In 1996, the city of Seattle, Washington adopted a resolution to preserve shoreline street ends (sometimes referred to as SSEs) throughout the city as public rights-of-way, to allow improvements for public uses and access.[1] This resolution gave a broad outline of considerations that would apply to public access improvements to shoreline street ends and to removing private encroachments and severely limiting future permits for private uses of street ends. Three years later, this was enhanced with a statement, "Fees for use of shoreline street ends may take into consideration City policy of discouraging encroachments inconsistent with the public right of access to shorelines and may be included in the schedule of fees for use of public places under the jurisdiction of Seattle Transportation."[2]
Seattle borders Puget Sound (most notably Elliott Bay, the city's main port) and Lake Washington; the lower Duwamish River and its industrialized estuary known as the Duwamish Waterway flow through the city to Elliott Bay; the Lake Washington Ship Canal bisects the city and includes Lake Union (580acres in its own right[3]); and there are numerous smaller lakes in the city, so many streets end in water. Since the adoption of this resolution, it has been city policy to preserve these numerous street ends for public access. Over the decades since, this has resulted not only in preserved public rights of way, but also in numerous new public parks.
As of 2016, seven of the 149 recognized sites (nine of them along the Duwamish Waterway) still lacked public access. 88 were designated in the city's fact sheet as "worth a visit," and 54 as "not yet ready for visitors." Nine sites, overlapping the last two categories, were in the design and development stage. "[N]early two-thirds" were described as being "in need of improvement, overgrown, or hav[ing] private encroachments."
Upon becoming a state in 1889, Washington raised money by selling public tidelands. By the time the state decided in 1971 to suspend further such sales, only about 40% of tidelands remained under public ownership.[4] In 1987, the state passed a law limiting vacations of streets abutting bodies of water. This law favors "Port, beach or water access, boat moorage, launching sites, park, public view, recreation, or education" as getting automatic precedence over other uses.[5]
While by then Seattle had several parks adjacent to the water (e.g., Alki Beach Park, Golden Gardens Park, Seward Park), there were (and are) significant gaps. Community groups pushed to increase public shoreline access by improving street ends where public rights of way are platted into the water.[4] As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer put it in 2007, "city maps showed roads drawn right into Lake Washington, Lake Union, Puget Sound, Shilshole Bay, Portage Bay, Elliott Bay and other Seattle waterways."[6] In 1996, the city identified 149 such shoreline street ends and designated them for "public uses and enjoyment." A later ordinance established permit fees to discourage private uses of these lands, and directed the revenue from these fees toward the maintenance and improvement of shoreline street ends.[4] The result has been the creation and maintenance of a wide variety of public spaces: beaches, docks in industrial areas, expansions of existing parks, some providing habitat for native species, others simply providing water views.[7]
Public access to Seattle's waterfronts had not always been such a priority. One example can be found in the Eastlake neighborhood, where a longstanding foot and bicycle route along the east side of Lake Union was disrupted by a series of permits issued between 1957 and 1992, which allowed buildings and a marina to build into the historic right of way, to the point of completely preempting public passage along the shore from E. Edgar Street to E. Hamlin Street.[8]
Not all of these transitions have been easy. When the program began, many of these street ends had been de facto integrated into neighbors' yards and business areas, with access limited by fences and hedges, and with people having placed gardens, children's swing sets, and even hot tubs; some business had annexed them for equipment storage. In the late 1990s, as Seattle was establishing regulations for shoreline street ends, the citywide group Friends of Street Ends formed to support the transition of these back to public use. Meanwhile, many people living near the designated SSEs objected to "noise, traffic and people wandering into their yards."[4]
For example, in 2013, the owners of the two properties adjoining Northeast 130th Street Beach discovered that 82 years earlier the title to the land had not properly been conveyed to the City, and they proceeded to fence it off as part of their respective properties. Using the threat of eminent domain, the City reached a settlement with the owners and—after nearly seven years—regained control of the land.[9] [10] [11] [12]
The following list uses the official numbering used by the City of Seattle. The list of 149 official SSEs remains unchanged since their original designation in 1996. Note that street names are not necessarily unique: many Seattle streets hit bodies of water more than once.
