Green Lake (Washington)
| Green Lake | ||
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| Looking southwest to Woodland Park | ||
| Geographical location | Seattle , Washington (USA) | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 47 ° 40 ′ 40 " N , 122 ° 20 ′ 13" W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 160 ft (48.8 m) | |
| surface | 259 acres (1 km²) | |
| scope | 2.8 mi (4.5 km) | |
| Maximum depth | 30 ft (9.1 m) | |
| Middle deep | 13 ft (4 m) | |
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| Detailed map of Green Lake | ||
The Green Lake is a freshwater lake in the northern part of the central area of Seattle in the US state of Washington ; it is in the middle of Green Lake Park . The park is bordered by Green Lake to the north and east, Wallingford to the south, Phinney Ridge to the west, and Woodland Park to the southwest. It is a glacial lake whose basin was formed about 50,000 years ago by the Vashon Glacier , which also created Lake Washington , Lake Union , Bitter Lake, and Haller Lake .
history
Green Lake was named by David Phillips who explored the area for the Surveyor General of the United States in September 1855 . His first reports called it "Lake Green" because the lake is prone to algal blooms even in its natural state. The Duwamish called him dxWTLusH , a Lushootseed word of unknown meaning.
The lake has a surface area of 259 acres (1 km²), an average depth of 13 ft (4 m) and a maximum depth of 30 ft (9.1 m). It was dredged to maintain the depth. The Green Lake lacks both superficial inflows and outflows. It once drained into Lake Washington via Ravenna Creek , but in 1911 the lake's water level was lowered by 7 ft (2.1 m) to create a park, so that Ravenna Creek is between Green Lake and Ravenna Park dried up. Ravenna Boulevard and its wide grassy center were built to cover the creek bed. Today, tributaries to the lake generate rain, the runoff from heavy rain events and the water supply for the city of Seattle.
The area was originally the home of various pioneers, the first of whom was Erhart Sarfried, who became known as "Green Lake John". Sarfried divided his estate in 1888 and sold the land to various entrepreneurs. WD Wood built an "Amusement Park" on the west side of the lake (which never became more than a glorified lawn for picnics). On the east side of the lake, AL Parker cut down the trees and built a sawmill. Edward C. Kilbourne built the first tram line to connect the area with the city; on the former route is now the Green Lake Way North . The tram lines continued to grow until they had completely circled the lake in 1910; there was a separate line around the lake and back to town.
In July 2008, several metal spikes (up to 3 ft (0.9 m) long) were found at the bottom of the lake, injuring a person. The Seattle Parks Department later confirmed that the spikes came from a forgotten pilot program designed to control the growth of the milfoil in Green Lake. The invasive aquatic plant was first detected in the early 1980s. The Parks Department installed around 11,000 m² of black plastic sheeting on the lake bed in 1984 and used the metal spikes to hold the sheeting in place. The spikes originally had curved tips to prevent injury, but they had now corroded and broken off. In late July 2008, the city paid a team of divers to remove the remaining spikes. Throughout the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the city had also tried to control the thousand-leaf with herbivorous fish; however, that had not had any serious impact in the past 15 years. Instead, divers were paid every now and then to remove the plants by hand.
Green Lake Park
After 1903, the area became part of Seattle's grand Olmsted Plan , which included a series of interconnected green spaces around the entire city. The park design still reflects the vision of the Olmsted Brothers.
Green Lake is surrounded by a 2.8 mi (4.5 km) path. A distinction is made between an inner unpaved trail and an outer asphalt two-lane path, with one lane intended for pedestrians and the other for cyclists , skaters and other non-motorized vehicles. The inner walkway is bidirectional while the outer counterclockwise is unidirectional. The rules for doing this consist only of optional guidelines, which the Parks and Recreation Department says are enforced through peer pressure. The path attracts people who are looking for exercise and relaxation; it can be overrun. There is another outer dirt trail (3.2 mi (5.1 km) long) along the boundaries of the park. The park is a popular destination for qigong classes, roller hockey , soccer and baseball players, golfers , the Derek Baker Memorial Boccie Ball Club and lawn bowlers belonging to the Woodland Park Lawn Bowling Club , and a monthly venue taking place midnight bike race.
