Seattle " class="IPA">/si??t?l/) is a coastal port city and the largest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located in the state of Washington between an arm of the Pacific Ocean called Puget Sound and Lake Washington, in King County—of which it is the county seat—about 96 miles south of the Canada – United States border.
The Seattle area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years, but European settlement began only in the mid-19th century. The first permanent white settlers—Arthur A. Denny and those subsequently known as the Denny Party—arrived November 13, 1851. Early settlements in the area were called "New York-Alki" and "Duwamps." In 1853, Doc Maynard suggested that the main settlement be renamed "Seattle," an anglicized rendition of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes.
According to the Washington State Office of Financial Management's April 1, 2008 estimate, the city has a municipal population of 592,800, and a metropolitan area population of 3,424,441.
From 1869 until 1982, Seattle was known as the "Queen City." Seattle's current official nickname is the "Emerald City", the result of a contest held in the early 1980s; the reference is to the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the "Gateway to Alaska," "Rain City," and "Jet City", the latter from the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.
Seattle is the birthplace of grunge music and has a reputation for heavy coffee consumption; coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Tully's. There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafes. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University ranked Seattle the most literate city of America's sixty-nine largest cities in 2005 and 2006 and second most literate in 2007, after Minneapolis. Moreover, analysis conducted by the United States Census Bureau of 2003 survey data indicated that Seattle was the most educated large city in the U