| Number | Name | Image | Status[13] [14] | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 98th St SW | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle on Puget Sound | ||
| 2 | SW Brace Point Dr | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Puget Sound | ||
| 3 | SW Barton St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Puget Sound | Immediately north of the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal. Officially part of the parks system, as Cove Park. | |
| 4 | SW Alaska St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Puget Sound | ||
| 5 | SW Carroll St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Puget Sound | ||
| 6 | SW Andover St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Puget Sound | ||
| 7 | SW Spokane St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Puget Sound | ||
| 8 | SW Atlantic Pl | "Not yet ready" | West Seattle, on Elliott Bay | ||
| 9 | Fairmount Ave SW | "Not yet ready" | West Seattle, on Elliott Bay | ||
| 10 | SW Bronson Way | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, on Elliott Bay | ||
| 11 | SW Hinds St | "Not yet ready" | West Seattle, West Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 12 | Chelan Ave SW | "Not yet ready" | West Seattle, West Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 13 | SW Spokane St | "Not yet ready" | West Seattle, West Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 14 | SW Dakota St | No public access | West Seattle, Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 15 | SW Lander St | "Not yet ready" | Harbor Island West Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 16 | SW Spokane St | "Not yet ready" | Harbor Island, West Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 17 | Chelan Ave SW | No public access | Harbor Island, West Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 18 | SW Spokane St | "Worth a visit" | Harbor Island, East Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 19 | SW Spokane St | "Worth a visit" | Industrial District, East Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 20 | S Forest St | No public access | Industrial District, East Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 21 | SW Idaho St | No public access | West Seattle, Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 22 | SW Alaska St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 23 | SW Edmunds St | "Worth a visit" | West Seattle, Duwamish Waterway | ||
| 24 | S Oregon St | [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Industrial District, Duwamish Waterway|||-|25||Diagonal Ave S|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Industrial District, Duwamish Waterway|||-|26||S Fidalgo St||||"Worth a visit"||Georgetown, Duwamish Waterway|||-|27 ||S Front St||||"Not yet ready"||Georgetown, Duwamish Waterway|||-|28||S River St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Georgetown, Duwamish Waterway|||-|29||SW Michigan St||||"Not yet ready"||West Seattle, Duwamish Waterway|||-|30||2nd Ave S||||"Not yet ready"||West Seattle, Duwamish Waterway|||-|31||5th Ave S||||"Not yet ready"||South Park Duwamish Waterway|||-|32||S Riverside Dr||||"Not yet ready"||South Park, Duwamish Waterway|||-|33||7th Ave S|align="center"| [more images]||(opened 2023)||South Park, Duwamish Waterway|||-|34||S Riverside Dr||||"Worth a visit"||South Park, Duwamish Waterway|||-|35||8th Ave S|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||South Park, Duwamish Waterway||t̓ałt̓ałucid Park and Shoreline Habitat|-|36||S Chicago St||||No public access||South Park, Duwamish Waterway|||-|37||10th Ave S||||"Worth a visit"||South Park, Duwamish Waterway|||-|38||S Monroe St|align="center"| [more images]||(within a park)||South Park, Duwamish Waterway||Now part of Duwamish Waterway Park|-|39||75th Ave S||||"Worth a visit"||South Rainier, Lake Washington|||-|40||72nd Ave S||||"Worth a visit"||South Rainier, Lake Washington|||-|41||S Cooper St||||"Not yet ready"||South Rainier, Lake Washington|||-|42||S Norfolk St||||"Not yet ready"||South Rainier, Lake Washington|||-|43||S Perry St||||"Not yet ready"||South Rainier, Lake Washington|||-|44||S Carver St||||"Not yet ready"||South Rainier, Lake Washington|||-|45||S Willow St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Seward Park, Lake Washington|||-|46||S Brighton St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Seward Park, Lake Washington|||-|47||S Warsaw St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Seward Park, Lake Washington|||-|48||S Eddy St|align="center"|||"Worth a visit"||Seward Park, Lake Washington|||-|49||S Holgate St||||"Not yet ready"||Mt. Baker/Leschi Lake Washington|||-|50||S Massachusetts St||||"Not yet ready"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|51||S Atlantic St||||"Not yet ready"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|52||S Irving St||||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|53||S Judkins St||||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|54||S