Lake Washington
| Lake Washington | ||
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| Aerial photo; Interstate 90 leads over the Murrow Memorial Bridge (foreground) | ||
| Geographical location | Washington (USA) | |
| Tributaries | Sammamish River , Cedar River | |
| Drain | Lake Washington Ship Canal | |
| Islands | Mercer Island , Foster Island | |
| Places on the shore | Mercer Island | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 47 ° 36 ′ N , 122 ° 16 ′ W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 5 m | |
| surface | 88 km² | |
| length | 35 km | |
| Maximum depth | 65 m | |
The Lake Washington is the second largest natural lake in the US state of Washington after Lake Chelan and the largest lake in King County . It lies between Seattle in the west, Bellevue and Kirkland in the east, Renton in the south and Kenmore in the north. In the lake is the island of Mercer Island , on it the city of the same name . Two rivers flow into the lake, the Sammamish River at the northern end and the Cedar River at the southern end. In addition, various smaller streams flow into Lake Washington. The lake is at a height of 5 m and is about 20 kilometers long. The mean depth of the lake formed by a glacier is 30 meters, the deepest point is 65 meters below the water surface.
Canals and bridges
Before the Lake Washington Ship Canal was built in 1916, Lake Washington drained the Black River into the Duwamish River , which in turn flowed into Elliott Bay . With the opening of the canal, the water level of the lake fell by almost 3 m. The canal that connected the lake with Puget Sound was henceforth the lake's only outflow, so that the Black River dried up.
Four bridges cross Lake Washington:
- Evergreen Point Floating Bridge
- Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge ( Interstate 90 )
- Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge (Interstate 90)
- East Channel Bridge
The first three bridges are pontoon bridges , the two-kilometer Evergreen Point Floating Bridge being the longest in the world. The floating bridges were built because the lake, with a depth of 30 meters and another 30 meters thick silty subsoil, would have made it very costly to set pillars for suspension bridges.
Web links
- Article on Building the Lake Washington Ship Canal (HistoryLink)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lake Washington in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
- ↑ a b Homer Hadley formally proposes a concrete pontoon floating bridge across Lake Washington on October 1, 1921. HistoryLink.com, January 18, 2005, accessed November 18, 2013 .