page_title: Washington (state)
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Washington (state) / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Beach at Westport, Washington, USA.
context_page_description: Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Named for George Washington, the first U.S. president, the state was made out of the western part of the Washington Territory, which was ceded by the British Empire in 1846, in accordance with the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. The state, which is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north, was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital; the state's largest city is Seattle. Washington is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
  Washington is the 18th largest state, with an area of 71,362 square miles, and the 13th most populous state, with more than 7.6 million people. Approximately 60 percent of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry along Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers.
context_section_description: Washington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. It borders Idaho to the east, bounded mostly by the meridian running north from the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River (about 116°57' west), except for the southernmost section where the border follows the Snake River. Oregon is to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part and the 46th parallel forming the eastern part of the Oregon-Washington border. To the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. Its northern border lies mostly along the 49th parallel, and then via marine boundaries through the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait, and Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.
  Washington is part of a region known as the Pacific Northwest, a term which always includes Washington and Oregon, and may or may not include some or all the following, depending on the user's intent: Idaho, western Montana, northern California, British Columbia, and Alaska.
  The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north–south, bisecting the state. In addition to Western Washington and Eastern Washington, residents call the two parts of the state the "West side" and the "East side", "Wet side" and "Dry side", or "Timberland" and "Wheatland", the latter pair more commonly in the names of region-specific businesses and institutions.
caption: The Pacific Coast of Westport, WA
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