Seattle City Walk

My residence for the most important years of my young adult life was the city of Seattle. I return every year to visit the dear friends I made while I lived there.

There are several aspects of Seattle that I have always loved:

• the shape of the city: it is essentially an isthmus (a word I always loved to try to pronounce) between Lake Washington and Puget Sound's Elliott Bay
• the street signage: I have had a fascination with road signs since I was a wee lad growing up in Pawtucket, and the street signs in Seattle are designed to be clearly read from a distance. Also, each intersection of two streets has a pair of signs.
• the rolling hills: it's not unusual to be walking a specific street when it turns into a staircase to climb up or down a steep hill

To combine all of these aspects, I decided to walk the entire length of the city, from its most southernmost point (South Juniper Street, on the city line with Tukwila), to its northernmost point (actually, "points" as the entire length of 145th Street [N.W., N. and N.E.] is congruent with the northern city limit), taking a photo of each intersection's street signs.

The project lasted over eight separate days over four years: 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023. I had to cancel my annual visit to Seattle in 2020 due to the CoViD pandemic.

The route involved 397 intersections and 3 points of interest.

Taking the tour

Walk with me from the southernmost point on South Juniper Street (AKA South 120th Street) next to Tukwila to the northernmost point on NW 145th Street at 3rd Avenue NW. Day 1: May 2, 2019