Port Susan

Last updated May 02, 2019

Port Susan is a bay and strait located in the U.S. state of Washington. Part of the Whidbey Island Basin of Puget Sound, Port Susan is bounded by Camano Island to the west and the mainland to the east. The Stillaguamish River empties into the northern end of Port Susan. To the south, Port Susan connects with the rest of Puget Sound via Possession Sound and Saratoga Passage. A swampy waterway connects the northern end of Port Susan with Skagit Bay. This waterway also separates Camano Island from the mainland.

A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a type of smaller bay with a circular inlet and narrow entrance. A fjord is a particularly steep bay shaped by glacial activity.

Strait A naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water

A strait is a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water. Most commonly it is a channel of water that lies between two land masses. Some straits are not navigable, for example because they are too shallow, or because of an unnavigable reef or archipelago.

In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory and shares its sovereignty with the federal government. Due to this shared sovereignty, Americans are citizens both of the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons restricted by certain types of court orders. Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names.

History

In late May and early June 1792 George Vancouver's expedition explored Port Susan and gave it its current name. Most of Port Susan was surveyed by boats under Vancouver's officer Joseph Whidbey. On June 3, 1792, Vancouver held a formal ceremony taking possession of the region for Britain, at which time he named today's Saratoga Passage "Port Gardner", in honor of Vice-Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. He named Port Susan in honor of Lady Susan, Sir Alan's wife.^[1]

Captain George Vancouver was a British officer of the Royal Navy best known for his 1791–95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what are now the American states of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, as well as the province of British Columbia in Canada. He also explored the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia.

Joseph Whidbey FRS was a member of the Royal Navy who served on the Vancouver Expedition 1791–95, and later achieved renown as a naval engineer. He is notable for having been the first European to discover and chart Admiralty Island in the Alexander Archipelago in 1794.

Admiral Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner, was a British Royal Navy officer and peer of the realm. He was regarded by some as one of the Georgian era's most dashing frigate captains and, ultimately, a respected senior admiral.

Related Research Articles

Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island, in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Washington. It connects Skagit Bay, part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A pair of bridges known collectively as Deception Pass Bridge cross Deception Pass. The bridges were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Puget Sound is a sound along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and two minor connections to the open Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and Deception Pass and Swinomish Channel being the minor.

Whidbey Island island in the United States of America

Whidbey Island is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States. Whidbey is about 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington. The island forms the northern boundary of Puget Sound. It is home to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Island County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2010 census, its population was 78,506. Its county seat is Coupeville, while its largest city is Oak Harbor.

Camano Island is a large island in the Possession Sound portion of Puget Sound, located in Island County, Washington, between Whidbey Island and the mainland. The body of water separating Whidbey Island and Camano Island is called Saratoga Passage. Camano Island is separated from mainland Snohomish County by Davis Slough near the city of Stanwood. The island is reached via State Route 532 over the Camano Gateway Bridge in the northeast of the island.

Admiralty Inlet is a strait in the U.S. state of Washington connecting the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Puget Sound. It lies between Whidbey Island and the northeastern part of the Olympic Peninsula.

Strait of Georgia strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and Washington, United States

The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Pacific Ocean between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and the extreme northwestern mainland coast of Washington, United States. It is approximately 240 kilometres (150 mi) long and varies in width from 20 to 58 kilometres. Along with the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, it is a constituent part of the Salish Sea. Archipelagos and narrow channels mark each end of the Strait of Georgia, the Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands in the south, and the Discovery Islands in the north. The main channels to the south are Boundary Pass, Haro Strait and Rosario Strait, which connect the Strait of Georgia to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In the north, Discovery Passage is the main channel connecting the Strait of Georgia to Johnstone Strait. The strait is a major navigation channel on the west coast of North America, owing to the presence of the port of Vancouver, and also due to its role as the southern entrance to the intracoastal route known as the Inside Passage.

Port Orchard, also known as "Poor Tortured," is part of Washington state's Puget Sound, is the strait that separates Bainbridge Island on the east from the Kitsap Peninsula on the west. It extends from Liberty Bay and Agate Pass in the north to Sinclair Inlet and Rich Passage in the south. It was named in May 1792 by George Vancouver after Harry Masterman Orchard, ship's clerk of Vancouver's ship Discovery.

