Seattle. Washington

Seattle is America's Cinderella city, founded 75 years after independence yet overlooked until the '60s, it's been making up for lost time ever since.

The area was previously inhabited by Native Americans for at least four thousand years before the first European settlers arrived. Arthur A. Denny arrived from Illinois by way of Portland on the schooner Exact at Alki Point in 1851. The settlement was named "Seattle" in 1852, after the chief of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

Logging was the city's first major industry, but by the late 1800s it had become a commercial and shipbuilding hub during the Klondike Gold Rush. By the early 20th century, Seattle was one of the 25 largest cities in the US. After the Great Depression, growth returned during World War II, due in part to the local Boeing company, which made Seattle its center for aircraft manufacturing. Seattle developed as a tech center beginning in the 80s with companies like Microsoft and Amazon. 

Seattle has a significant musical history, with nearly two dozen jazz clubs along Jackson Street. The jazz scene developed as a result of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson and others. Seattle is also the original home of Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock style grunge.