Exit 18 — Pittsburgh of the West

Sal on I-405 Southbound: Lynnwood to Tukwila · Oct 29, 2026 · 1m

Sal: Between exits seventeen and eighteen. Sal: Kirkland is named for Peter Kirk, who owned a steel mill in Workington, England. In 1888 he and his partners formed the Moss Bay Iron and Steel Works, and Kirkland was to be their "Pittsburgh of the West," with British street names like Piccadilly and Oxford. Sal: The railroad refused to bring a line down to the lake, so the mill went up on Rose Hill, two miles east of it. Then the financial collapse of 1893 ended the venture, leaving a partly built mill and rows of empty houses. Peggy: The Pittsburgh of the West. Pittsburgh was never worried…