About Bainbridge Island
Its all about island living and other musings.
Bainbridge Island is located within the Puget Sound Basin and accessible by a scenic 30-minute ferry ride from Seattle, or via the Agate Pass Bridge located on the north end of the island. The island, which is a city in itself, consists of four main centers of commerce, the largest being Winslow, where the ferry from Seattle docks. Winslow offers shopping, dining, overnight accommodations, and museums (speaking of museums, I highly recommend making the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum your first stop when you visit). Lynwood Center/Pleasant Beach Village is located at the south end of the island and is host to shops, restaurants, an Inn (The Inn at Pleasant Beach) and the historic Lynwood Theatre. Fletcher Bay, also known as Island Center, is centrally located on the island and has a small grocery store and one restaurant, and finally, Rolling Bay, located on the east side of the island, boasts a small commercial center with stores, a café, a market and Bay Hay & Feed, which features its own small market, a nursery, gifts, feed, clothing and pet gear, its one-stop shopping at its best!
The island has a long and storied history which dates back 2,000 years and includes ancient tribal inhabitants (the most recent, the Suquamish Indian Tribe, led by Chief Kitsap, who ceded the island to the U.S. Government in 1855), there were also English explorers, American settlers, and Asian immigrants, whose arrivals began in the late 1700s when Captain George Vancouver sailed into the Sound in 1792.
Over the centuries, the island has been home to one of the world’s largest sawmills, a substantial shipbuilding industry, farming industries, and a U.S. Army fort (Fort Ward), which provided coastal defense for the Sound and the nearby naval shipyard (it was turned over to the U.S. Navy in 1938 and converted into a top-secret international radio listening station). Today, the island is home to approximately 24,000 residents and boasts a vibrant and diverse community of artists, writers, poets, woodworkers, sculptors, artisan wineries, a brewery, an organic distillery, and locally owned farms. The island also offers a variety of outdoor activities, including kayaking, boating, fishing, parks, trails, biking, golfing, pickleball (courts located at Battle Point Park)…the list goes on.
