Commencement Bay

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Commencement Bay is the body of water on which Tacoma, Washington is located. A line drawn from Point Defiance in the west to Browns Point in the east serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound. Part of Washington's inland bay Puget Sound, it has become home to one of the most active commercial ports in the world.

The Puyallup River is the main freshwater stream emptying into the bay. Others include Ruston Creek, Mason Creek, Asarco Creek, Puget Creek, Hylebos Creek, and Wapato Creek.

Downtown Tacoma and Commencement Bay in the background (on the right)

Lieutenant Charles Wilkes (1798–1877) of the U.S. Navy named Commencement Bay in 1841 to commemorate where he started his survey of Puget Sound.

The first Euro-American habitation on Commencement Bay was by Swede Nicolas Delin (b. ca. 1817). He built a water-powered sawmill in 1852 where a creek entered the head of the bay. A small community grew up around the operation, but the settlers evacuated during the Indian War of 1855–56 and they did not return.

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