeled into an events center, now known as the Pavilion Building; the Piazza is home to a weekly Farmers' Market during the summer months, as well as other community events throughout the year, while the city-owned Pavilion Building can be rented for parties and other events, with onsite catering provided by a private caterer. Centered on former Boeing Co. property near the south shore of Lake Washington is a 68 acres development named The Landing.
Two high-end apartment communities at The Landing, The Sanctuary and The Reserve, contain a combined 880 residences, targeting a young professional demographic. The first commercial tenants of The Landing arrived in Octobe
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U. S. state of Washington. The population was 2,188,649 in the 2017 census estimate. King is the most populous county in Washington, the 13th-most populous in the United States; the county seat is Seattle, the state's largest city. King County is one of three Washington counties that are included in the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan statistical area. About two-thirds of King County's population lives in Seattle's suburbs; the county was formed out of territory within Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the Oregon Territory legislature, was named after Alabama resident William R. King, who had just been elected Vice President of the United States under President Franklin Pierce. Seattle was made the county seat on January 11, 1853; the area became part of the Washington Territory when it was created that year. King County extended to the Olympic Peninsula. According to historian Bill Speidel, when peninsular prohibitionists threatened to shut down Seattle’s saloons, Doc Maynard engineered a peninsular independence movement.
On February 24, 1986, a motion to change the namesake to Martin Luther King Jr. was passed by the King County Council five votes to four. The motion stated, among other reasons for the change, that "William Rufus DeVane King was a slaveowner and a ‘gentle slave monger’ according to John Quincy Adams." Because only the state can charter counties, the change was not made official until April 19, 2005, when Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law Senate Bill 5332, which provided that "King county is renamed in honor of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr." effective July 24, 2005. The County Council voted on February 27, 2006 to adopt the proposal sponsored by Councilmember Larry Gossett to change the county's logo from an imperial crown to an image of Martin Luther King. On March 12, 2007, the new logo was unveiled; the new logo design was developed by the Gable Design Group and the specific image was selected by a committee consisting of King County Executive Ron Sims, Council Chair Larry Gossett, Prosecutor Norm Maleng, Sheriff Sue Rahr, District Court Judge Corrina Harn, Superior Court Judge Michael Trickey.
Martin Luther King Jr. visited King County for two days in November 1961. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,307 square miles, of which 2,116 square miles is land and 191 square miles is water. King County has nearly twice the land area of the state of Rhode Island; the highest point in the county is Mount Daniel at 7,959 feet above sea level. King County borders Snohomish County to the north, Kitsap County to the west, Kittitas County to the east, Pierce County to the south, it shares a small border with Chelan County to the northeast. King County includes Vashon Maury Island in Puget Sound. Snohomish County – north Pierce County – south Chelan County – east/northeast Kittitas County – east/southeast Kitsap County – west Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Snoqualmie National Forest The center of population of the state of Washington in 2010 was located in eastern King County. King County's own center of population was located on Mercer Island; as of the 2010 United States Census, there were 1,931,249 people, 789,232 households, 461,510 families residing in the county.
The population density was 912.9 inhabitants per square mile. There were 851,261 housing units at an average density of 402.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 68.7% White, 6.2% African American, 14.6% Asian, 0.8% Pacific Islander, 0.8% Native American, 3.9% from other races, 5.0% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 8.9% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 17.1% were German, 11.6% were English, 11.1% were Irish, 5.5% were Norwegian, 2.9% were American. Of the 789,232 households, 29.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.3% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 41.5% were non-families, 31.0% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.05. The median age was 37.1 years. The median income for a household in the county was $68,065 and the median income for a family was $87,010. Males had a median income of $62,373 versus $45,761 for females.
