It’s easy to view Federal Way as a place passed by on the highway between the larger cities of Tacoma and Seattle. But for the more than 100,000 people who call the Puget Sound city home and the people who work there each day, the city is far more than a dot on a map. Federal Way carries a touch of Seattle and Tacoma’s urban buzz while holding onto a sense of calm shaped by its coastal access and green spaces.
Weekends here might mean browsing shops and catching a movie at The Commons, followed by a quiet walk along the wooded trails and shoreline of Dash Point State Park. Cultural gems like the Pacific Bonsai Museum and the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden pull visitors off I-5 and into landscapes that feel entirely disconnected from the rush of nearby commuting traffic. Drawing from the best of the surrounding region, Federal Way has become far more than a waypoint to something greater and created a name for itself as a place worth staying.
City Snapshot
Incorporated
Feb. 28, 1990…