— the twenty minutes between two shores.
“The Mukilteo ferry runs the short crossing from the Snohomish County mainland to Clinton on Whidbey Island, about twenty minutes across Possession Sound. It is one of the busiest routes in the Washington State Ferries system. A new Mukilteo terminal opened in late 2020, replacing the 1957 dock; the Mukilteo Light from 1906 still keeps the headland a hundred yards from the ramp. On a clear evening the Olympic Mountains hold the western horizon while the boat is pulling out.
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Mukilteo sits on the south shore of Possession Sound in Snohomish County, Washington, about twenty-five miles north of Seattle and just south of Everett. The ferry crosses roughly two nautical miles to Clinton, on the southeastern end of Whidbey Island, in about twenty minutes. Washington State Ferries operates the route, and it consistently ranks among the busiest in the system, carrying around four million annual passengers between the mainland and the island. The town takes its name from the Lushootseed word *bekw'eltcho*, meaning narrow passage, in reference to the strait the ferry now crosses.
Possession Sound is the arm of Puget Sound that runs between the Snohomish County mainland and Whidbey Island, named in 1792 by George Vancouver when he formally claimed the surrounding lands for the British Crown. The crossing is short and protected, but tidal currents through the narrows can run hard and the route is exposed to north winds funneling down from Bellingham. On a still summer evening the water gives back the Olympics on the western horizon. In winter the same crossing carries spray, low cloud, and a darker grey.
The current Mukilteo Multimodal Ferry Terminal opened on December 29, 2020, replacing a 1957 facility that had long outgrown its loading lanes. The new terminal sits roughly a third of a mile east of the old slip and was designed in collaboration with the Tulalip Tribes, with longhouse-inspired roof forms over the passenger building. Ferries run roughly every half hour through most of the day, with Sound Transit's Mukilteo Sounder station and Sounder commuter rail stops nearby. The Mukilteo Lighthouse, built in 1906 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, stands just west of the terminal.