Washington (state), in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the south by Oregon, on the east by Idaho, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Washington is the only state named for a U.S. president. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state on November 11, 1889. Washington has beautiful glaciated mountains and dense forests in the west, and a vast expanse of golden grainland in the eastern section of the state. Olympia is the capital of Washington. The state’s largest city, Seattle, is an important port and a gateway to East Asia and the Arctic North. However, it is the Columbia River, which carves its way down through the central part of the state before turning westward toward the Pacific Ocean, that is Washington’s most important resource.

The Columbia River is the greatest source for potential and actual hydroelectric waterpower in the United States. The construction of such great dams as Grand Coulee, Chief Joseph, and The Dalles to harness the power of this mighty river has revolutionized the state’s economy and wrought startling changes in its landscape. The Columbia’s water provides electric power for industry, most of which has come into the state during and since World War II (1939-1945), and irrigation for agriculture, especially in the drier region east of the Cascade Range, where semiarid desert land has been transformed into highly productive ranchland and farms. Washington is known as the Evergreen State, for its extensive forests of evergreen trees.

Washington, the 19th largest state of the United States, has an area of 182,949 sq km (70,637 sq mi), including 4,002 sq km (1,545 sq mi) of inland water, and 6,503 sq km (2,511 sq mi) of coastal waters over which the state has jurisdiction. The state has an extreme length, from east to west, of 607 km (377 mi) and a maximum width, from north to south, of 385 km (239 mi). The mean elevation is about 500 m (1,700 ft).

Washington can be divided into four major natural regions, or physiographic provinces, each of which is part of one of the larger geographic regions, or physiographic divisions, of the western United States. These four natural regions are, from west to east, the Pacific Border province, the Sierra-Cascade province, or Cascade Mountains, the Columbia Plateau, and the Northern Rocky Mountains. The Sierra-Cascade province and the Pacific Border province are subdivisions of the Pacific Mountain System. The Northern Rocky Mountains are a subdivision of the Rocky Mountain System, and the Columbia Plateau belongs to the broad region between the Rocky and Pacific mountain systems known as the Intermontane Plateaus.

The Pacific Border province, in western Washington, includes the Olympic Mountains and Willapa Hills, which are the Washington section of the Coast Ranges, and the lowlands of the Puget Trough. The Olympic Mountains, located in northwestern Washington on the Olympic Peninsula, reach a maximum elevation of 2,428 m (7,965 ft) at Mount Olympus. However, because they rise from a dense coniferous rain forest just above sea level, they are among the most impressive peaks in the United States. The Willapa Hills, located farther south, are generally less than 900 m (less than 3,000 ft) in elevation, less densely forested, and less rugged than the Olympic Mountains.

The lowlands of the Puget Trough are part of a broad structural depression between the Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range. The northern part of the trough has been inundated by the sea to form Puget Sound; the southern part is occupied by sections of the Chehalis, Cowlitz, and Columbia river valleys.

The Sierra-Cascade province extends almost due north and south across central Washington. It has a general elevation in the north of from 1,800 to 2,400 m (6,000 to 8,000 ft), but several peaks in the south, all of them relics of extinct volcanoes, rise considerably above this level. They include Mount Rainier, which rises to 4,392 m (14,410 ft) and is the highest point in Washington; Mount Adams (3,742 m/12,276 ft); and Mount Saint Helens (2,550 m/8,365 ft), which in 1980 erupted spectacularly, tearing 400 m (1,300 ft) in elevation from the peak and sending billows of ash across the state and eastward into Idaho and Montana. The western slopes of the mountains are wet and heavily forested. The east-facing slopes are cut off from rain-bearing winds and are much drier. The higher elevations are covered by glaciers and permanent snowfields.

The Columbia Plateau is a rolling, semiarid, and prairie-like region in southeastern Washington. In the southeast, just north of the Snake River, is the large wheat-growing dunelike area of the Palouse River section. West of the Palouse lie the Scablands, or Channeled Scablands, an almost barren lava plateau that was channeled, or carved, into coulees, or deep canyons, by glacial meltwaters at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. The largest of the canyons are Grand Coulee and Moses Coulee. Occupying the extreme southeastern part of the Columbia Plateau are the Blue Mountains, which range up to 2,100 m (7,000 ft).

