Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The Seattle metropolitan area is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the United States with over 3.7 million inhabitants. A major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the third largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015.
Seattle has been historically noted for trade, logging, and the north Pacific gold rush. More recently, Seattle has been significant in music history and lately has developed as a technology center with companies, like Microsoft, becoming established in the region.