Bellevue

Sister cities

• Hualien City
• Yao
• Liepāja
• Kladno

History

The Duwamish, whose main settlements were located in present-day Renton and Seattle, maintained a small outpost settlement called Satskal (SAH-tsah-kahl) along the Mercer Slough, south of present-day downtown Bellevue. It was from this village that an attack on the settlers of Elliott Bay was staged. The Duwamish also had a village near Factoria called 'pah-pah-DEEL'. Bellevue was first settled by European Americans in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and Aaron Mercer, who claimed homestead tracts several miles apart. Both moved away within a few years, and permanent residents did not arrive until 1879. By 1882, a community, consisting mostly of logging homesteaders, had established itself. By the early part of the 20th century, Bellevue had acquired a reputation as a weekend getaway destination for Seattle residents, who would arrive by ferry at Meydenbauer Bay and spend the day at nearby Wildwood Park. After the ferry landing was moved to Medina, however, tourism to Bellevue waned. To counter this decline, the Bellevue Strawberry Festival was conceived of in 1925, and by the 1930s it had grown to attract as many as 15,000 visitors. At the time, Bellevue was still a small town with around 2,000 residents. Prior to the opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, Bellevue was mostly rural farmland area with little development. Although it was small, developers were pushing to change that; in the 1920s, James S. Ditty predicted that it would become a city with a population of 200,000. He envisioned plans that included the bridging of Lake Washington and an area filled with golf courses and airports. Once the Murrow Memorial Bridge opened, access from Seattle improved, and the area began to evolve into a bedroom community. In 1942, the Bellevue Strawberry…

Geography

Bellevue lies between Lake Washington to the west and the smaller Lake Sammamish to the east. Much of Bellevue is drained by the Kelsey Creek watershed, whose source is located in the Larsen Lake and Phantom Lake green belt and whose outlet is near where Interstate 90 meets Lake Washington's eastern shore. The city is bisected by Interstate 405 running north–south, and the southern portion is crossed from west to east by Interstate 90. The State Route 520 freeway roughly delineates the upper reaches of Bellevue. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Like much of the Puget Sound lowland, Bellevue has a mild oceanic climate (Cfb). It also has frequent rain showers from October to May, with precipitation levels typically being over . On average, the hottest month is July, while January is the coldest. The wet season of 2017, defined as the period from October through April, saw a similar rainfall of .

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  163,952
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  129,961
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  127,638
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  121,225
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  113,639
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  102,424
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  89,919
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  86,665

Largest nearby schools

• Issaquah High School
  High · ISSAQUAH · 2,412 students · 22.8:1 ratio
• Eastlake High School
  High · Sammamish · 2,349 students · 21.4:1 ratio
• Redmond High School
  High · Redmond · 2,218 students · 21.1:1 ratio
• Skyline High School
  High · SAMMAMISH · 2,170 students · 22.8:1 ratio
• Lake Washington High School
  High · Kirkland · 2,015 students · 21:1 ratio
• Hazen Senior High School
  High · Renton · 1,871 students · 24:1 ratio
• Newport Senior High School
  High · Bellevue · 1,726 students · 19.8:1 ratio
• Juanita High School
  High · Kirkland · 1,695 students · 19.5:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2026-06-26
  11 km E of Carnation, Washington
• M 2.82 — 2026-06-26
  1 km SSE of Easton, Washington
• M 2.86 — 2026-06-08
  2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.84 — 2026-05-27
  4 km W of Wauna, Washington
• M 2.75 — 2026-04-11
  13 km NW of Cliffdell, Washington
• M 2.86 — 2026-03-11
  2 km W of Home, Washington