International Fountain
The International Fountain was built for the Seattle's World Fair in 1962. It was designed to reflect "mankind's efforts to explore the farthest reaches of outer space". The fountain was built on the site of the former Mercer Playground in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood which stood for over 50 years.
The original design included a metal dome with protruding nozzles surrounded by an enormous bowl of jagged, irregular white rocks creating the impression of a 'lunar landscape'. Unfortunately, this design made accessibility difficult and discouraged visitors from interacting with the water feature. During a 1995 rebuild, the rocks were removed and a new stainless steel dome was installed with a variety of "shooter" jets to propel great plumes of water in every direction. This transformation allowed delighted visitors the ability to interact with the feature and to freely play among the splashes of the great plumes.
The International Fountain is a great place to enjoy a beautiful Seattle summer day and cool off from the heat. You might even be able to catch one of the 5 syncronized water programs set to music. It is also a fantastic place to take in the New Year's countdown and watch the fireworks exploding from the Space Needle. If you look carefully, you'll find us there celebrating.
Fun Fountain Facts
- Diameter of bowl: 220'
- Height & width of dome: 10' tall & 27' wide
- Water Capacity: 9,000 gallons
- Water shooters: 137 total mist nozzles, 77 fleur-de-lis', 56 microshooters, 4 super shooters
- Height reached by super shooter: 120'
- Water used in one shooter: 66 gallons
Logging Requirements:
Around the BASE of the dome, like you can almsot touch the fountain, are 4 silver plaques on the GROUND. Please message me in its entirety, what is engraved on any of the 4 plaques. IT'S ONLY 5 WORDS.
No need to wait for approval before logging. Logs without a correct answer messaged to me will be deleted.
Extra credit for posting a picture of yourself at the fountain.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.