Pacific Northwest (5) The “East Side”

We spend a lot of time on the “East Side” when we are here, especially in Kirkland, where our very good, long-time friends Jim and Kathy live. Just exactly where is the “East Side?” Very simply, it is the east side of Lake Washington with Seattle on the west side.

The better known communities that make up the East Side include Kirkland, whose name has long been familiar because of the Kirkland brand at Costco. Costco was started in Kirkland, hence, the brand name. More recently Kirkland (unfortunately) became known for being the epicenter of the Corona virus outbreak. Kirkland also made the news recently with Google expanding its “Seattle-area footprint” with a huge office purchase.

The East Side is also where Redmond is located. Redmond is well known as the home of Microsoft. Bill and Melinda Gates have a home in Medina, a small community on Lake Washington, (I took a picture of their home some years ago from a boat when the home could still be seen. A few years ago I took another picture, but, trees now hide all the structures.) Two other well known communities are Mercer Island and Bellevue. Bellevue has an outstanding shopping center with all the well-known, high-end stores. Needless to say, they are all affluent communities.

Because Lake Washington separates Seattle from the East Side, it is accessible via the highway that goes along the east side (Interstate 5 goes directly through downtown Seattle while 405 splits off from I-5 at the south end of Lake Washington and reconnects with I-5 at the north end). There are also two bridges that cross the lake, one of which is the longest floating bridge, the Evergreen Point Bridge (SR 520 Bridge). The second longest bridge in the world, the Lacey Murrow Bridge, lies across the lake, just a few miles to the south.

Why floating bridges? The lake bed is too soft for piers of a conventional bridge, and, a suspension bridge would require bridge towers “the height of Seattle’s Space Needle,” which is prohibitively expensive. The Lacey Murrow Bridge was originally built in 1940 and replaced in 1993 as the original bridge sank during a severe storm in 1993. (Until I wrote this, I did not know it was called the Lacey Murrow Bridge; it was just the I-90 bridge.)

The picture above is one I take almost every year as it is at Jim and Kathy’s home on Lake Washington in Kirkland. Lake Avenue is just a short walk from downtown Kirkland with a beautiful setting. A boat trip often made is across Lake Washington through the Montlake Cut (viewing the University of Washington campus) and on to Lake Union to a restaurant on the water. Lake Union became well known for its house boats after the filming of the movie Sleepless in Seattle. We are indeed the lucky ones to be able to enjoy such a splendid setting when we visit!