Bellevue

Discover Bellevue

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has variously been characterized as an edge city, a suburb, boomburb, or satellite city. Its population is approximately 148,164. The city's name is derived from the French term belle vue ("beautiful view").

Economy

Bellevue is an economic hub of the Seattle region's Eastside and home to the headquarters of various companies. Since 2005, the city has become a hub for software engineering and other technology development centers. These include Expedia, PACCAR Inc, T-Mobile US, Eddie Bauer, SAP Concur, and Symetra. Bellevue hosts a number of satellite offices for large technology companies such as eBay, Oracle, Salesforce, Google, and Microsoft; Microsoft was at one point headquartered in Bellevue but has since moved to the neighboring community of Redmond, Washington.

Geography

Bellevue lies between Lake Washington to the west and the smaller Lake Sammamish to the east. Much of Bellevue is drained by the Kelsey Creek watershed, whose source is located in the Larsen and Phantom Lake green belt and whose outlet is near where Interstate 90 meets Lake Washington's eastern shore. The city is bisected by Interstate 405 running north-south, and the southern portion is crossed from west to east by Interstate 90. The State Route 520 freeway roughly delineates the upper reaches of Bellevue.

Life

Bellevue is the site of the popular annual Bellevue Arts and Crafts Fair, held since 1947 on the last weekend in July. The biennial Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition draws thousands of visitors to Downtown Park to view up to 46 three-dimensional artworks from artists around the country. In celebration of its strawberry farming history, Bellevue holds an annual Strawberry Festival on the fourth weekend in June at Crossroads Park. The festival initially began in 1925 and continued to 1942. In 1987 the festival was resumed as a one evening event, and in 2003 it was expanded back to a multi-day festival.

Demographics

Population: 148,164

Households: 58,293

Household income: $120,456

Bachelor's degree +: 66%

Number of jobs: 74,000

Ave household: 2.43 persons

Bellevue Public Schools High Schools

Bellevue High School

Interlake High School

Newport High School

Sammamish High School