Blood & Biohazard Cleanup Near Ballinger Shoreline, WA

Shoreline is a city in northwestern King County along Puget Sound, directly north of Seattle, covering about 11.7 square miles.

Shoreline was officially incorporated as a city on August 31, 1995, after voters approved incorporation by a three-to-one margin in September 1994, making it one of Washington's younger cities.

The name Shoreline dates to 1944, when it was given to the local school district because its boundaries stretched from "shore to shore" — Puget Sound to Lake Washington — and from "line to line," the old Seattle city limit to the Snohomish County line.

Before incorporation, Shoreline spent decades as an unincorporated island of King County surrounded by Seattle, Edmonds, Woodway, and Lake Forest Park.

The 2020 census counted 58,608 residents in Shoreline, up from 53,007 in 2010, and Census Bureau survey figures for 2020-2024 count about 24,420 households.

About one in five Shoreline residents is foreign-born, according to the city.

Shoreline's oldest neighborhood, Richmond Beach, was platted in 1890, and the arrival of the Great Northern Railway along the Puget Sound shore in 1891 made it an early commercial center.

The Seattle-Everett Interurban streetcar line ran through Shoreline from 1906 until 1939, shaping the commercial centers that formed around its stops along what is now Aurora Avenue.

Shoreline Community College, described by the city as a nationally recognized resource, anchors higher education in the city next to Boeing Creek Park.

Students in the Shoreline School District attend Shorecrest High School or Shorewood High School, and the district's boundaries originally defined the city itself.