Point Partridge is the most westerly point of Whidbey Island, the largest island in Puget Sound. The point lies north of the Fort Ebey military reservation and south of West Beach. The primary importance of Point Partridge is as the northern and eastern reference point for the dividing line between Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The other reference is Point Wilson.

The Gardner Canal is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. Technically a side-inlet of the larger Douglas Channel, the Gardner Canal is still 90 km (56 mi) in length in its own right; total length of the waterways converging on the Douglas Channel is 320 km (200 mi) making it one of the largest fjord-complexes in the world. The entrance to the Gardner Canal is hidden behind Hawkesbury Island, and is accessed via Devastation Sound or Varney Passage which form the northeast and southeast flanks of that island. It was named in 1793 by George Vancouver in honour of his friend and former commander, Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner. One of his men, Joseph Whidbey, first charted it the same year.

Deception Pass Bridge is the common name for two, two-lane bridges on Washington State Route 20 connecting Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island in the U.S. state of Washington. It was a Washington State Highways project, and included project elements built by young workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps. Completion of the bridge was a factor in the decision to build Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and helped Oak Harbor flourish. The bridge is a commonly photographed landmark of the Puget Sound region.

Beckett Point is a small sand spit jutting out into northeastern Discovery Bay, about ten miles from the city of Port Townsend in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The Point is owned by the Beckett Point Fisherman's Club, which leases out approximately 100 homes. Many of the families have lived there for several generations, fishing salmon, crab, and shrimp.

Gedney Island is a private island in Possession Sound in Snohomish County, Washington, US. The island lies in Possession Sound between the mainland city of Everett, Washington, and the southern part of Whidbey Island. Gedney Island has a land area of 1.768 km² and a population of 13 people was reported as of the 2000 census.

Possession Sound is part of Puget Sound, located in the U.S. state of Washington between Whidbey Island and the coastline of Snohomish County approximately between the cities of Everett and Mukilteo. Possession Sound connects the main Puget Sound basin to the south with Saratoga Passage and Port Susan to the north. The Snohomish River flows into Possession Sound at Port Gardner Bay. Gedney Island, also called Hat Island, is located in Possession Sound.

Port Gardner is an inlet of Possession Sound on which the city of Everett, Washington is located. The Snohomish River flows into the bay.

The Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795) was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy. The British expedition circumnavigated the globe and made contact with five continents. The expedition at various times included between two and four vessels, and up to 153 men, all but six of whom returned home safely.

Saratoga Passage lies in Puget Sound between Whidbey Island and Camano Island.

Skagit Bay is a bay and strait located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of the Whidbey Island Basin of Puget Sound. The Skagit River empties into Skagit Bay. To the south, Skagit Bay connects with the rest of Puget Sound via Saratoga Passage and Possession Sound. The boundary between Saratoga Passage and Skagit Bay is between Polnell Point on Whidbey Island and Rocky Point on Camano Island. To the northwest, Skagit Bay connects to the Strait of Juan de Fuca via the narrow strait of Deception Pass. A third waterway, the Swinomish Channel, connects Skagit Bay with Padilla Bay to the north.

Puget Sound region Region around Puget Sound in Washington

The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the Olympic Mountains. It is characterized by a complex array of saltwater bays, islands, and peninsulas carved out by prehistoric glaciers.

References

↑ Roberts, John E. (2005). A Discovery Journal: George Vancouver's First Survey Season - 1792. Trafford Publishing. pp. 66, 72. ISBN 978-1-4120-7097-3.

Washington Road & Recreation Atlas. Benchmark Maps. 2000.
U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Port Susan

Benchmark Maps is a map-publishing company based in Medford, Oregon and Santa Barbara, California. As of 2018, the company has published detailed atlases for thirteen states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The company got its start in 1995, and has sold over two million maps and atlases. It is owned by Athenaeum Capital Partners LLC and the General Manager is John Glanville.

Coordinates: 48°10′11″N122°25′23″W / 48.169820°N 122.422931°W / 48.169820; -122.422931

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

This Island County, Washington state location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This Snohomish County, Washington state location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Roberts, John E. (2005). A Discovery Journal: George Vancouver's First Survey Season - 1792. Trafford Publishing. pp. 66, 72. ISBN 978-1-4120-7097-3.