Norman St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|55||S Charles St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|56||S Dearborn St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|57||S King St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|58||S Jackson St||||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-|59||S Main St||||"Worth a visit"||Mt. Baker/Leschi, Lake Washington|||-||60||E Pine St||||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine, Lake Washington|||-||61||E Olive Ln||||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine, Lake Washington|||-||62||E Howell St||||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine, Lake Washington|||-||63||E Harrison St||||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine, Lake Washington|||-|64||E Mercer St||||"Not yet ready"||Denny-Blaine/Madison Park, Lake Washington|||-|65||E Prospect St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine/Madison Park, Lake Washington||Also known as Prospect Nature Preserve.|-|66||E Highland Dr|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine/Madison Park, Lake Washington|||-|67||E Lee St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Denny-Blaine/Madison Park, Lake Washington|||-|68||37th Ave E|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Madison Park on Union Bay||a.k.a Beaver Lodge Sanctuary|-|69||E Roanoke St||||"Not yet ready"||West side of Portage Bay||-|70||E Edgar St|| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||West side of Portage Bay|a.k.a. Astrid's Park,[15] [16] though it does not have official status as a city park.|-|71||E Hamlin St|| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||West side of Portage Bay||-|72||E Shelby St|| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||West side of Portage Bay||-|73||E Allison St||||"Not yet ready"||West side of Portage Bay||-|74||E Martin St||||"Not yet ready"||West side of Portage Bay||-|75||University Bridge||||"Not yet ready"||Portage Bay/Lake Union|||-|76||Fuhrman Ave E|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Lake Union/Portage Bay|Combined with South Passage Point Park (under Interstate 5 Ship Canal Bridge)|-|77||E Martin St||||"Worth a visit"||Lake Union/Portage Bay|Good Turn Park|-|78||E Allison St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Lake Union/Portage Bay||-|79||E Hamlin St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Lake Union/Portage Bay||-|80||E Edgar St||||"Not yet ready" ||Eastlake, Lake Union|||-|81||E Roanoke St||||"Worth a visit" ||Eastlake, Lake Union||Roanoke Street Mini-Park|-|82||E Louisa St||||"Worth a visit" ||Eastlake, Lake Union|||-|83||E Boston St||||"Worth a visit" ||Eastlake, Lake Union|||-|84||E Newton St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit" ||Eastlake, Lake Union||Terry Pettus Park|-|85||Yale Ave N||||"Worth a visit" ||Eastlake, Lake Union|||-|86||Terry Ave N|align="center"| [more images]||N/A/||South Lake Union||Incorporated into Lake Union Park|-|87||Galer St||||"Worth a visit" ||Westlake, Lake Union|||-|88||Blaine St||||"Worth a visit" ||Westlake, Lake Union|||-|89||Crockett St||||"Worth a visit" ||Westlake, Lake Union|||-|90||McGraw St||||"Worth a visit" ||Westlake, Lake Union|||-|91||5th Avenue N||||"Not yet ready" ||Near south foot of Aurora Bridge on Lake Union|||-|92||Fremont Bridge||||"Worth a visit" ||South side of Fremont Cut||along South Ship Canal Trail|-|93||3rd Ave N/Etruria St||||"Worth a visit" ||South side of Fremont Cut||along South Ship Canal Trail|-|94||Cremona St||||"Worth a visit" ||South side of Fremont Cut||along South Ship Canal Trail|-|95||Bertona St||||"Worth a visit" ||South side of Fremont Cut||along South Ship Canal Trail|-|96||Queen Anne Ave N||||"Worth a visit" ||South side of Fremont Cut||along South Ship Canal Trail|-|97||3rd Ave W||||"Worth a visit" ||South side of Fremont Cut||a.k.a West Ewing Mini Park, along South Ship Canal Trail|-|98||6th Ave W||||"Not yet ready" ||South side of Fremont Cut|||-|99||Gilman Ave W||||"Worth a visit" ||Magnolia on Salmon Bay||Immediately west of Commodore Park, effectively part of the park.|-|100||W Cramer St||||"Worth a visit" ||Magnolia on Salmon Bay|||-|101||W Sheridan St||||"Worth a visit" ||Magnolia on Salmon Bay|||-|102||47th Ave W||||"Not yet ready" ||Magnolia on Shilshole Bay|||-|103||48th Ave W||||"Not yet ready"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay|||-|104||W Bertona St||||"Not yet ready"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay|||-|105||W Dravus St||||"Not yet ready"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay|||-|106||W Barrett St||||"Not yet ready"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay|||-|107||W Armour St||||"Not yet ready"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay|||-|108||W Raye St|||| ?||Magnolia on Elliott Bay|||-|109||W McGraw St||||"Worth a visit"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay||accessible from Perkins Lane. At low tide you can access Fourmile Rock, depicted here.