Admiralty Inlet

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Admirality Inlet is a water passage in the northwestern United States connecting the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the northern Puget Sound. It passes between the Quimper Peninsula on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington. It defines the extreme northeast point of the Olympic Peninsula. The border between Jefferson and Island counties bisects the passage.

Though only 6 km (3.6 mi) wide at the narrowest point (between the Point Wilson and Admiralty Head lighthouses), it is through this passage that nearly all the seawater flows into and from Puget Sound during daily tidal variations. Tidal currents can reach six knots in the area northeast of Point Wilson.

Admiralty Inlet is the only passage through which nearly all sea vessels must pass to enter or leave Puget Sound. This fact led to the selection of Port Townsend on the Quimper Peninsula as the official port of entry for the Puget Sound region during the early days of commerce in the Puget Sound region. It also led to the federal decision in the late 1890s to construct Fort Worden, Fort Casey, and Fort Flagler around Admiralty Inlet as a "Triangle of Fire" for the protection of Puget Sound from a hostile fleet.

Today there is a continual stream through the inlet of maritime freight traffic to the major shipping ports at Seattle and Tacoma, and of United States Navy vessels to the Naval facilities on Puget Sound, Hood Canal, Possession Sound, and other saltwater bodies in the region. The Keystone-Port Townsend run of the Washington State Ferries crosses the inlet and serves as a link for Washington State Route 20.