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Tacoma is a city in the state of Washington. It’s modern history began in 1864, when the pioneer and postmaster Job Carr, who was a Civil War veteran and land speculator, built a cabin here. In 1873, Tacoma was chosen as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. This decision was largely influenced by Tacoma’s deep-water harbor, Commencement Bay, which made it an ideal location for trade and transportation. Tacoma was incorporated in 1875, and the railway arrived but built the depot in New Tacoma south of Joe Carr’s settlement. The city’s strategic position helped it grow rapidly from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890, and the became a busy industrial and commercial center.
Tacoma and New Tacoma merged in 1884, but despite the growth, Seattle to over as the leading place in the region following the Klondike gold rush from 1898. Tacoma hit the news with the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, known as Galloping Gertie, but despite that and other setbacks, Tacoma has continually reinvented itself. The latter part of the 20th century saw a decline in industrial activities, but the city has since experienced a renaissance, with revitalization efforts focusing on its downtown area and cultural institutions.
At the heart of Tacoma’s downtown is Pacific Avenue, the main street that runs through the city’s core. This thoroughfare is lined with a mix of historic buildings, shops, restaurants, and cultural attractions. A stroll down Pacific Avenue is a must when in Tacoma, and it offers a glimpse into Tacoma’s past while showcasing its contemporary charm. The street is also home to several key landmarks, making it a central point for visitors exploring the city.
One of the most iconic structures in Tacoma and along Pacific Avenue is Union Station, which stands as a stunning example of Beaux-Arts architecture. The station opened in 1911, this historic building now serves as a courthouse and features beautiful glass installations by renowned artist Dale Chihuly. The Museum of Glass is another must-see attraction in Tacoma. At the museum, you can see contemporary glass art and the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, a pedestrian walkway adorned with vibrant glass sculptures.
The Museum of Glass in across the former track from Union Station, and the architectural diversity of Tacoma is further highlighted by the Washington State History Museum, located next to Union Station. It is a interesting museum with deep dives into the state’s history through interactive exhibits and artifacts. Nearby, the Tacoma Art Museum focuses on art from the American West and Pacific Northwest, providing a rich cultural experience for art lovers.
You can also head some blocks north to the Old City Hall Historic District where the five-story Old City Hall stands as a monument of the late 1800s. The buildings reflects the Italian Villa style, and it features a ten-story clock tower. Across the street to the east is the Northern Pacific Office Building from 1891, and to the west are the Spanish Steps from 1916 connecting Commerce Street and Broadway. There are also some theatres in the area, like Rialto Theater from 1918 and Pantages Theatre from 1916. And you can notice other buildings as well, such as the 1889 Bostwick Hotel on a triangular junction between St. Helens, Broadway and Ninth Streets.
With Tacoma’s stunning location to Commencement Bay and other waters, there are many options for a tour out of the city. To the west is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The original bridge was opened 1 July 1940 and collapsed into Puget Sound on 7 November the same year. The present Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma Narrows strait with openings in 1950 and 2007 respectively. Close to the bridges, you can visit Fort Nisqually, a living history museum that was an important fur trading and farming post of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Puget Sound area. You can also sail from Point Defiance to Tahlequay with striking views of the area and to Mount Rainier.
Pacific Avenue is the central street in Tacoma, serving as the city’s historic backbone and commercial thoroughfare. The street extends from the waterfront at Commencement Bay and continues through downtown, connecting both commercial and residential areas. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Pacific Avenue became the center of the city’s commerce and transportation, and thus its social life. Many of the early office buildings, stores, and hotels were built along the street, and most of Tacoma’s major rail connections were located nearby. You can still experience this today when you take a stroll here.
The architecture along Pacific Avenue reflects Tacoma’s development over the decades. Here you can find brick buildings with details from the late 19th century, neoclassical and art deco facades, and more modern glass and steel structures. The combination of old and new buildings makes Pacific Avenue a living architectural museum, where visitors can experience the city’s transformation over time. Many buildings have retained original details on their facades, giving the street a characteristic historical atmosphere. Today, Pacific Avenue is not only a traffic hub, but also a modern thoroughfare, close to attractions. The street is home to cafes, restaurants, shops and cultural institutions.
