Bellingham WA
is the county seat of Whatcom County in
the U.S. state of Washington. It is situated on Bellingham Bay,
which is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi
Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia.
It lies west of Mount Baker and Lake
Whatcom (from which it gets its drinking water) and north of the
Chuckanut Mountains and Skagit Valley. Whatcom Creek runs through the
center of the city. A Census Bureau estimate placed Bellingham's 2003
population at 71,289, and a recent calculation pushes it to 74,770.
The Bellingham International Airport
serves regularly scheduled commuter flights to and from Seattle and Las
Vegas, Nevada. As of August, 2004, the airport is home of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security's first Air and Marine Operations
Center, to assist with border surveillance.
In June 2006, Delta Air Lines will
begin daily service to Salt Lake City, Utah. The Amtrak Cascades service
provides Bellingham with regularly scheduled service to Seattle
and Vancouver, BC. |
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