Biohazard Cleanup Near Proctor Tacoma, WA

Tacoma is a port city on Commencement Bay in Puget Sound and serves as the county seat of Pierce County, Washington.

Tacoma was incorporated on November 12, 1875, and took its name from Takhoma, the Indigenous name for nearby Mount Rainier.

Tacoma earned its nickname, the 'City of Destiny,' after it was chosen in 1873 as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, giving rise to the motto 'When rails meet sails.'

The 2020 census counted 219,346 residents in Tacoma, making it the third-most populous city in Washington and the second-largest city in the Puget Sound region.

The 2010 census recorded 198,397 Tacoma residents living in 78,541 households.

The Port of Tacoma on Commencement Bay is a center of international trade on the Pacific Coast and is Washington's largest port.

Tacoma gained worldwide notoriety in 1940 when the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge, nicknamed 'Galloping Gertie' for the way its deck writhed in the wind, collapsed into Puget Sound.

Point Defiance Park, established in 1888, covers about 760 acres at the city's northern tip and contains old-growth forest, the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Owen Beach, and the relocated Fort Nisqually living history museum.

Downtown Tacoma's museum district includes the Museum of Glass, which opened in 2002, the Washington State History Museum, and the Tacoma Art Museum.

The University of Puget Sound, a liberal arts university founded in 1888, has occupied its 97-acre campus in Tacoma's North End since 1923.