Street layout of Seattle

upright=1.35|thumb|Map showing the angled streets of downtown Seattle

The street layout of Seattle is based on a series of disjointed rectangular street grids. Most of Seattle and King County use a single street grid, oriented on true north. Near the center of the city, various land claims were platted in the 19th century with differently oriented grids, which still survive today. Distinctly oriented grids also exist in some cities annexed by Seattle in the early 20th century, such as Ballard and Georgetown. A small number of streets and roads are exceptions to the grid pattern.

Street grid layout

thumb|left|The [[Hotel Seattle (pictured here in 1900, now demolished). To the right, Yesler Way follows Maynard's plat, and runs due east. To the left, James Street follows Denny's plat, and runs 32 degrees north of east. ]]

Most streets in Seattle run either north–south or east–west. However, this orientation does not prevail in one of the oldest and densest parts of the town, bounded by Elliott Bay to the west, Broadway to the east, Yesler Way to the south, and Denny Way to the north. That exceptional area includes all of the Downtown Central Business District (<abbr>CBD</abbr>), the northernmost part of the Pioneer Square neighborhood south of the <abbr>CBD</abbr>, First Hill east of the <abbr>CBD</abbr>, and Belltown and the Denny Regrade north of the <abbr>CBD</abbr>.

The grid is oriented 32 degrees west of north in the southern portion of that exceptional area, and 49 degrees west of north in the northern portion. The two portions are divided by a line that runs along Stewart Street (or its right-of-way) from Alaskan Way on the Central Waterfront east to 3rd Avenue, then along Olive Way from 3rd Avenue to 7th Avenue, and along Howell Street from 7th Avenue to Denny Way. Denny and Boren preferred that their streets follow the Elliott Bay shoreline, while Maynard favored a grid based on the cardinal directions for his (mostly flat, mostly wet) claim. All three were competing to have the downtown built on their land. Denny prevailed in what would become the central business district, but it was Maynard's grid that ended up being extended throughout the city and into all of King County (60 miles east to west). Several cities in King County, such as Renton, Kirkland, and North Bend, have their own naming system and grid in the center of town, but Maynard's Pioneer Square–based grid officially covers the entire county.

Addressing

Street addresses in Seattle (and throughout much of King County) follow a uniform numbering plan. On roads that run north and south [generally called an Avenue], odd numbered addresses are on the west side and even numbered addresses are on the east side. On roads that run east and west [generally called a Street], odd numbered addresses are on the south side and even numbered addresses are on the north side. The address is based on its location relative to the grid (not relative to the location of the beginning of each separate road, or its nearest intersection) with the last two digits consecutively incrementing with the grid and the leading digits designating the location on the grid. No street, excluding Interstate 5 and State Route 99—both freeways in whole or in part—runs without interruption from the northern to the southern city limits. This is largely the result of Seattle's topography. Split by the Duwamish River and the Lake Washington Ship Canal, containing four lakes within the city limits, and boasting deep ravines and at least seven hills there are few more-or-less straight routes where such a road could reasonably be built, even allowing for the short bridge or two.

Directionals

thumb|Map of directionals in Seattle

Seattle and King County make systematic use of directionals (such as N for north or NE for northeast) in street names, although residents often omit the directionals when describing addresses in their own neighborhoods. To a lesser degree, street types such as avenue and street are also used systematically. As a rule, "streets" run east–west (or, in and near downtown, northeast–southwest), and "avenues" run north–south (or, in and near downtown, northwest–southeast). A road, boulevard, way, or thoroughfare with any other type designation may run in any direction. The land boundaries of the district laid out according to the Denny and Boren plats that follow the shoreline are all "Ways" (Denny Way, Yesler Way, Broadway).

