Seattle Aquarium opens to excited crowds on May 20, 1977.

  • By Patrick McRoberts
  • Posted 1/01/1999
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 2178
See Additional Media

On May 20, 1977, nearly a decade after voters approved its construction, the Seattle Aquarium opens, with 1,524 visitors attending on opening day. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer proclaims "the Age of Aquarium."

Thousands of fingerling salmon were released into Elliott Bay with the hope that they would return to the aquarium fish ladder to spawn. Inside the aquarium, visitors walked along ramps viewing sponges, jellyfish, snails, clams, and crabs, most of them native to Puget Sound. The glassed-in Aquarium Dome allowed visitors to sit on benches and watch fish watching them.

Sea otters performed tricks in return for horse clams, while an octopus clung to a pier. Many of the animals inhabited outside viewing areas in their natural habitat of Puget Sound, enabling visitors to watch sandpipers hunting for food and ducks nesting in grass.

Mayor Wes Uhlman said the aquarium and the crowd "expresses the relationship we in Seattle have with the sea." Former city parks director Dave Towne called the grand opening "the biggest new show in town."

King County voters approved construction of the aquarium as a part of the Forward Thrust proposals on February 13, 1968.


Sources:

Maribeth Morris, "The Age of Aquarium," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 21, 1977, p. A-1; "1,524 Visit Aquarium on Opening Day," The Seattle Times, May 22, 1977, p. A-7.


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You