Bellevue stretches between Lake Washington on the west and Lake Sammamish on the east, with Mercer Slough and thousands of acres of parkland inside the city. Shade trees, damp ground and a busy downtown give ants, mice and wasps several kinds of habitat.
Bellevue, in King County, counted 151,854 residents in the 2020 census, and it covers about 33 square miles of land plus 4 square miles of water. Lake Washington separates it from Seattle on the west, Lake Sammamish lies to the east, and Mercer Slough runs south of downtown. The city's elevation is listed at 341 feet, and its parks department manages more than 2,500 acres of parks and open space.
Settled in 1869 and incorporated in 1953, Bellevue was largely small farms and cleared land through the early 20th century, with strawberries a famous crop. Today the downtown area is the second-largest city center in Washington, with about 45,000 employees, while neighborhoods like Bridle Trails and Cougar Mountain keep much of their tree cover. Rain showers are frequent from October to May.