Furthermore:

"Streets" and other east–west thoroughfares prefix the directional; for example NE 45th Street.
"Avenues" and other north–south thoroughfares suffix the directional; for example 15th Avenue NE, University Way NE.
A mnemonic for directionals is that the general direction of a thoroughfare is the direction nearer its name or number; for example NE 45th Street runs generally east (and west), while University Way NE runs generally north (and south).
"Places" are usually cul-de-sacs or dead-ends and run in any direction.
In most sections of the city, the same directional is used for both of these purposes; the exceptions are immediately east and north of the downtown area, and the lack of any directionals in the downtown area itself.

Seattle is divided into ten sections, each with a different combination of directionals.

North of the Lake Washington Ship Canal are the following sections: west of 1st Avenue NW, the NW section; between 1st Avenue NW and 1st Avenue NE, the N section; east of 1st Avenue NE, the NE section.

South of the canal but north of Denny Way are the following sections: west of Queen Anne Avenue N, the W section; between Queen Anne Avenue N and a border defined by Eastlake Avenue E (south of E Nelson Place) and Lake Union (north of E Nelson Place), the Avenue N section, in which avenues are suffixed N and in which streets have no prefix; east of the Eastlake Avenue E–Lake Union border, the E section.

South of Denny Way but north of Yesler Way are two sections: east of Broadway from Yesler Way north to Union Street, east of Minor Avenue from Union Street north to Pike Street, and east of Melrose Avenue from Pike Street north to Denny Way, the E Street section, streets are prefixed E and avenues have no suffix; to the west of this border, the downtown section, no directionals are used.

South of Yesler Way are two sections: east of the waterfront and (south of the Duwamish Waterway) east of 1st Avenue S, the S section; and west of 1st Avenue S, the SW section. Within the Seattle city limits there is no SE section; however, the non-Seattle SE section contains all of the southeastern suburbs and the rest of southern King County, including Mercer Island, parts of Renton, and Bellevue south of Main Street, Sammamish south of E Main Street, and other locations within the county.

<!-- This draft table has the same information as the paragraphs above, but it's a bit ugly so I'm commenting it out for now.

{| class="wikitable"

| NW

| 1st Avenue NW

| N

| 1st Avenue NE

| NE

| align="center" colspan="5" | Lake Washington Ship Canal (east of Seattle: Bellevue's Main Street)

| W

| Queen Anne Avenue N

| Avenue N streets with no prefix

| Lake Union (north of E Nelson Place) Eastlake Avenue E (south of E Nelson Place)

| E

| align="center" colspan="5" | Denny Way

| colspan="2" |  

| downtown no directionals

| Melrose Avenue (Pike Street to Denny Way) Minor Avenue (Union Street to Pike Street) Broadway (Yesler Way to Union Street)

| E Street avenues with no suffix

| align="center" colspan="5" | Yesler Way (east of Seattle: Bellevue's Main Street)

| SW

| Duwamish Waterway (Yesler Way to First Avenue S bridge) 1st Avenue S (south of the First Avenue S bridge)

| S

| east of Seattle east from 100th Avenue SE (south of Renton)

| SE

-->

Arterials defined

The city defines three types of arterials — Principal, Minor, and Collector:

Principal arterials serve as the principal route for the movement of traffic through the city. These connect interstate freeways to major activity centers, to minor and collector arterial streets and directly to destinations, as well as interneighborhood traffic.
Minor arterials are generally located on neighborhood boundaries except when necessary to provide adequate service to traffic generators located within neighborhoods.
Collector arterials are typically located within neighborhood boundaries and serve small group of stores, schools, small apartment complexes, and residential land uses.
Access Streets are residential and commercial side streets.

References

Bibliography

. Shows the landscape carved by the Vashon Glacier some 14,000 years ago.
. (First link shows a slightly longer excerpt of the article than JSTOR.)
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. Online selection from Karl Samson (2006), Frommer's Seattle 2006 [Title incremented annually each January], Wiley, .
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External links

Joe Thompson, Cable Car Lines in the Pacific Northwest, self-published, describes several former Seattle cable car lines and includes old postcard images.