Lake Washington

Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south, and Kenmore on the north, and encloses Mercer Island. The lake is fed by the Sammamish River at its north end and the Cedar River at its south. Lake Washington received its present name in 1854 after Thomas Mercer suggested it be named after George Washington, as the new Washington Territory had been named the year before. Earlier names for the lake include the Duwamish name Xacuabš (Lushootseed: literally "xacu" great-amount-of-water + "abš" people), which referred to peoples who stayed along the coastline of Lake Washington, as well as Lake Geneva by Isaac N. Ebey; Lake Duwamish in railroad surveys under Governor Isaac Stevens; At-sar-kal in a map sketched by engineer Abiel W. Tinkham; and the Chinook Jargon name, "Hyas Chuck," or "It-Kow-Chug" 'big lake'. The lake provides boating and sport fishing opportunities. Some fish species found in its waters include sockeye salmon, coho salmon, Chinook salmon, rainbow trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, and black crappie. Lake Washington has two passenger seaplane bases: Kenmore Air Harbor on its north end; and Will Rogers – Wiley Post Memorial Seaplane Base on its south end, adjacent to Renton Municipal Airport. A ribbon lake, Lake Washington is long, narrow and finger-like. Ribbon lakes are excavated by glaciers. As the Puget lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet flowed south near the end of the Late Pleistocene, it met bands of harder and softer rock. Erosion of the softer rock was faster and a linear depression was created in the flow direction. When the glacier melted, the lake filled with the meltwater, which was retained by moraine deposits. A dam can also be created by the bands of harder rock either side of the softer rock.