Union Station was built in 1911 as Tacoma’s central railway station and was a symbol of the city’s status as a transportation hub. The building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style with a large dome and impressive arches. The station served the transcontinental railway network and was also an important center for both freight and passenger traffic. The dome in the center of the building was and is a distinctive landmark that can be seen from several parts of the city, and the rotunda under the dome created a large, open space where passengers could freely move around in the imposing railway architecture typical of the time.
For many years, Union Station was the center of Tacoma’s transportation connections. It was buzzing with activity with passengers, staff and train departures. The station served as a connection point between the railroad and the harbor and was considered one of the most modern and elegant railroad stations in the region. After the railroad’s decline in importance in the mid-20th century, the station lost its original function and stood partially empty for several decades. In the 1990s, the building was restored and converted into a federal office building. The restoration preserved many of the original architectural elements, and today the building serves as both a historical landmark and an active institution.
Opened in 2002 as part of the revitalization of the Tacoma Waterfront, the Museum of Glass was designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. The museum is particularly known for its distinctive conical hot-shop cone, which rises high above the building and marks the place where artists work with glassblowing. The building combines modern architecture with functionality, allowing visitors to experience glass production up close.
The museum focuses on both local and international glass artists and presents a wide range of works. You can see everything from classic techniques to modern installations. The exhibitions showcase the versatility of glass as a material and art form, providing insight into both technical and aesthetic aspects. Adjacent to the museum is the Bridge of Glass, a colorful walkway with glass installations that connects the museum to downtown Tacoma, creating a visual experience even before you enter the museum.
The Washington State History Museum opened on August 10, 1996, in a building designed by architects Charles Moore and Arthur Andersson. Located at 1911 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, the museum is part of the city’s Museum District, close to Union Station, Thea Foss Waterway, and the Museum of Glass. The building’s postmodern architecture, with curved ramps and an outdoor amphitheater, was inspired by the region’s landscapes and Tacoma’s historic railroad heritage.
Inside, the museum features the Great Hall of Washington History. It is a large permanent exhibit that chronicles the state’s development from Native Americans and early settlement to industrialization and modern technology. It features a reconstruction of a Coast Salish log cabin, early archaeological finds, and historical materials on railroads, shipbuilding, forestry, and the importance of the Boeing industry. Operated by the Washington State Historical Society, the museum serves as one of Tacoma’s cultural hubs.
Founded in 1935 as a local art association, the Tacoma Art Museum has grown into a major art institution. In 2003, the museum moved into a new building on Pacific Avenue designed by Antoine Predock, which combines modern architecture with functional exhibition spaces. The building allows for larger exhibitions and collections, and it has expanded several times to accommodate new donations and changing exhibitions.
The museum focuses on art from the American West and the Northwest, and houses paintings, sculptures, photography, and contemporary art. It displays works by both established artists and local talent, making it an important center for regional art. In 2014, the museum expanded with a new wing to house the Haub Family Collection of works from the American West, significantly increasing the museum’s capacity and programming.
Built in 1893, Old City Hall in Tacoma served as the city’s center of municipal government in the early 20th century. The building is five stories tall and features a distinctive clock tower on the corner facing Pacific Avenue and 7th Street. The building was built in the Italianate villa style, with the tower serving as an architectural marker for the area.
Historically, Old City Hall houses the city’s city hall, offices, and administrative functions, and in its heyday was the center of decision-making, governance, and city development. The building’s location in downtown made it both visible and easily accessible, and its tower could be seen from a distance. Over time, its function has changed, but the building’s architectural value and historic status have been preserved.
The Spanish Steps were built in 1916 to connect two different elevations in Tacoma. Specifically, it was between Broadway and Commerce Street in the area known as the Old City Hall Historic District. The staircase is inspired by the famous Spanish Steps in Rome and was originally used as an emergency and escape route for the nearby building, but quickly also as a public, practical passage for pedestrians.
