Editing Street layout of Seattle (section)

==Addressing==
Street addresses in Seattle (and throughout much of King County) follow a uniform numbering plan. On roads that run north and south [generally called an ''Avenue''], odd numbered addresses are on the west side and even numbered addresses are on the east side. On roads that run east and west [generally called a ''Street''], odd numbered addresses are on the south side and even numbered addresses are on the north side. The address is based on its location relative to the grid (not relative to the location of the beginning of each separate road, or its nearest intersection) with the last two digits consecutively incrementing with the grid and the leading digits designating the location on the grid.<ref name="Samson" />

Some [[mnemonic]]s are helpful here:
* '''ST'''reets run ea'''ST''' and we'''ST'''
* ave'''N'''ue'''S''' run '''N'''orth and '''S'''outh
* '''E'''ve'''N''' numbered addresses are on the '''E'''ast and '''N'''orth side of the road (which is likely called a ''street'' or ''avenue'')

The name ''32nd Avenue NE'' applies to several physically discontinuous street segments running along approximately the same line of the grid. One of these segments runs from NE 75th Street to NE 80th Street, crossed only by NE 77th Street; its two blocks are the 7500 block and the 7700 block. Buildings on that street between 75th and 77th would have four-digit addresses beginning with 75; buildings above 77th would have four-digit addresses beginning with 77. If there is such an address as 7764 32nd Avenue NE, then it is on the east side of the street rather far up the 7700 block, and if there is a 7765 it will be approximately across the street from 7764.

North of the ship canal in Seattle, and north of NE 140th St in East King County, grid numbers are spread in increments by 20 per mile (which works out to one numerical block per minute when walking at 3 miles per hour). In much of the rest of King County (south of NE 140th St, and east of 68th Ave NE at the north end of Lake Washington), grid numbers are spread in increments 16 per mile (which works out to 10 per kilometer). Due to the regular spacing of street numbers, approximate distances between two points on the grid can be easily calculated.

A few older cities within King County have their own distinct numbering plan, centered on their own historic downtown areas, including much of Renton and historic parts of Kirkland. In Kirkland, streets and avenues run perpendicular to the usual King County designations. In Renton (east of I-405), avenues are named for Washington State communities and arranged in alphabetical order (Aberdeen, Blaine, Camas, etc.).

In Seattle, the names of the twelve streets in the heart of the central business district are paired by their first letters. From south to north, they are: '''J'''efferson, '''J'''ames, '''C'''herry, '''C'''olumbia, '''M'''arion, '''M'''adison, '''S'''pring, '''S'''eneca, '''U'''niversity, '''U'''nion, '''P'''ike, '''P'''ine. One way to remember the order of the street pairs is with the [[mnemonic]] "Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest" (or "Pressure") (JCMSUP). <ref>{{cite web |last1=Bear |first1=Charla |title=Did Jesus Christ make Seattle under protest? |url=https://www.knkx.org/other-news/2012-04-27/did-jesus-christ-make-seattle-under-protest |website=knkx.org |date=April 27, 2012 |access-date=August 23, 2023}}</ref> {{sfn|Sale|1976|p=76}}<ref name="Samson" />

Only one street in Seattle, Madison Street, runs uninterrupted from the [[sea water|salt water]] of [[Puget Sound]] in the west to the [[fresh water]] of [[Lake Washington]] in the east. The unusual orientation and contiguous nature of this street dates back to a time when it was a direct route to a [[Lake Washington ferries|cross-lake ferry]] between [[Madison Park, Seattle|Madison Park]] and [[Kirkland, Washington|Houghton]] on the east side of Lake Washington. A cable car once operated on Madison Street from downtown Seattle to the ferry terminal at Madison Park, and the ferry route constituted an almost linear continuation of the street across the lake. Other historical cable cars ran along Yesler Way, Jackson Street, Queen Anne Avenue—"The Counterbalance", and 1st Avenue-2nd Avenue).<ref name=Crowley>{{Harvnb|Crowley|2000}}</ref>  No street, excluding [[Interstate 5 (Washington)|Interstate 5]] and [[Washington State Route 99|State Route 99]]&mdash;both [[freeway]]s in whole or in part&mdash;runs without interruption from the northern to the southern city limits.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}  This is largely the result of Seattle's [[topography]]. Split by the [[Duwamish River]] and the [[Lake Washington Ship Canal]], containing four lakes within the city limits, and boasting deep ravines and at least [[Seven hills of Seattle|seven hills]]<ref>The landscape was carved by the [[Vashon glacier]] some 14,000 years ago. {{Harvnb|Anderson|2001}}.</ref> there are few more-or-less straight routes where such a road could reasonably be built, even allowing for the short bridge or two.