The Northern Rocky Mountains, in northeastern Washington, average from 900 to 2,100 m (3,000 to 7,000 ft) in height and are mostly forested. The principal range of the Northern Rockies in Washington is the Kettle River Range. Its tallest peaks are Copper Butte (2,175 m/7,135 ft) and Snow Peak (2,165 m/7,103 ft).

Washington has an overall coastline of only 253 km (157 mi) and a detailed coastline, which includes the shoreline of all bays, indentations, and islands, of 4,870 km (3,026 mi). The principal indentation is Puget Sound, which is connected with the Pacific Ocean by the Strait of Juan de Fuca. More than 300 islands, including the San Juan Islands, and a number of rocky protuberances, stud the sound and confine navigation to defined channels. Other major indentations are Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Long sandy beaches border the southwestern coast between the bays. The ocean side of the Olympic Peninsula is bordered by rugged cliffs and headlands.

All of Washington’s rivers drain toward the Pacific Ocean. The most important is the Columbia River, which enters Washington from British Columbia. The river is navigable by oceangoing vessels as far upstream as Vancouver, and by barge to Pasco, with continued navigation on the Snake River to Lewiston, Idaho. Principal tributaries are the Pend Oreille, Spokane, Okanogan, Methow, Wenatchee, Yakima, Snake, Lewis, and Cowlitz rivers.

A number of smaller streams drain the western sections of the state. They include the Skagit, Stillaguamish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Cedar, Puyallup, and Nisqually, which drain into Puget Sound, and the Quinault, Chehalis, and Willapa, which drain into the Pacific.

More than 8,000 lakes and ponds are scattered over the state; most of the largest are impoundments of hydroelectric dams. The largest artificial lake is Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, reaching for 243 km (151 mi) on the Columbia River.

The crest of the Cascade Range divides Washington into two distinct climatic regions. The area west of the Cascades, which is exposed throughout the year to rain-bearing winds from the Pacific Ocean, has a temperate marine type of climate that is characterized by mild wet winters and cool summers. The Cascades prevent the moist air blowing in from the Pacific from reaching eastern Washington. The Rocky Mountains on the eastern border also represent a climatic barrier. As a result, the severe winter storms that sweep the Northern Plains States do not reach Washington. Eastern Washington is much drier than western Washington, and its summers are hotter and its winters are colder.

Average January temperatures in eastern Washington range from less than -7°C (20°F) to -1°C (30°F) and often drop down to -18°C (0°F). January averages in western areas range from less than 0°C (32°F) at the higher elevations to more than 4°C (40°F) along the Pacific Coast. July averages in the east are from 18° to 24°C (65° to 75°F). However, daytime temperatures are often above 32°C (90°F). By contrast, July averages in the west are mostly in the vicinity of 16°C (60°F). The western coast has mild temperatures throughout most of the year, with relatively few days below freezing.

The Olympic Mountains receive more precipitation than any other area in the mid-continental United States, often more than 3,600 mm (140 in) yearly, much of it snow. The Cascades receive almost as much, and more than 7,600 mm (300 in) has been known to fall on the mountain peaks in one year. Precipitation in Seattle, in the Puget Trough, averages 940 mm (37 in) per year, while the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range and much of the east receive only about 380 mm (about 15 in). In parts of the Columbia Plateau in south central Washington, an average of only about 150 mm (about 6 in) falls annually.

Because of the extreme climatic differences between eastern and western Washington, the growing season ranges from 100 days in some of the mountain areas to 280 days along parts of the Pacific shore. In eastern Washington the growing season is from 120 to 200 days. In the Puget Trough the growing season is from 160 to 240 days.

Gray-brown podzolic soils cover most of western Washington and sections of the Northern Rocky Mountains. These soils support good stands of coniferous forest and lush pasturelands, but when cultivated, they require heavy applications of lime and artificial fertilizers.

