Ferryboat King County Will Operate on Lake Washington -- February 9, 2015

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11-November-1899

Ferry King County was built in Madison Park in Seattle.  It sailed from Madison Park to the suburb of Kirkland. 

Ferryboat King County Will Operate on Lake Washington.

WORK on the big ferryboat now being built by the board of county commissioners to ply on Lake Washington is rapidly progressing. The timbers of the boat are in place and the planking almost done, Moran Bros, who have the contract for the boat, are now working on the machinery, which will soon be taken out and placed in position.  The big ferry is being built on the shores of the lake near Madison street. She will be one of the finest craft of her kind on the Pacific coast, and will cost more than $60,000 complete. It is expected that she will make her trial trip early in the spring and will be running regularly by July 4.

The operation by the county of a public ferry on the lake will open to the merchants of Seattle a market that at present they reach only to a limited extent. It will pave the way, it is thought, for a large increase in the population of the farming district east of the lake. County Auditor Evenson is one of the warmest friends of the ferry scheme as a part of a "trunk" system of county roads which he advocates.