A bathhouse was built in 1927 in the vicinity of an outdoor swimming pool, the concrete steps of which lead into the water. A lifeguard station with a boat was built nearby in 1930 after several people drowned in 1929. The bathhouse is now home to the Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse , a small stage.
On the lake across from the bathhouse in the northeast section of the park is Green Lake's first community center, built in 1929 at a cost of $ 95,598. When it was built on reclaimed and reclaimed land in 1911, pillars were driven into the ground to support the community center. There are two conference rooms in the center, a sports hall with showers and baths and a stage. Another outdoor pool was built towards the lake. The tennis courts were added in 1945 and a 568 m³ swimming pool was added in 1955 . It was named "Evans Pool" in honor of two brothers - Ben and Lou Evans - for their longstanding service to the sport in Seattle's parks.
The children's pool as well as the drainage ditch and the stone arch bridge over the ditch were projects of the Works Progress Administration . The kiddy pool is supervised by the Seattle Parks Department during the summer and is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. from June 23 to September 3.
There is a green fishing pier south of the bathhouse. Since 1984, this part of the lake has contained a memorial that commemorates the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and is made in the form of submarine lanterns.
Prospect Point, a headland facing Duck Island, protects a small area of water from strong winds. This was once a popular meeting place for model boat builders, but driving model boats on the lake is no longer allowed.
The Green Lake Aqua Theater was built in 1950 for the first Seafair , an annual summer festival, to give a home to an attraction called Aqua Follies and their swim musicals, which perform a combination of water ballet, stage dance and comedy . The theater contained a circular stage and a floating orchestra pit that circled a section of the lake with tall floating platforms. The grandstand offered space for 5,000 guests. The Aqua Follies were held during Seafair until 1965. Outside the festival schedule, the stage was used for plays and musicals, whose directors took advantage of the unique opportunities. In the summer of 1962 the Aqua Theater was the site of a jazz festival as part of the world exhibition , events with popular artists such as Bob Hope , two plays and a specially rehearsed performance of the Aqua Follies with 100 participants. After the World's Fair, the summer productions gradually fell asleep, which is certainly due to Seattle's unpredictable weather , until the Aqua Theater was finally largely abandoned. A Grateful Dead concert in 1969 exposed the uncertainty and danger of collapse of the auditorium. At the beginning of 1970 the theater was demolished; the right part of the stage now serves as a pier for pedestrians and the left part as a dock and warehouse for rowers . Some sections of the stage simply stayed in place.
The southwestern part of the park is connected to the adjacent Woodland Park on equally filled-up land; most of the excavated material comes from the construction of Washington State Route 99 ( Aurora Avenue ). This part of the park was enough once to today's 54 N. th Street .
In the summer, Green Lake is also popular with swimmers and boaters. Although private motor boats have been banned from the lake since at least 1968, it was the venue for boat races from 1929 to 1984 . Today there are many motorless boats on the lake, such as surfboards , pedal boats , rowing boats , skiffs and canoes . The Milk Carton Derby is held annually on the lake as one of the Seafair's opening events. Although the remains of some of the slipways still exist, the systems themselves have all been removed from the lake; all boats must be launched by hand.
The Green Lake Small Craft Center , a Seattle Parks facility, is located at the south end of the lake. It is home to both the Green Lake Crew , a rowing club with a long and nationally successful tradition, and the Seattle Canoe and Kayak Club , which also takes part in competitions on a national level. From August 10th to 13th, 2006, the US Rowing Masters National Championship Regatta was held on Green Lake , with an estimated 2,000 participants between the ages of 23 and 86 years.
Across from the park on the east bank is the Green Lake Library , built in 1910 with assistance from Andrew Carnegie .
There is an artificial island in the lake, commonly called Duck Island , but was originally created as Swan Island in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration . The island was created (from heaped gravel) as a wildlife refuge and later occupied by some swans , which were a gift from the city of Vancouver . The park committee named the island Waldo's Wildlife Sanctuary after Waldo J. Dahl, who looked after the swans. However, the swans, which were supposed to create a small school, did not find a suitable breeding habitat on the island. Further attempts (until at least the 1970s) to settle swans on the island also failed. The state hunting commission officially designated the island as a protected area for humans in 1956. This state ended in 1983. Although no specific species existed, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife runs the island as part of a buffer for bald eagle management in the southern part of the lake. The Parks Department considers the island closed to humans for security reasons; Every now and then you can find swings and empty alcohol containers on the island.
