Renton, Washington

A city in King County, Washington, United States, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle, Renton is located in the state of Washington. Renton is positioned 11 miles (18 km) to the southeast of the central business district of Seattle, and it is located at the mouth of the Cedar River on the southeast coast of Lake Washington. The population of Renton increased from 90,927 at the time of the 2010 census to 106,785 as of the census taken in 2020. At the present time, the city ranks as the sixth-largest municipality in the greater Seattle area and the ninth-largest in the state of Washington.

In the 1860s, individuals of European heritage were the first people to permanently settle in Renton, which had a long history of serving as an important salmon fishing place for Native Americans. In its early years, the economy was driven mostly by coal mining, clay manufacture, and the sale of lumber. Today, Renton is perhaps most well-known for being the location of the final assembly point for the Boeing 737 family of commercial aeroplanes. However, the city is also home to a growing number of well-known manufacturing, technology, and healthcare organisations, such as the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Division, Paccar, Kaiser Permanente, IKEA, Providence Health & Services, UW Medicine, and Wizards of the Coast.

On September 6, 1901, Renton was recognised as a city by the state of Washington. At the time, coal mining and the processing of lumber were the two most prominent economic activities in the region. The Cedar River and the Black River were known to often cause floods in the area. As a result of the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1916, the level of Lake Washington dropped by several feet, which led to the cessation of drainage of Lake Washington through the Black River (in favour of the Ship Canal). After that, the flow of the Cedar River was redirected such that it now drains into Lake Washington rather than the Black River. As a direct consequence of this, the Black River almost entirely vanished, leaving behind just a few traces. The accumulation of these activities brought the risk of yearly floods down to a lower level.