Soils characteristic of semiarid areas cover the drier eastern section of the state. These soils are generally rich in mineral plant nutrients. Even thin soils, known as lithosols, which cover the eastern flanks of the Cascade Range, provide excellent crops of apples and other fruits when irrigation water is applied.

Forests cover 51 percent of the total land area of Washington. Most of the forests are located in the mountainous sections of western and northeastern Washington, where precipitation is sufficient to support forest growth.

The Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, western red cedar, and western hemlock, which is the state tree, dominate the forests of western Washington. They have great commercial value. In the dense rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula, Douglas firs grow more than 60 m (200 ft) high and 3 m (10 ft) in diameter. Hardwoods, such as the Oregon, or big-leaf, maple, vine maple, red alder, madrone, black cottonwood, and Oregon ash, grow near streams.

The forested regions of eastern Washington are dominated by the ponderosa, or yellow, pine and at elevations above 750 m (2,500 ft) by the western white pine and the western larch. In the higher forests of the Olympic and Cascade mountains are found the lowland, noble, and alpine firs, whitebark and lodgepole pines, Engelmann spruce, mountain hemlock, and Alaska cedar. Among the small trees and shrubs of Washington are the dogwood, Pacific yew, huckleberry, and salal.

Mosses and ferns cover the forest floor. The wood sorrel, wild vanilla, fireweed, trillium, and anemone are found in the lower mountain forests, as is the coast rhododendron, which is the state flower. Among the flowers of the higher mountain, or alpine, meadows are the avalanche lily, phlox, lupine, bistort, and piper bluebell. Flowers found in the open fields of eastern Washington include the white hellebore, adder’s-tongue, Indian paintbrush, and brown-eyed Susan.

The rangelands of the Columbia Plateau are arid and sparsely vegetated. Shrubs and low grasses predominate, with sagebrush, rabbit brush, bitterbrush, Idaho fescue, and bluebunch wheatgrass being the most common plants. Where overgrazing has damaged the range, cheatgrass is found.

The remote wilderness areas of Washington provide a home for many large mammals. Great herds of Roosevelt, or Olympic, elk, which is the largest of the wapiti, roam the Olympic Peninsula. White-tailed deer and mule deer, as well as black bears and mountain goats, are also found in Washington. Predators include the cougar, or mountain lion, Canada lynx, coyote, and red fox. Mammals such as the killer whale and harbor seal are found in coastal waters. Among the smaller mammals are raccoon, beaver, skunks, mink, and otter. Rodents include squirrels, chipmunks, porcupines, and, at high elevations, marmots.

Birds found in Washington’s forests include the crow, raven, Oregon jay, western tanager, thrush, kingfisher, ruffed grouse, and the willow goldfinch, which is the state bird. Birds of prey include the bald eagle and several species of hawks and owls. Among the migratory waterfowl are the Canada goose, canvasback, black brant, cinnamon teal, and wood duck. Washington’s seabirds include the Heermann’s gull, glaucous-winged gull, Leach’s petrel, and Brandt’s cormorant. The great blue heron and the loon are found on inland waters.

Many reptiles and amphibians are found in Washington, including turtles, lizards, salamanders, toads, frogs, garter snakes, and bull snakes. The poisonous prairie rattlesnake is occasionally found in eastern Washington.

Five species of salmon are found in Washington’s waters, including the king, or chinook, the sockeye, the pink, the chum, and the coho. Steelhead, a sea-going rainbow trout, and Dolly Varden are native to the state, and largemouth and smallmouth black bass are also found. The white sturgeon is the large freshwater fish found in the Columbia River. Smelt, halibut, red snapper, tuna, albacore, and pilchard are found in the ocean waters of the Pacific, and clams and oysters are common along the Pacific Coast and the beaches of Puget Sound.

The major conservation activities in Washington are soil conservation, fish and wildlife management, forest management, land reclamation, and flood control. Among the federal agencies with conservation programs in the state are the Forest Service, which administers 3.7 million hectares (9.2 million acres) of national forest land, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the bureaus of Reclamation, Land Management, and Indian Affairs, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The Department of Ecology is the lead state agency on environmental issues.

