Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tacoma_downtown_at_night.jpg
Author: pfly


Tacoma is a city in Pierce County, Washington. It is a port city on Puget Sound. Tacoma has a population of about 200,000 (2011 estimate), making it the third largest city in Washington, the second largest in the Puget Sound area after Seattle, which is 32 miles (51 km) to the southeast. It is also 31 miles (50 km) from Olympia, the state capital of Washington.

Tacoma, Washington, with Mount Rainier in the background
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainier_Port.jpg
Author: Broran28


Tacoma was named after Mount Rainier, which was originally known as Mount Tacoma. The mountain, within Mount Rainier National Park, is just 58 miles (93 km) to the northwest of the city.

Until the arrival of Europeans, the Tacoma area was inhabited by the Puyallup people, a tribe of Native Americans that settled in the delta of the Puyallup River. The initial settlement here was established in 1852 when a Swede named Nicolas Delin built a sawmill in the area.

The Henry & Birdella Rhodes House, Tacoma
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_and_Birdella_Rhodes_House.jpg
Author: Ben Cody


In 1873, the site was selected as the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, largely due to its geographical location at the head of Commencement Bay, enabling goods to be transported from ship to trains and vice versa. The city was incorporated on 12 November,k 1875.

After a long period of decline, Tacoma received a boost with a number of restoration projects to revive the downtown area. This resulted in the opening of a number of sights within downtown Tacoma, creating a vibrant cultural scene for the area.

Camp 6 Logging Museum
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Camp_Six_Logging_Museum_2.jpg
Author: Ben Cody

Visiting Tacoma, Washington

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), also called the Sea-Tac Airport, is the main gateway to Tacoma by flight. The airport has connections with major cities in North America, Europe and East Asia.

If you're driving, take Interstate 5 from the south or Interstate 90 from the east. The I-90 is heading for Seattle, so you need to turn off at Exit 25 and continue on State Route 18 to reach Tacoma.

Places of Interest in Tacoma, Washington

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.