Gig Harbor () is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census.
Gig Harbor bills itself as "the Maritime City" and maintains a strong connection to its maritime heritage. Due to its close access to several state and city parks, and historic waterfront that includes boutiques and fine dining, it has become a popular tourist destination. Gig Harbor is located along State Route 16, about from its origin at Interstate 5, over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
History
thumb|Boats in Gig Harbor
The Gig Harbor is the traditional homeland of S'Homamish or Homamish (), an ancestral band of the modern-day Puyallup people. The area is known in their Lushootseed language as , meaning "place where game exists". There was a Puyallup settlement at the mouth of the harbor that included six houses, and a large longhouse. This village existed until the late 19th century, with the longhouse finally being torn down by settlers in 1915. The band was later relocated to the Puyallup Indian Reservation.
During a heavy storm in 1840, Captain Charles Wilkes brought the captain's gig (small boat) into the harbor for protection. Later, with the publication of Wilkes' 1841 map of the Oregon Territory, the sheltered bay was named in English as Gig Harbor by George Sinclair for his boat.
In 1867, fisherman Samuel Jerisich came to the Gig Harbor area, along with many other immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Croatia. The town was platted in 1888 by Alfred M. Burnham, the owner of a local general store and native of Albert Lea, Minnesota, where he advertised opportunities in Gig Harbor.
Commercial fishing, boat building, and logging dominated the economy of the Gig Harbor area, which developed two business districts in the 1920s on opposite sides of the harbor. The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge was completed in July 1940 to replace the ferry crossing, but collapsed a few months later. Gig Harbor was re-incorporated as a city in 1981.
Skansie shipyard
In 1905, the Skansie brothers were the first in the area to build a gasoline-powered fishing boat. They did so at first by refitting boats with a gasoline-powered engine. Usually the motors were quite small, between 6 and 8 horsepower; the Skansie brothers originally used a 7-horsepower engine. Although these were powerboats, neither masts nor a turntable to hoist in the nets were used. This work was all done by hand. However, with the introduction of a motor, the boats were not able to go as far as Alaska. Skansie shipyards built fishing vessels from the late 1910s to the early 1950s.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and is water.
Climate
Gig Harbor has a marine west coast climate: Warm and dry summers, transitional springs and autumns, and cool and wet winters, with occasional snow. The annual high and low temperatures of Gig Harbor are , respectively, making for an average of .