Editing Commencement Bay

{{Short description|Bay of Puget Sound, location of Tacoma, Washington}}
{{About||the aircraft carrier class|Commencement Bay-class escort carrier|the lead ship of the class|USS Commencement Bay (CVE-105)}}
[[Image:Commencementbay.jpg|thumb|right|Commencement Bay, seen from the air facing west]]
'''Commencement Bay''' is a [[bay]] of [[Puget Sound]] in the [[U.S. state]] of [[Washington (state)|Washington]]. The city of [[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]] is located on the bay, with the [[Port of Tacoma]] occupying the southeastern end. A line drawn from [[Point Defiance Park|Point Defiance]] in the southwest to [[Browns Point, Washington|Browns Point]] in the northeast serves to mark the generally accepted division between the bay and the open sound. Commencement Bay has become home to one of the most active commercial ports in the world. The Port of Tacoma is the main port facility.

The [[Puyallup River]] is the largest freshwater stream emptying into the bay. Others include [[Ruston Creek]], [[Mason Creek]], [[Asarco Creek]], [[Puget Creek]], [[Hylebos Creek]], and [[Wapato Creek]].

==History==
[[File:MountTahoma.JPG|thumb|right|Artist rendering of [[Mount Rainier|Mt. Tacoma]] from Commencement Bay, 1888<ref>{{cite book |last=Winsey |first=H. J. |title=The Great Northwest |publisher=Northern News Co |location=St Paul, MN |year=1888 |page=frontispiece |no-pp=true }}</ref>]]
[[File:Commencement Bay, Tacoma, Washington, ca 1900 (HESTER 43).jpeg|thumb|right|Commencement Bay from Tacoma, circa 1900]]
[[File:Commencement Bay.jpg|right|thumb|Commencement Bay from downtown Tacoma]]

Lieutenant [[Charles Wilkes]] of the [[United States Exploring Expedition]] 
named Commencement Bay in 1841, commemorating the place where he started his survey of southern Puget Sound.<ref>{{cite book |last= Phillips |first= James W. |title= Washington State Place Names |url= https://archive.org/details/washingtonstatep00phil |url-access= registration |year= 1971 |publisher= University of Washington Press |isbn= 0-295-95158-3 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/washingtonstatep00phil/page/30 30]}}</ref>

The first Euro-American habitation on Commencement Bay was by Swede Nicolas Delin (b. ca. 1817). He built a water-powered sawmill in 1852 where a creek entered the head of the bay. A small community grew up around the operation, but the settlers evacuated during the [[Puget Sound War]] of 1855–56 and did not return.{{Citation needed|date=December 2007}}

In 1873 the [[Northern Pacific Railway]], the first [[transcontinental railroad]] in the northern United States, announced it would locate its terminus at Commencement Bay. When the railroad reached the bay in 1883 it caused a boom of development in Tacoma. The railroad facilities were located near the extensive tide flats by the mouth of the Puyallup River, about a mile from the original site of Tacoma. Not only did the tide flats provide level ground compared to the steep slopes surrounding the rest of the bay, but dredging work would quickly provide deep water access to the railyards and warehouses. A new town, called New Tacoma, quickly grew up by the railroad hub. "Old town" Tacoma and New Tacoma soon merged. Large land grants were provided to the Northern Pacific, including a significant part of the coast of Commencement Bay. Over time the city of Tacoma bought up this land.<ref>{{cite book |last= Dorpat |first= Paul |author2=Genevieve McCoy |title= Building Washington: A History of Washington State Public Works |year= 1998 |publisher= Tartu Publications |isbn= 0-9614357-9-8 |pages= 45–46}}</ref>

Originally the boundary between Pierce and King counties ran east from the mouth of the Puyallup River, splitting Commencement Bay between the two counties. In 1901 the border was changed, giving Pierce County the entire bay.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/statepages/Washington.html |title= Washington - Atlas of Historical County Boundaries |publisher= [[Newberry Library]] |access-date= 30 May 2011}}</ref>

''[[Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation|Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding]]'' operated out of the bay during World War 2 producing escort carriers and auxiliaries as one of the yards belonging to the [[Todd Shipyards|Todd Corporation]], which included a nearby yard on [[Harbor Island, Seattle]].

==Environmental issues==
For much of the 20th century a large smelting facility was operated by [[ASARCO]] on the shore of Commencement Bay near Point Defiance. The town of [[Ruston, Washington|Ruston]] surrounds the former ASARCO plant. Tailing waste was dumped into the bay, eventually forming a long peninsula. Today it is a project area within the Commencement Bay [[Superfund]] site.<ref>[http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/nplpad.nsf/e144fa5b179a8a0388256365007ef6eb/06e1c0cda0d11fc285256594007559fd?OpenDocument Commencement Bay, Nearshore/Tideflats], Environmental Protection Agency</ref>

The [[Thea Foss Waterway]], an arm of Commencement Bay near downtown Tacoma, was declared a Superfund site in 1983. In 1991, the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] announced that the St. Paul Waterway, once among the most contaminated parts of Commencement Bay, had been the first marine Superfund site in the nation to be cleansed of pollution.<ref>{{cite book |last= Dorpat |first= Paul |author2=Genevieve McCoy |title= Building Washington: A History of Washington State Public Works |year= 1998 |publisher= Tartu Publications |isbn= 0-9614357-9-8 |pages= 322}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Gnis|1504096|Commencement Bay}}
* [http://www.healthybay.org Citizens for a Healthy Bay]

{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|47.2897|-122.4580|display=title}}

[[Category:Bays of Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Landforms of Puget Sound]]
[[Category:Geography of Tacoma, Washington]]
[[Category:Bodies of water of Pierce County, Washington]]
[[Category:Superfund sites in Washington (state)]]