Ferries -- and the people who ride them -- are a distinguishing feature in the Pacific Northwest lifestyle, and no visit to Puget Sound is complete without a trip on a Washington State Ferry. Puget Sound boasts the largest water-based public transit in the United States with over twenty-seven million passengers annually experiencing the uniqueness of traveling on Washington State Ferries. After 150 years of transformation and growth, the ferry system is moving in the direction of major changes. This timely book, Puget Sound Ferries: From Canoe to Catamaran links its colorful past with its possible future.
Here at last is the first comprehensive, lavishly illustrated, chronicle of the ferries. Beginning with the natural history of Puget Sound, the book traces the evolution of the ferry system -- the canoes chartered from indigenous Native Americans on the waters they called Whulge, the steamboats, the Mosquito Fleet, the Black Ball Line, the Evergreen Fleet and a full chapter devoted to the Kalakala. The authors survey individual vessels, the environmental issues surrounding them, the politics of ferries and the future potential for ferry transportation on Puget Sound. "A Commuter's Diary" includes details that are whimisical at times, which daily travelers will undoubtedly recognize and enjoy. Added bonuses are images of ferries in art and a chapter devoted to the histories of Puget Sound businesses and organizations.
Drawing on personal diaries, the text is punctuated with colorful anecdotes about the people of the eras -- early explorers George Vancouver and James Swan, Indian entrepreneur the "Duke of York" and even the ancestors of singer Bing Crosby -- told in a nontechnical, reader-friendly style.
