TACOMA

city, seat (1880) of Pierce county, western Washington, U.S., on Commencement Bay of Puget Sound, 30 miles (48 km) south of Seattle. The bay was the starting point (1841) of a U.S. surveying party led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who named it Commencement Bay. Settled in 1864, the site was laid out (1868) as Commencement City by General Morton M. McCarver; it was soon renamed Tacoma (the Indian name for Mount Rainier, 45 miles southeast). Sawmills and port facilities were established, and in 1873 the Northern Pacific Railway arrived and built a terminus called New Tacoma. The two communities merged and incorporated in 1883. Tacoma is a headquarters for lumber processing. Although its chief industries are still lumber-based, there are also shipyards, smelters, foundries, electrochemical plants, and food-processing factories. Docks and wharves line its waterfront. A gateway to Mount Rainier National Park, it is also connected to the Olympic Peninsula recreation areas via the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1950). (This suspension bridge replaced the famous original, which collapsed in 1940.) Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base are to the south. A replica of the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Nisqually (1833) is in Point Defiance Park. Tacoma is the seat of the University of Puget Sound (1888), the Pacific Lutheran University (1890), and two community colleges. The city also serves as headquarters for the Washington State Historical Society, whose museum overlooks Commencement Bay. Pop. (1990) city, 176,664; Tacoma PMSA, 586,203.