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Washington State Ferries

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Washington state maintains the largest fleet of passenger and auto ferries in the United States. These ferries serve communities on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands.

The ferry system has its origins in the "Mosquito Fleet," a collection of small steamer lines serving the Puget Sound area during the early 20th century. By the beginning of the 1930s, two lines remained: the Puget Sound Navigation Company (known as the Black Ball Line) and the Kitsap County Transportation Company. A strike in 1935 forced the KCTC to close, leaving only the Black Ball Line.

Toward the end of the 1940s the Black Ball Line wanted to increase its fares, to compensate for increased wage demands from the ferry workers' unionss, but the state refused to allow this, and so the Black Ball Line itself shut down. In 1951, the state bought substantially all of Black Ball's ferry assets for $5 million. It only intended to run ferry service until cross-sound bridges could be built, but these were never approved, and the state Department of Transportation runs the system to this day.

Table of contents
1 Cultural and Human Interest Items
2 Current Vehicle Routes
3 Current Passenger-Only Route
4 Washington State Counties Served
5 See Also
6 External Link

Cultural and Human Interest Items

As the largest fleet in operation in the United States, the Washington state system is substantial enough to have generated significant political issues, labor activism, and even its own minor subculture, as exemplified by this humorous poem penned by a long-time employee:

Sharing the Ferries


The ferries are bought and run

With money from “John Q.”;

Thus ALL the public owns them…

--not just a favored few.


So let’s divvie up the ferries

In a manner that is fair

Being sure that everyone

Gets a proper share.


The Governor needs the rudders 

To guide his “Ship of State”;

The Legislators need the ships’ clocks

For sessions that run late.


The Dept. of Transportation needs

The radars and UHF radio,

Since they’re always in a fog

No matter where they go.


The Highway Dept. gets the engines

For their “Civil Engineers”.

And the passengers get the galleys

For their Koffee Klatch and beers.


The Ferry Users Associations,

Lest they feel left out, 

Must surely have the car decks,         

For a place to scream and shout.


The office staff and management,

While they take a breather,

Should feel a kinship with the computers

As they often don’t work, either.


The Captains, Mates and Engineers,

I’m sure ‘twill be no news,

Get what they’re accustomed to.

That’s right, they get the screws.


And the Unions, bless their hearts,

So prone to goof and blunder

Can have the rusty hulls,

For they, too, are going under.


There now, we’ve divvied up the boats

From either sharp end aft,

And all that’s left for the faithful crew

Is what they usually get—

              The Shaft.


               ----Rolland R. Campbell

                      Able Seaman

                      Washington State Ferries

                      (C)1981 (submitted with permission of his estate, 

                               as per Wiki copyright guidelines)

Current Vehicle Routes

Current Passenger-Only Route

Washington State Counties Served

Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish

See Also

BC Ferries
Black Ball Line

External Link