Qualla: Redmond (Washington)

Redmond (Washington): Introduction

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chrismiceli, CC0. Two young men who had never finished college rented office space in a small city east of Seattle in 1979. Within a decade, Microsoft had transformed Redmond from a quiet logging community into the epicenter of the personal computer revolution. The transformation seems improbable now, driving past the sprawling campus buildings hidden behind landscaped berms and stands of second-growth forest. This wasn't Silicon Valley with its stark concrete and relentless sunshine. Redmond grew its tech empire under gray skies, along rivers where salmon still run, in a city that proudly calls itself the Bicycle Capital of the Northwest. Today, nearly 75,000 people live here, many of them coding, designing, and building the software that powers computers around the world. Yet the Burke-Gilman Trail still winds through wetlands where herons hunt, and Marymoor Park hosts the only velodrome in Washington State.

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Image: Chrismiceli | CC0

Redmond (Washington): The Microsoft Effect

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pyrenil, CC BY-SA 3.0. Drive down NE 40th Street through Redmond's Overlake district and you'll pass building after building of the Microsoft campus, a corporate city-within-a-city that employs tens of thousands. The company's arrival fundamentally reshaped everything around it: housing prices, traffic...

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Image: Pyrenil | CC BY-SA 3.0

Redmond (Washington): Trails Through the Trees

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Tradnor at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Redmond earned its bicycle capital title honestly. The Burke-Gilman Trail runs twenty-seven miles from Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, along the western shore of Lake Washington, then follows the Sammamish River through Redmond to Marymoor Park. The track lies almost completely f...

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Image: The original uploader was Tradnor at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Redmond (Washington): Flavors of the Eastside

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sam.meyer.marton, CC BY-SA 3.0. Redmond sits at the heart of the Puget Sound's Indian community, and the influence shows in its restaurant scene. Dozens of establishments serve cuisine from across the subcontinent, from hole-in-the-wall curry houses to upscale dining rooms where tikka masala shares menu space w...

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Image: Sam.meyer.marton | CC BY-SA 3.0

Redmond (Washington): Connecting to the World

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Davidmcarson, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Sound Transit 2 Line light rail now reaches downtown Redmond, connecting the city to Bellevue and, via transfer, to Seattle's expanding rail network. This represents a dramatic shift for a region long dominated by the automobile. The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge carries SR...

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Image: Davidmcarson | CC BY-SA 4.0