| Bainbridge Island, Washington | |
|---|---|
| — City — | |
| Eagle Harbor | |
| Location of Bainbridge Island, Washington | |
| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Washington |
| County | Kitsap |
| Area | |
| • Total | 65.5 sq mi (169.7 km2) |
| • Land | 27.6 sq mi (71.5 km2) |
| • Water | 37.9 sq mi (98.2 km2) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 23,025 |
| • Density | 735.6/sq mi (284.0/km2) |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 98110 |
| Area code(s) | 206 |
| FIPS code | 53-03736[1] |
Bainbridge Island is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, United States, and the name of the island in Puget Sound on which the city is situated. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census.
In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine named Bainbridge Island the second-best place to live in the United States.[2]
The local newspapers are the weekly Bainbridge Island Review and the daily Kitsap Sun.
Contents |
In 1792 George Vancouver spent several days with his ship HMS Discovery anchored off Restoration Point at the southern end of Bainbridge Island while boat parties surveyed other parts of Puget Sound. Vancouver spent a day investigating Rich Passage, Port Orchard, and Sinclair Inlet. He failed to find Agate Passage and so his maps show Bainbridge Island as a peninsula. Vancouver named Restoration Point on May 29, the anniversary of the English Restoration, in honor of King Charles II.[3]
In 1841, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes visited the island while surveying the Northwest. Lt. Wilkes named the island after Commodore William Bainbridge, commander of the frigate U.S.S. Constitution in the War of 1812. Bainbridge Island was originally a center for the logging and shipbuilding industries. The island was known for huge and accessible cedars, which were especially in demand for ships' masts. The original county seat of Kitsap County was at Port Madison on the north end of the island.
The first generation of Japanese immigrants, the Issei, came in 1883. During World War II, Japanese-American residents of Bainbridge Island were the first to be sent to internment camps, an event commemorated by the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, which opened in 2011.[4] They were held by the U.S. government through the duration of the war for fear of espionage. Many Filipinos who assisted the Japanese farmers were left to operate the strawberry fields, which they did successfully. Filipino farmers went north to locate First Nations families to work in the fields. Many romances arose from the berry fields and the birth of the Indo-Pinos emerged.
The city of Bainbridge Island has occupied the entire island since February 28, 1991, when the former City of Winslow (around 1.5 square miles (3.9 km2) of land on Eagle Harbor, incorporated August 9, 1947) annexed the rest of the island. Since the 1960s, Bainbridge Island has become an increasingly affluent bedroom community of Seattle, a 35-minute ride away on the Washington State Ferries. The community has been especially concerned with preserving green space and keeping a tight control over development, both residential and commercial. The Bainbridge Island Land Trust, city and park district are instrumental in maintaining island open space.
In 2001, Bainbridge Island Little League were represented in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania at the Little League World Series.
Sports programs are highly successful. The island's high school lacrosse team is known for numerous state titles, the most recent coming on May 19, 2007 over rival Mercer Island.[5] The island's high school sailing team has been the reigning Northwest Interscholastic Sailing Association[6] district double handed team racing champions for the past five seasons and is ranked 12th in the nation.[7] In 2009 the Bainbridge High School Fastpitch team won the Washington 3A State Title. Despite the doubts, the team (having lost many key players) went all the way back to the championship game in 2010.
Bainbridge Island is located at (47.655260, -122.535083).[8]
Bainbridge Island was formed during the last ice age—13,000 to 15,000 years ago—when the 3,000-foot-thick (910 m) Vashon Glacier scraped out the Puget Sound and Hood Canal basins.
Bainbridge Island is located within the cool Puget Sound Basin, east of the Kitsap Peninsula and west of the City of Seattle. The island is approximately five miles (8 km) wide and ten miles (16 km) long, encompassing nearly 17,778 acres (71.95 km2), and is one of the larger islands in Puget Sound.
Bainbridge Island shorelines border the main body of Puget Sound, a large protected embayment, Port Orchard Bay, and two high-current tidal passages, Rich Passage and Agate Pass. The island is characterized by an irregular coastline of approximately 53 miles (85 km), with numerous bays and inlets and a significant diversity of other coastal land forms, including spits, bluffs, dunes, lagoons, cuspate forelands, tombolos, tide flats, streams and tidal deltas, islands, and rocky outcrops.
Prominent land and coastal features include:
On the Kitsap Peninsula, Bremerton and Poulsbo lie across the Port Orchard channel to the west, and the city of Port Orchard lies across Rich Passage to the south.
The island is quite hilly and is known for its popular 'Chilly Hilly' bicycle ride held every year in February. This ride has been the unofficial start to the bicycling season in the Pacific Northwest since 1975.
Bainbridge Island is connected to the Kitsap Peninsula by the Agate Pass Bridge carrying SR 305 over Agate Passage. The only other public way off the island is by Washington State Ferries service from Winslow in Eagle Harbor to Colman Dock (Pier 52) in Seattle.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of has a total area of 65.5 square miles (169.7 km2). 27.6 square miles (71.5 km2) of it is land and 37.9 square miles (98.2 km2) of it (57.87%) is water.
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1990 | 13,081 |
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| 2000 | 20,308 | 55.2% | |
| 2010 | 23,025 | 13.4% | |
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 20,308 people, 7,979 households, and 5,784 families residing in the city. The population density was 735.6 inhabitants per square mile (284.0/km2). There were 8,517 housing units at an average density of 308.5 per square mile (119.1/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 92.88% White, 0.28% African American, 0.62% Native American, 2.40% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 0.75% from other races, and 2.96% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos, of any race, were 2.17% of the population.
There were 7,979 households out of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.1% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. 22.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.98.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.7% under the age of 18, 3.6% from 18 to 24, 23.8% from 25 to 44, 33.1% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.0 males.
According to a 2007 estimate,[9] the median income for a household in the city was $88,243, and the median income for a family was $108,605. Males had a median income of $65,853 versus $42,051 for females. The per capita income for the city was $37,482. About 3.0% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.8% of those under age 18 and 3.3% of those age 65 or over.
Bainbridge Island is a stronghold for the Democratic Party. In the 2004 Presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 72.87% of the vote to Republican George W. Bush's 25.58%[2]. In 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain by a margin of 77.79% to 20.79%[3].
In the 2009 election, Bainbridge Island passed Referendum 71, the "Everything but Marriage" gay rights bill, with 79.40% of the vote [4]. It received 53.15% statewide. Bainbridge Island was one of the few municipalities in the state where the measure outperformed Obama.
In the 2008 Democratic primary (which in Washington state was not used for delegate appointment), Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton by a margin of 67.8% to 29.7%[5]. This was Obama's second-best performance in an incorporated municipality in the state, behind Yarrow Point. In the earlier caucus, Obama received 79.3% of delegates, Clinton received 19.8%, and 0.1% were uncommitted [6].
In Michael Crichton's Disclosure, Bainbridge Island is the home of protagonist Tom Sanders.
In That Thing You Do!, Guy Patterson and Faye Patterson (nee Dolan) move to Bainbridge Island after the end of the main story and raise their four children, as well as start a music conservatory.[24]
Bainbridge has the following sister cities:
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