|-|110||32nd Ave W|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay||a.k.a. 32nd Avenue West Park, 32nd Avenue West Beach Access|-|111||30th Ave W|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Magnolia on Elliott Bay||A.k.a. Magnolia Tidelands Park, reachable from the Elliott Bay Marina|-|112||W Thomas St||||"Worth a visit"||border between Myrtle Edwards Park and Centennial Park on Elliott Bay|||-|113||Bay St||||"Worth a visit"||border between Olympic Sculpture Park and Myrtle Edwards Park on Elliott Bay||"pocket beach"|-|114||Broad St||||"Worth a visit"||south tip of Olympic Sculpture Park on Elliott Bay||"pocket beach"|-|115||Vine St||||"Worth a visit"||north side of The Edgewater hotel on Elliott Bay|||-|116||Battery St||||"Worth a visit"||between Pier 66 and the Edgewater on Elliott Bay||just a stretch of sidewalk atop the Alaskan Way seawall|-|117||Virginia St||||"Not yet ready"||immediately north of Pier 63 on Elliott Bay|||-|118||University St||||"Worth a visit"||south side of Pier 57 on Elliott Bay|||-|119||Madison St||||"Worth a visit"||adjacent to Fire Station No. 5 on Elliott Bay|||-|120||S Washington St|align="center"| [more images]||: closed since 2014[17] ||former Washington Street Public Boat Landing Facility on Elliott Bay|||-|121||S Holgate St||||no public access||part of Terminal 30, a bit south of Jack Perry Memorial Park|||-|122||NE 135th St||||no public access||Lake City on Lake Washington|||-|123||NE 130th St||||"Worth a visit"||Lake City on Lake Washington||Northeast 130th Street Beach|-|124||NE 90th Pl||||"Not yet ready"||just south of Matthews Beach Park on Lake Washington|||-|125||NE 85th St||||"Not yet ready"||Sand Point on Lake Washington|||-|126||NE 43rd St|| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Laurelhurst on Lake Washington|||-|127||51st Ave NE||||"Worth a visit"||Laurelhurst on Lake Washington|||-|128||NE 33rd St||||"Not yet ready"||Laurelhurst on Lake Washington|||-|129||NE 31st St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Laurelhurst on Lake Washington|||-|130||NE 31st St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Laurelhurst on Union Bay|||-|131||NE 32nd St||||"Not yet ready"||Laurelhurst on Lake Washington on Union Bay|||-|132||Brooklyn Ave NE|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||University District on Portage Bay||Adjacent to (and effectively part of) Sakuma Viewpoint, next to Fritz Hedges Park (formerly Portage Bay Park)|-|133||Eastlake Pl NE||||"Not yet ready"||University District on Lake Union||under University Bridge|-|134||Latona Ave NE||||"Worth a visit"||Northlake, Lake Union|||-|135||Sunnyside Ave N||||"Worth a visit"||Northlake, Lake Union|||-|136||Fremont Bridge||||"Worth a visit"||under the Fremont Bridge on the north side|||-|137||NW 39th St||||"Not yet ready"||Fremont/Ballard ("Frelard") on the Fremont Cut|||-|138||6th Ave NW||||"Not yet ready"||"Frelard", on the Fremont Cut||limited public access|-|139||NW 40th St||||"Not yet ready"||"Frelard", on the Fremont Cut|||-|140||11th Ave NW||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay|||-|141||14th Ave NW||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay||a.k.a. 14th Avenue NW Boat Ramp|-|142||15th Ave NW||||"Not yet ready"||Ballard on Salmon Bay||under the Ballard Bridge|-|143||20th Ave NW||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay|||-|144||24th Ave NW||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay|||-|145||28th Ave NW||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay|||-|146||34th Ave NW||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay|||-|147||36th Ave NW|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay|||-|148||NW 57th St|align="center"| [more images]||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Salmon Bay||beach access|-|149||NW 60th St||||"Worth a visit"||Ballard on Shilshole Bay||NW 60th Street Viewpoint|} Other shoreline street endsBesides the 149 officially recognized shoreline street ends, there are numerous other places where waterfront public access is available at the end of a street in Seattle. Some of these, such as Lynn Street Mini Park in Eastlake on Lake Union, predate the ordinance.[18] Others are designated as "waterways", open to the public based on longstanding boat access rights of way. Examples of this are Waterway No. 1, a former ferry landing at the foot of NE 35th Street in Laurelhurst on Union Bay[19] and the elaborately landscaped Waterway 15 immediately west of Ivar's Salmon House at the foot of 4th Ave NE on the north shore of Lake Union/Portage Bay.[20] Others remain in a bit of a limbo, such as Gateway Park North, the street end of 8th Avenue South in Georgetown on the northeast side of the Duwamish Waterway, open to the public but undeveloped, with jurisdictional issues still being sorted out.[21] External links
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