Facts About Washington

Washington is a US state located in the northwestern part of the country, named the Pacific Northwest (PNW). With an area of 71,362 sq mi and a population of 7,535,591, Washington ranks as the 18th most extensive and 13th most populous US state. The state was admitted to the Union in 1889, and is nicknamed “The Evergreen State.”

• Nicknames of Washington state are The Evergreen State, Chinook State.
• Washington State is located between 47.041N, 122.893W of the U.S.
• The total land area of Washington is 71303 sq.mi.
• The Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge at Evergreen Point is the longest floating bridge in the world, which connects Seattle and Medina across Lake Washington.
• Washington’s historical sites are Whitman Mission and Fort Vancouver National Historic Sites.
• Points of Interest in Washington state are Mt. Rainier and the Cascade mountains; Mount St. Helens (a semi-active volcano); and the Pacific Science Center and Space Needle in Seattle.
• The Olympic Peninsula is home to the only temperate rain forests in the continental United States.
• There are 1,000-plus dams in the state. Washington’s Grand Coulee Dam is the largest in the United States.
• The native (and tasty) Dungeness crab gets its name from the longest natural sand spit in the country: 5.5-mile-long Dungeness Spit.
• Long Beach Peninsula is the longest continuous beach in the United States. Read Water Walks Along Washington Beaches.
• During the Seattle World’s Fair, a baby was raffled off, no one claimed it though and it is unknown what happened to the baby after the fare.
• The United States almost went to war with Canada back when it was a colony over a dispute involving a pig.
• Washington State grows about 70% of the nation’s hops for brewing.
• The land that is now Seattle has been inhabited for over 4,000 years. That was just after the last glacial period in the Earth’s history.
• Washington State has 50,000 miles of rivers and streams.
• The state flag in Washington is the only flag in the country to have a green background. It is also the only flag to features the face of a president.
• Fifteen Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Washington, the first was Walter Brattain (1956) who died in Seattle, the last was David J. Thouless (2016), a UW professor.