The Spanish Steps have 64 steps and two viewing areas from which you can get a look at the surroundings. You can clearly feel the city’s terrain, where the streets change height. For many, the Spanish Steps are a cozy and somewhat hidden corner of Tacoma, where you can easily imagine the city’s traffic from the old days.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is one of the most iconic bridges in the Northwestern United States. It spans the Tacoma Narrows Strait, connecting the city of Tacoma to the western part of Puget Sound. The bridge is a major transportation and commuting artery in the region, serving as a major thoroughfare for cars, trucks, and public transportation. The current bridge is not the first on the site, and it was the first to become famous worldwide.
The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened on July 1, 1940. At the time, it was the third longest suspension bridge in the world and quickly became known as Galloping Gertie because of its pronounced swaying in windy conditions. The bridge was intended to be a technological masterpiece for its time, and was built to improve connectivity between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula, which otherwise relied on ferry crossings. It had a narrow, sleek design that architects and engineers had chosen to reduce costs and save materials.
The bridge quickly proved to be unexpectedly unstable. On November 7, 1940, just a few months after opening, it collapsed dramatically under moderate winds. Observers described how the bridge’s deck structure swayed violently, twisting and turning until it finally cracked and sank into Puget Sound. This can also be clearly seen in the film footage taken at the scene. Fortunately, there were no human deaths, but the collapse quickly became known as a dramatic example of aeroelastic phenomena, in which wind causes vibrations that can lead to structural collapse.
After the collapse, plans for a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge were quickly put into action. In 1950, the new bridge opened to traffic with a more robust design and better stability. The new structure was wider and had reinforced cables and deck structures to withstand wind and vibrations. In 2007, the bridge was further expanded with a parallel bridge to accommodate the increasing traffic. It created two separate bridges, one for northbound traffic and one for southbound traffic.
Seattle is an American metropolis in the northwestern corner of the United States and one of the technological centers in the country. At the same time the city has been particularly significant for recent American music. Of course, there are many sights as well, and the fact that the city is surrounded by magnificent scenery is something that just adds extra perspectives on a trip to here.
Seattle’s history is intriguing, for example, it has been the transit site for the gold diggers on their way to Canadian Klondike, which you can get acquainted with at one of the city’s museums. Seattle burned down in 1889, creating a new start for the city after the fire by raising the street level. You can see Seattle from before 1889 in the underground today. Later on, Seattle hosted the World Exhibition in 1962, and it also left its mark on the city’s skyline.
Olympia is the state capital of Washington, a city with a stunning location at the southernmost tip of Puget Sound. The area of Olympia has been a significant site for thousands of years and rich in history since originally inhabited by the Coastal Salish tribes, including the Nisqually and Squaxin.
The area was a hub for shellfish gathering and salmon harvesting, before European exploration began in 1792 with Peter Puget’s visit, followed by the U.S. Exploring Expedition in 1841. The first American settlers, Levi Lathrop Smith and Edmund Sylvester, arrived in the 1840s, and by 1850, the town was officially named Olympia, inspired by the majestic Olympic Mountains visible to the north.
Portland is the largest city in the US state of Oregon. The town’s history began with the many settlers who arrived at the Willamette Valley area in the 1840s. The town of The Clearing grew between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In the following years, Asa Lovejoy and Francis W. Pettygrove acquired the land around the town, and they changed the name to Portland after tossing a coin for the name.
After this, development proceeded quickly in the well-located city. In 1851, the town had a population of more than 800, growing to over 46,000 in 1890 and nearly 300,000 in 1920. In 1905, Portland hosted the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, which attracted 1.6 million visitors. During the Second World War, a new period of growth started, when Portland and the neighboring city of Vancouver became home to the production of not least the so-called Liberty Ships.
Tacoma, Washington, United States, USA
Overview of Tacoma
Tacoma is a city in the state of Washington. It’s modern history began in 1864, when the pioneer and postmaster Job Carr, who was a Civil War veteran and land speculator, built a cabin here. In 1873, Tacoma was chosen as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. This decision was largely influenced by Tacoma’s deep-water harbor, Commencement Bay, which made it an ideal location for trade and transportation. Tacoma was incorporated in 1875, and the railway arrived but built the depot in New Tacoma south of Joe Carr’s settlement. The city’s strategic position helped it grow rapidly from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890, and the became a busy industrial and commercial center.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
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Author: Stig Albeck
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Language: English
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