The Columbia River is the dominant river system of the Northwest United States. It is a river of many uses—hydropower, fisheries, and irrigation—and was known by many names—Columbia’s River, the Big River, and even River in the Chickadee Territory. It is the fourth-largest river by volume in North America, draining parts of seven states and the province of British Columbia. Because of its unique location close to the ocean, its tall mountain ranges, its steep drop from headwaters to the ocean, its deep and solid canyon, and its huge volume of clear, cold water, the Columbia River evolved as one of the great salmon and hydropower rivers of the world. And therein lies the chief paradox of the Columbia—the conflict of its natural history with its human history. Today, the river is an “organic machine,” in the words of historian Richard White, part nature, part machine. This book briefly explores the natural and human histories of the river through photographs from historical archives, government agencies, and personal collections.

Leavenworth, located in the central Cascades of Washington state, was once known as Icicle, and has been home to Native Americans, settlers, miners, railroad workers, and loggers. The native tribes came to this pristine and bountiful area to hunt game and fish for salmon. The promise of gold brought miners to Leavenworth, and once the Great Northern Railroad laid down its tracks in the late 1800s, the town moved from Icicle to its present location. The Lamb-Davis Lumber Company also built a sawmill in town, but when the railroad relocated its tracks and moved its hub to Wenatchee, the sawmill closed in 1926. The little boomtown in the Cascades went bust, but it was reinvented by its residents in the early 1960s with a Bavarian theme. The Bavarian premise of Leavenworth is still intact, and today the city draws around 2.5 million visitors annually.

Jutting northward from the mouth of the Columbia River, the Long Beach Peninsula defines Washington's southwestern coastal geography. The picturesque blend of beach and forest along the river, Willapa Bay, and the Pacific Ocean was home to the Chinook Indians who first settled this region. European and American trade came to this area in the 18th century, opening the way for Lewis and Clark to explore and establish a land route to the Pacific. The region prospered because of its diverse natural resources and thriving fur trade. Today, a vibrant tourist industry fuels the Peninsula's continuing development.

Every year, Banks Lake is visited by thousands of tourists from all over Washington State and beyond for recreation. People fish, boat, swim, hike, and camp around Banks Lake, a 27-mile equalizing reservoir created for the Grand Coulee Dam as part of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. However, even before Banks Lake, the Upper Grand Coulee was a vibrant, inhabited land. Bits and pieces of the fragmented history often surface; there were orchards and seemingly endless fields of golden wheat. Filled with ranches and farms, cattle roamed freely. Stories of highways, railroads, and towns now under the waters of the equalizing reservoir are waiting to be discovered. This book pulls back the waves of Banks Lake and the layers of time to reveal the lost and forgotten history that was inundated with the waters of the Grand Coulee Dam.

When the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened on July 1, 1940, the bridge was in use for 130 days before it collapsed due to faulty engineering and high winds.

A decade later, following World War II, the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened, and it is still in use today. However, due to a population increase over the bridge’s 57 years of use, an additional bridge was opened in 2007 to alleviate increasingly high traffic. The completion of the third bridge allowed vehicle speed to increase from less than 25 miles per hour to the present speed of 60 miles per hour during commuting times. Today, the original bridge opened in 1940 is still submerged in Puget Sound but was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Donald R. Tjossem has driven across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge countless times in the more than 50 years he has lived in the Puget Sound region. He is a member of the Washington State Historical Society and the Pierce County Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission. For Images of America: Tacoma Narrows Bridge, he has gathered photographs from the Washington State Department of Transportation, Tacoma Public Library, Washington State Historical Society, and the Library of Congress.

From hardscrabble days as homesteaders and farmers in the 1880s to becoming successful entrepreneurs of the postwar boom generation, Italians settled and later thrived in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Italians labored in several industries, including railway tie hacking in Idaho, coal mining in Black Diamond, logging in Aberdeen, canning salmon in Astoria, terra-cotta and brick manufacturing in Taylor, and growing onions in Walla Walla. Those who ventured into business later grew notable local companies such as DeLaurenti Food & Wine, Pacific Food Imports, Oberto Sausage, Napoleon Oil, and La Panzanella Crackers. Further still, Italians in the area contributed to inventions from the collapsible crab pot and trawl nets to the atomic bomb, the vaudeville circuit, the Pellegrini bean, and one-of-a-kind accordions. Italian pioneers in the Pacific Northwest also have a connection to Hemingway, Elvis, President Kennedy, Mother Cabrini, and the Loprinzis, the “strongest family in America.” Today, over 300,000 Italian Americans call this region home, and it is the author’s hope that this book highlights the contributions of many Italians, known and unknown.