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fauna and Flora
The Green Lake is a beacon for fauna and flora . Many animal species romp around and in the lake, so toads , turtles , ducks , cormorants , loons , herons , geese , hawks , eagles , rats , squirrels and bats as well as raccoons and ospreys can often be observed.
Green Lake is a popular dumping point for unloved pets. So a large population of feral rabbits developed . The rabbits created problems by digging into streets and boundary walls and invading Woodland Park Zoo . For years, volunteers picked up or removed the rabbits. However, they weren't fast enough to keep the population under control. In 2005, the city and zoo, together with the Rabbit Sanctuary, ran an action to catch the rabbits, and at the same time launched an awareness campaign to discourage people from releasing new rabbits. The habit of abandoning pets in and around Green Lake led to the appearance of several other alien species that had to be removed; mostly common goldfish , but also more exotic species such as sturgeon or caiman .
A program was recently set up to massively reduce the number of ducks and geese. Their legacies increase the phosphate content in the lake, which leads to excessive growth of algae and spawning herbs . In 2003 the lake was treated with aluminum sulphate to precipitate the phosphate. A paddle-wheel boat anchored in the lake is used to mow the spawning herbs. The poultry also leave pathogens in the lake that can cause skin diseases . This shows the difficulty of maintaining water quality in a stagnant lake.
There are many species of fish in Green Lake . Trout , mainly rainbow trout , are released for fishing. A large population of carp is present and can be seen spawning in the shallow water areas in spring. Tiger muscles were released to control the carp population after the carp were recognized as an invasive species that contributes to eutrophication . Largemouth bass , American perch , blue sunfish , yellow catfish , spotted fork catfish and small populations of many other species are also found in the lake .
In spring, Green Lake Park with its pink and white cherry trees is in full bloom. They were planted on the west side of the lake in 1931 and 1932, following a donation from the Japanese Association of North America .
Species list with common names
The park is home to many species of birds and mammals, as well as some species of reptiles and amphibians. The most notable are West American coyotes , feral rabbits, barred owls , and abandoned red-eared slider turtles . The most common bird species American Crow , American Goldfinch , American Robin , Anna's Hummingbird , bald eagle , Barn Owl , Barred Owl , Bush Wren , Black-capped Chickadee , tailed Tits , Star , House Finch , Hairy Woodpecker , Downy Woodpecker , Flicker , Juncos , rock dove , spot basic Ammer , Steller , several species of gulls , several sparrow species , several swallow species and various water birds. Mammals include western coyote, nutria , feral rabbit, brown rat , western gray squirrel , stubby-tailed squirrel, and Canadian beaver . Reptile and amphibian species are the red- eared sliver , the tree frog Pseudacris crucifer (English "spring peeper") and garter snakes .
Individual evidence
- ^ Coll Thrush: Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place . University of Washington Press, 2007, ISBN 0-295-98700-6 , p. 251.
- ^ "More spikes found in Green Lake" . The Seattle Times . July 18, 2008. Retrieved August 7, 2008.
- ↑ “Parks Dept. confirms Green Lake spikes leftover from its milfoil-control program. " The Seattle Times . July 29, 2008. Retrieved August 7, 2008.
- ↑ Seattle 911 - A Police and Crime Blog; Are people required to follow Green Lake path instructions? . In: Seattle Post-Intelligencer , February 27, 2009. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ↑ Aqua Theater at HistoryLink (English)
- ↑ Rowers ready to compete on Green Lake
- ↑ Casey McNerthney: Is it legal to go on Green Lake's Duck Island? , Seattle Post-Intelligencer. January 25, 2011.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Magazine article about the Woodland Park Rabbits Organization
- ↑ http://www.seattle.gov/Parks/Publications/urbanwildlife.htm
Web links
- City of Seattle Parks and Recreation Department (English)
- History of Parks in Seattle (English)
- The cleanup and redevelopment of the Green Lake began in 1936 (English)
- First event of Seafair and Aqua Follies in King County (English)
- John Olmsted arrived in Seattle on April 30, 1903 to design the city parks. (English)
- Historic racing boat race at the Green Lake (English)
- Another historic race (English)
- memories of the Aquatheatre (English)