Lake Washington is among the most spectacular urban water bodies in the world. From Kirkland through Bellevue to Kennydale, the lake has shaped and defined the communities that hug its eastern shore for nearly 150 years, and the activities along the shore have, in turn, shaped the lake. Cities on the lake's east side evolved from native villages into homesteads, farms, and mining settlements by the 1880s as pioneer families immigrated to Washington. With the advent of the innovative Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, the wooden ferries that plied their trade on the lake faded into memory, and the eastern shore changed from a rural landscape of strawberry farms and horse trails to the upscale urban towns and neighborhoods evident today.