In 2003 the state had 47 hazardous waste sites on a national priority list for cleanup due to their severity or proximity to people. Between 1995 and 2000, the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the environment was reduced by 14 percent.

Fur trapping drew the first Europeans to the region that was to become Washington. As settlement began in the mid-19th century, agriculture and lumbering gradually developed around Puget Sound and in some outlying areas. A major stimulus to the development of these economies was the construction of transcontinental and north-south railroads in the late 19th century. By the end of the century, shipping had become important, and industries developed around processing the region’s resources and transporting them to markets. In the 20th century, the dams constructed on the Columbia River provided irrigation water for the dry farmlands of the east and furnished cheap electric power. Manufacturing began its rapid growth in the state during World War II (1939-1945), when the federal government established defense industries in the state. By the 1990s, the economy was diverse, led by manufacturing, agriculture, and international trade.

People holding jobs in Washington numbered 3,097,000 in 2002. The largest share of them, 37 percent, were workers in the diverse service sector, such as computer programmers or those in the restaurant trade. Another 24 percent were employed in wholesale or retail trade; 5 percent in federal, state, or local government, including those in the military; 13 percent in manufacturing; 5 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 6 percent in construction; 7 percent in transportation or public utilities; and 3 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing. The mining industry employed only 0.1 percent of the labor force. In 2002, 18 percent of Washington’s workers were unionized.

Farmland covers 6.4 million hectares (15.7 million acres), or more than one-third of the state. Crops are grown on 50 percent of the farmland; the rest is devoted to range, pasture, and forest. Crop sales account for 67 percent of annual farm income. Farms average 163 hectares (403 acres), but this figure masks the difference between huge grain farms of more than 400 hectares (1,000 acres) in the east and tiny plots used for greenhouses and nurseries in the Puget Sound area.

Eastern Washington specializes in a cash-grain type of farming, growing spring and winter wheat and barley. This pattern gives way in the northeastern counties to livestock raising and westward, in the irrigated lands of the Columbia Basin and the eastern slopes of the Cascades, to fruit and nut growing and livestock. The valley of the Yakima River, a tributary of the Columbia, is an irrigated oasis of great productivity, outstanding for its number of hogs, cattle, and sheep and for its bountiful crops of potatoes, corn, hops, mint, peaches, grapes, cherries, apricots, and apples. A wine industry has also developed in this region. The land west of the Cascades is given over chiefly to dairying and the growing of fruits and vegetables, two activities that find a ready market in the cities of the Puget Sound area.

Apples account for almost one-fifth of all annual sales and Washington leads the nation in commercial apple production. It ranks second in production of potatoes, third in winter wheat, and fourth in barley. It also ranks first in such diverse crops as hops, spearmint, and field peas. Hay, corn, asparagus, and onions are also important field crops. Nearly all the temperate-latitude fruits, including pears, cherries, grapes, strawberries, peaches, raspberries, and plums, are grown in abundance. Alfalfa is grown for seed, as are many types of lawn grass, especially in the Spokane Valley.

In 1997 cattle and milk production together accounted for about one-quarter of the state’s farm income. Dairying is carried on in the Puget Sound lowland, close to the cities that have a big demand for milk. Poultry is also raised in this area. Sheep raising is concentrated in the southeastern section of the state. Cattle ranching is confined to eastern Washington. Uplands are used primarily for summer range, but in the river valleys there is grazing throughout the year.

The fishing industry is of considerable importance, especially to western Washington. The state is among the leaders in the nation in the production of salmon, and the total value of its fish catch was $134.2 million in 2000. Fishing crews operate on the lower reaches of the Columbia River, the waters of Puget Sound, the coastal waters off the Olympic Peninsula, and as far away as Bristol Bay in Alaska. The chief species caught are salmon, albacore, herring, rockfish, cod, flounder, Dungeness crabs, and ocean perch.