The per capita income for the county was $38,211. About 6.4% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.5% of those under age 18 and 8.6% of those age 65 or over. The King County Executive heads the county's executive branch; the King County Prosecuting Attorney, Elections Director and the King County Assessor are elected executive positions. Judicial power is vested in the King County District Court. Seattle houses the King County Courthouse. King County is represented in the United States Congress through a near-entirety of the population in the 7th and 9th Congressional Districts, a majority of the population in the 8th Congressional District and a plurality of the population in the 1st Congressional District. In the state legislature, King contains the entirety of the 5th, 11th, 33rd
Seattle–Tacoma International Airport
Seattle–Tacoma International Airport referred to as Sea–Tac Airport or Sea–Tac, is the primary commercial airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U. S. state of Washington. It is located in the city of SeaTac 14 miles south of Downtown Seattle and 18 miles north-northeast of Downtown Tacoma; the airport, the largest in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, is owned and operated by the Port of Seattle. The airport has flights to cities throughout North America, the Middle East, Asia, it is the primary hub for Alaska Airlines. It is a hub and international gateway to Asia for Delta Air Lines, which has expanded at the airport since 2011. Thirty-four airlines serve 91 non-stop domestic and 28 international destinations. In 2017, the airport was the 30th-busiest airport in the world and the eighth-busiest in the United States by passenger traffic, is considered one of the fastest growing in the United States; the entire airport covers an area of 2,500 acres or 3.9 square miles, much smaller than other U.
S. airports with similar annual passenger numbers. The airport was built by the Port of Seattle in 1944 after the U. S. military took control of Boeing Field in World War II. The Port received $1 million from the Civil Aeronautics Administration to build the airport and $100,000 from the City of Tacoma; the first scheduled airline flights were Northwest and Trans-Canada in 1947. In June 1951, there were four runways at 45-degree angles, between 6,100 feet long. Runway 34 was lengthened to 7500 ft in 1951, to 8500 ft by 1958, to 11900 ft by 1962; the extension required the construction of an automobile tunnel for South 188th Street, which opened in July 1961. Runway 34L replaced runway 2 around 1970; the April 1957 OAG shows 216 departures a week on United, 80 Northwest, 35 Western, 21 Trans-Canada, 20 Pan Am, 20 Pacific Northern and 10 Alaska. The first jet flights were Pan Am Boeing 707s to Honolulu via Portland in late 1959. In 1966, Scandinavian Airlines began the airport's first non-stop route to mainland Europe.
The first concourse opened in July 1959. The two-story North Concourse added four gate positions and a new wing 600 feet long and 30 feet wide; the one-story South Concourse opened in 1961. The 800-foot long Concourse B opened in December 1964, it added eight gate positions, bringing the total to 19, a 12,000 square feet area housing international arrivals and the offices of U. S. Customs, Public Health and the Department of Agriculture. Concourse C opened in July 1966. Just four years it was extended to include another 10 gates, bringing the total to 35; the Port embarked on a major expansion plan, designed by The Richardson Associates and lasting from 1967 to 1973, adding a second runway, a parking garage, two satellite terminals and other improvements. In 1973, $28-million new terminal was built around the 1949 structure. On July 1, 1973, the Airport opened two new satellite terminals, along with an underground train system to connect them to the Main Terminal. In the mid-1980s, the Main Terminal was renovated and another 150 feet was added to the north end.
Concourse D was expanded in 1987 with a rotunda. In 1993, Concourses B, C, D were renovated; the project, designed by NBBJ, included the addition of 150,000 square feet and the renovation of 170,000 square feet of space in Concourses B, C, D. On June 15, 2004, the 2,102-foot new Concourse A was unveiled with 14 new gates, a dozen new restaurants, new artwork and the airport's first moving sidewalks. Residents of the surrounding area filed lawsuits against the Port in the early 1970s, complaining of noise, vibration and other problems; the Port and the government of King County adopted the Sea–Tac Communities Plan in 1976 to address problems and guide future development. The Port spent more than $100 million over the next decade to buy homes and school buildings in the vicinity, soundproof others nearby. In the mid-1980s, the airport participated in the airport noise-compatibility program initiated by Congress in 1979. Airport-noise contours were developed, real estate was purchased and some homes were retrofitted to achieve noise mitigation.
In 1978, the U. S. ended airline regulation, U. S. airlines were allowed to determine fares without government approval. Deregulation resulted in new service to Seattle, including from TWA the fourth-largest U. S. airline, as well as Delta and American. After the death of U. S. Senator Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson in 1983, the Seattle Port Commission voted to change the name of the airport to Henry M. Jackson International Airport. Denizens of Tacoma interpreted the change as an insult to their community—the second time in the airport's history that the port authorities had attempted to remove "Tacoma" from the name; the $100,000 that Tacoma had provided for the airport's construction during World War II had come with an explicit promise that the city would be included in the airport's name. An additional complicating factor was the existence of another Jackson Inter
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Tukwila
