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[[Image:Space Needle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The [[Space Needle]], a Seattle icon.]]

[[Image:Space Needle.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The [[Space Needle]], a Seattle icon.]]

'''Seattle''' (47.606N. -122.33W) with a population 578,700 in 2006, is the largest city in the American state of [[Washington]] and in the [[Pacific]] Northwest. It was named after [[Chief Sealth]], a Suqamish/Duwamish [[Native American]] leader. It was officially incorporated in 1889, but had been a town since 1851, when a group of pioneers from [[Illinois]] settled West Seattle, a peninsula within the current city limits to the west. The city has generally been at capacity since about 1960, since the population hasn't gone up more than 10,000 people since then.  However, the population has increased into the suburbs north toward [[Everett]], south toward [[Seatac]] and [[Tacoma]] and east (across [[Lake Washington]]) to [[Mercer Island]], [[Kirkland]], [[Redmond]], [[Bellevue]] and [[Issaquah]].

'''Seattle''' (47.606N. -122.33W) with a population 621,000 in 2012, is the largest city in the American state of [[Washington]] and in the [[Pacific]] Northwest. It was named after [[Chief Sealth]], a Suqamish/Duwamish [[Native American]] leader. It was officially incorporated in 1889, but had been a town since 1851, when a group of pioneers from [[Illinois]] settled West Seattle, a peninsula within the current city limits to the west. From about 1960 until about 2000, the population remained relatively static, just under 600,000.  However, the population increased into the suburbs north toward [[Everett]], south toward [[Seatac]] and [[Tacoma]] and east (across [[Lake Washington]]) to [[Mercer Island]], [[Kirkland]], [[Redmond]], [[Bellevue]] and [[Issaquah]]. As fuel prices have increased and zoning has allowed more growth, Seattle has grown about 40,000 in the last 6 years.

==Demographics==

==Demographics==