Forests cover two-fifths of the state’s total land area, and much of this land is commercial timberland. The Cascades divide the state into two broad types of timberland, characterized by Douglas firs to the west and ponderosa pines to the east. The Douglas fir is the most abundant single species, and Washington has about a fifth of all the Douglas fir in the country. It is the leading species for lumber, accounting for more than a third of the state’s total. The hemlock and ponderosa pine are also important.

Washington ranks second among the states in the production of lumber, following only Oregon. The largest timber harvests come from the counties between Puget Sound and the Columbia River and from those between the Pacific Coast and the Cascades. Until the 1950s, lumber ranked first among the state’s forest products, but since has been surpassed in importance by the production of pulp. Paper and lumber mills are located in valleys and on Puget Sound.

The timber industry in Washington underwent a difficult transition in the early 1990s. Environmental restrictions that were intended to preserve fish and wildlife habitat reduced the number of large, older trees available for cutting. Extensive harvests during peak years in the 1980s also limited supply. The result was the closure of many mills and a disruption in the economies of timber-dependent communities.

Washington’s mineral output is modest. Mining products with the highest value are sand and gravel used for construction, crushed stone, portland cement, gold, and magnesium metal. Other important minerals are clay, natural gemstones, and gypsum.

Among Washington’s industries by far the largest contributor to the economy is the manufacture of transportation equipment, primarily aircraft, although the industrial sector also includes companies building boats, trucks, and equipment for space exploration. Other industries, ranked by the value of their production, include food processors, chiefly those packaging seafoods, fruits, and vegetables and the makers of beverages; instrument manufactures, such as firms making navigation devices, electromedical equipment, and equipment used to measure electricity; wood manufactures, particularly mills making lumber and plywood; makers of machinery, including peripheral equipment for computers and equipment used in construction; pulp and paper manufactures; printers and publishers; and the primary metal industries, mainly aluminum plants.

Manufacturing is widely distributed throughout the state. The distribution is due to the availability of large quantities of hydroelectric power and to the setting of electricity rates in such a way as to prevent clustering of heavy power users, such as aluminum plants and pulp mills, at dam sites. Some industries were deliberately located away from urban areas. An example is the siting by the United States Department of Energy of its Hanford plutonium works and chemical plant, northwest of Richland.

The greatest concentration of industry, however, is in the western part of the state around Puget Sound. There are located the aircraft and aerospace industries, most of the aluminum-fabricating plants, boatyards and shipbuilding yards, clothing factories, furniture and chemical plants, pulp and plywood mills, and petroleum refineries.

The aerospace industry is the single most important industry in the state, and The Boeing Company, which was founded in Seattle in 1916, is the state’s largest employer. Dependence on one major industry made the state’s economy susceptible to cycles. For example, in the early 1970s, Boeing was forced to reduce its workforce from approximately 90,000 people to 38,000 because of a decline in airplane orders and a cutback in federal funds for experimental projects such as the development of the Supersonic Transport. The state experienced a severe recession as a result of the employment reductions. Since then manufacturing in the state has diversified, which helped prevent another recession when aerospace manufacturing declined for a period in the early 1990s.

The aluminum industry in Washington owes its development to hydroelectric power during the 1930s. By 1950 Washington was producing and processing about half the nation’s aluminum. However, expansion of the industry in other parts of the country has since reduced Washington’s share. Aluminum processing has attracted electrometal and electrochemical plants and small firms that fabricate aluminum and other metals.

The manufacture of forest products was Washington’s first major industry. Although its relative importance has diminished, it is still vital to the state economy. Washington ranks among the leading states in lumber and wood products. It also leads in the production of wood pulp and is an important producer of paper, plywood, and shingles and shakes. The manufacture of heavy lumbering equipment is also significant.

The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, at Bremerton, is the largest shipyard on the Pacific Coast. Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, and Bellingham also have dry docks for repairing and building ships. Small shipbuilding companies located in many Puget Sound ports build fishing and pleasure craft.

A great many food-processing plants have been established to process and market Washington’s produce. Spokane, Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver have flour mills. The processing of Washington’s various fruits, especially apples, and vegetable products is cen