Washington State Ferries
Washington state maintains the largest fleet of passenger and auto ferries in the United States. These ferries serve communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands.The ferry system has its origins in the "Mosquito Fleet," a collection of small steamer lines serving the Puget Sound area during the early 20th century. By the beginning of the 1930s, two lines remained: the Puget Sound Navigation Company (known as the Black Ball Line) and the Kitsap County Transportation Company. A strike in 1935 forced the KCTC to close, leaving only the Black Ball Line.
Toward the end of the 1940s the Black Ball Line wanted to increase its fares, to compensate for increased wage demands from the ferry workers' unionss, but the state refused to allow this, and so the Black Ball Line itself shut down. In 1951, the state bought substantially all of Black Ball's ferry assets for $5 million. It only intended to run ferry service until cross-sound bridges could be built, but these were never approved, and the state Department of Transportation runs the system to this day.
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2 Current Passenger-Only Route 3 Washington State Counties Served 4 See Also 5 External Link |
Current Vehicle Routes
Current Passenger-Only Route
Washington State Counties Served
Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish
See Also
BC Ferries
Black Ball Line