Tacoma ( ) is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States.GR: 6 The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 193,556 at the 2000 census and had a 2008 Washington State Office of Financial Management estimate of 202,700. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state.

Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Mount Tacoma or Mount Tahoma. It is known as the "City of Destiny" because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 1800s. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacoma's neighboring Commencement Bay. By connecting the bay with the railroad Tacoma's motto became “When rails meet sails.” Today Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of international trade on the Pacific Coast.

Like most central cities, Tacoma suffered a prolonged decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization, divestment, and federal urban renewal programs. Recently the city has been undergoing a renaissance, investing in the downtown core to establish the University of Washington, Tacoma; Tacoma Link, the first modern electric light rail service in the state; various art and history museums; and a restored inlet, the Thea Foss Waterway.

With a long history of blue-collar labor politics — from the railroad workers of the 1800s, to the longshoremen of the 20th century, to the Labor Ready workers of today — Tacoma has long been known for its rough, gritty image.

Tacoma-Pierce County has been named one of the most livable areas in the country. Tacoma was also recently listed as the 19th most walkable city in the country. In contrast, the city is also ranked as the most stressed-out city in the country in a 2004 survey. However, in 2006, women's magazine Self named Tacoma the "Most Sexually Healthy City" in the United States.Fact: date=March 2008

History

Tacoma was inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, predominantly the Puyallup people, who lived in settlements on the delta of the Puyallup River and called the area Squa-szucks. It was visited by European and American explorers, including George Vancouver and Charles Wilkes, who named many of the coastal landmarks.

19th century

In 1852 a Swede named Nicolas Delin constructed a sawmill powered by water on a creek near the head of Commencement Bay, but the small settlement that grew up around it was abandoned during the Indian War of 1855-1856. In 1864, pioneer and postmaster Job Carr, a Civil War veteran and land speculator who hoped to profit from the selection of Commencement Bay as the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, built a cabin (a replica of Job Carr's cabin, which also served as Tacoma's first post office, was erected in "Old Town" in 2000 near the original site), and later sold most of his claim to developer Morton McCarver (1807-1875), who named his project Tacoma City. The name derived from the indigenous name for Mount Rainier, deriving from the Puyallup tacobet, "mother of waters".