Introduction
Peninsula in Puget Sound, Washington, United States Kitsap Peninsula, Washington state The Kitsap Peninsula (/ˈkɪtˌsæp/) lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kitsap County except Bainbridge and Blake islands, in addition to the northeastern part of Mason County and the northwestern part of Pierce County. The highest point on the Kitsap Peninsula is Gold Mountain. The U.S. Navy's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and Naval Base Kitsap (comprising the former NSB Bangor and NS Bremerton) are on the peninsula. Its main city is Bremerton. The 1841 United States Exploring Expedition, led by Charles Wilkes of the U.S. Navy, named it the Great Peninsula or Indian Peninsula. While "Great Peninsula" remains the official name, the name "Kitsap Peninsula" is more commonly used and is derived from Kitsap County, which occupies most of the peninsula. The county was named for Chief Kitsap, a late 18th- and 19th-century warrior and medicine man of the Suquamish Tribe. The Suquamish were one of the historical fishing tribes belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, and their ancestral grounds were based on the eastern shores of the Kitsap Peninsula. The city of Seattle is named after the tribe's most famous leader, Chief Seattle. The Port Madison Indian Reservation, located between Poulsbo and Agate Pass, is the modern Suquamish tribal center. The Kitsap Peninsula is also home to the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, another branch of Coast Salish people; their tribal center is the Port Gamble S'Klallam Indian Reservation at Little Boston, located on the northwest coast of the peninsula. A third subgroup of the Coast Salish are the Twana, who historically also occupied the area around the Hood Canal. Their main center now is at Skokomish. The peninsula is connected to the eastern shore of Puget Sound by Washington State Ferries, which run from Bremerton to Downtown Seattle; from Kingston to Edmonds; and from Southworth to West Seattle via Vashon Island. Several passenger ferry routes are operated by Kitsap Fast Ferries from these terminals to Downtown Seattle. It is also connected by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from Point Fosdick to Tacoma, and to the west, to the northeastern shore of the main Olympic Peninsula by the Hood Canal Bridge. Land connections through the isthmus at Belfair include SR 3 and the Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad.