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Redmond History

Decent Essays

Redmond: A City of Innovation Redmond Washington is an innovative community that continues to venture into new territory, trailblazing and working to improve on the past. Mayor John Marchione described Redmond as, Founded by true pioneers, men and women who came up the Sammamish River to a beautiful, yet untamed wilderness. We have been pioneering ever since – first logging and farming, now microchips and bio-engineering, while in the future we look towards a diverse economy with businesses thriving in both the downtown and Overlake. ("Centennial Blue Ribbon Committee") The variety of modern industries such as aerospace, biotechnology, video game development, and technology has created a strong culture of innovation both in professional work …show more content…

European settlers arrived in the 1870s making a living through logging and fishing. In 1888 Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railway built a station in Redmond allowing for the town to become a thriving logging town until the 1920s. Despite economic downturn with no more timber to harvest in the 1920s, those living in Redmond turned to new methods of survival, developing the empty land into agricultural fields (Hardy, Llanos, and Ives). In 1940 the population of Redmond was only 503; however, when the first floating bridge over Lake Washington opened, and followed in 1963 by the Evergreen Point floating bridge, rapid growth began and allowed Redmond to flourish as a suburb of Seattle. By the end of the century the population had expanded to over 43,000 residents. The Evergreen Point floating bridge that connects the Eastside to Seattle is the longest floating bridge on earth, a source of pride and sign of innovation for locals ("History of Redmond, Washington"). The 1978 census said Redmond was the fastest growing city in Washington, and by 2030 population is forecasted to grow by 38 percent from 2009 as more technology companies made the city home it continued to develop in a variety of ways ("Demographic …show more content…

These corporations brought with them huge influxes of workers and families not just from America but from other countries as well (Hardy, Llanos, and Ives). The collection of highly skilled people in both technology and gaming has made Redmond no longer just home to the big name brands, but a town of start up companies exploring innovative ideas both in technology and gaming. DigiPen Institute of Technology was the first university in the world dedicated to computer graphics and video game development education, and today remains one of the top schools. This culture of innovation made Redmond the perfect place for the new offices of SpaceX in 2015. Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, in his 2015 State of the State address called SpaceX, “’one of the most innovative companies on the planet’ and said its decision to put a satellite office in the region shows that investing in science, technology, engineering and math education, along with workforce retraining, will pay off for the state’s economy” (Bishop). It is this culture of exploration in Redmond that allows for people to experience innovation as early as high school, through the Nikola Tesla STEM school, and in local

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