Bainbridge Island, Washington

Bainbridge Island is an island in Puget Sound, and is an incorporated city in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. The population was 20,308 at the 2000 census.

In July of 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine named Bainbridge Island the second-best place to live in the United States. It is locally known for its affluence, natural beauty, political progressivism, and high proportion of architects and lawyers with jobs in downtown Seattle. The local newspapers are the Bainbridge Island Review (twice-weekly) and the Kitsap Sun (a daily that also produces a weekly tabloid, the Bainbridge Islander).

Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Bainbridge Island ranks 24th of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. It is also the highest rank achieved in Kitsap County.

History

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 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 ship's masts. The original county seat of Kitsap County was at Port Madison on the north end of the island. However, by the end of the 19th Century the island had been clear cut and the mills and shipyards slowly died off.

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 23, 1947) annexed the rest of the island. Bainbridge Island's claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of the sport of pickleball, as well as having the distinctions of sending the first Japanese-Americans to internment camps in World War II and enjoying the highest rate of return among the internees. Since the 1960s, Bainbridge Island has become a bedroom community of Seattle, a 35-minute ride away on the Washington State Ferries.

Geography

Bainbridge Island is located at (47.655260, -122.535083).

Bainbridge Island was formed during the last ice age -- 13,000 to 15,000 years ago -- when the 3000-foot thick Vashon Glacier scraped out the Puget Sound and Hood Canal basins.

Bainbridge Island is located within the Central Puget Sound Basin, east of the Kitsap Peninsula and west of the City of Seattle. The Island is approximately five miles wide and ten miles long, encompassing nearly 17,778 acres, or 28 square miles (73 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 passages, Rich Passage and Agate Passage. The island is characterized by an irregular coastline of approximately 53 miles, with numerous bays and inlets and a significant diversity of other coastal land forms, including spits, bluffs, dunes, lagoons, cuspate forelands, tombolos, tide flats, stream and tidal deltas, islands, and rocky outcrops.

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 1992.

Bainbridge Island is connected to the Kitsap Peninsula by a bridge carrying WA-305 over Agate Passage, and to Colman Dock in Downtown Seattle by Washington State Ferries service from Winslow in Eagle Harbor.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Bainbridge Island has a total area of 169.7 km² (65.5 mi²). 71.5 km² (27.6 mi²) of it is land and 98.2 km² (37.9 mi²) of it (57.87%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 20,308 people, 7,979 households, and 5,784 families residing in the city. The population density was 284.0/km² (735.6/mi²). There were 8,517 housing units at an average density of 119.1/km² (308.5/mi²). 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. Hispanic or Latino 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.

The median income for a household in the city was $70,110, and the median income for a family was $83,415. 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.

Politics

Despite its affluence, Bainbridge Island is a stronghold for liberal politics and the Democratic Party. In the 2004 presidential election, 73 percent of the votes in the city were cast for Democrat John Kerry. Bainbridge Island features 22 precincts, all of which gave Kerry at least a 2-to-1 victory over Republican incumbent George W. Bush. Bush failed to break thirty percent in all but two precincts. Kerry's vote margins ranged from a low of 66.49%-32.28% at the Wing Point precinct to a high of 78.45%-19.18% at the downtown Blue Heron precinct.

Points of interest

External links

Islands of Washington | Kitsap County, Washington | Cities in the Seattle metropolitan area | Bainbridge Island, Washington