Seattle: 50 years at a time

1851-1901 Alki Beach: Alki Beach: The advance party for the Denny group landed here September 25, 1851, and the rest on November 13, 1851. A monument near the intersection of Alki Avenue Southwest and 63rd Avenue Southwest marks the place of the November landing Denny's Knoll: The first location of the University of Washington (1861). The Four Seasons Olympic Hotel is there now. Photo First and Madison: There's a plaque on the northeast corner of the Seattle Federal Office Building where the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 began. The Seattle Waterfront: When the steamer Portland landed in 1897, it was full of Klondike gold, changing Seattle forever. Check out the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park at the corner of First Avenue and Main Street. Pioneer Square: You'll see early buildings and can go on a tour of underground Seattle. Photo Yesler Way/Mill Street/Skid Road: The name evolved, but it was Seattle's first major thoroughfare. The site of Henry Yesler's steam-powered sawmill, started in 1852, was at the present-day intersection of Yesler and Alaskan Ways. Woodland Park: Once the estate of Guy C. Phinney, a wealthy lumber-mill owner and real-estate developer, the city bought the property in 1899, and it was developed into a zoo. The Montlake neighborhood: As early as the 1850s attempts were made to dig a canal connecting Lake Washington and Lake Union. The unfinished overpasses of the ill-fated Thomson Expressway still haunt the Arboretum. Photo Foster Island: Also in Montlake, it was the site of native burials, 19th century picnics, 1930s squatters and present-day amblers. Denny Park: Seattle's first city park.