Glass art and Pacific Northwest grit on the Puget Sound shore
Tacoma once lived in Seattle's shadow but has carved out a distinct identity around the world-class Museum of Glass and Dale Chihuly's spectacular Bridge of Glass — a 500-foot pedestrian overpass strung with luminous blown-glass spheres. The revitalized waterfront, Point Defiance Park, and a diverse food scene built on Pacific Islander and Vietnamese flavors make Tacoma one of the Northwest's most underrated stops.
Founded in 1873 as the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Tacoma briefly rivaled Seattle before the Great Northern Railway chose a rival route and shifted the region's economic gravity northward. The industrial port economy that followed — timber, copper smelting, and container shipping — left a rough-edged working-class character that artists and immigrant communities later transformed into one of Washington's most genuinely creative cities.