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Olympia
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Legislative Building, Olympia, Washington
Legislative Building, Olympia, Washington The Legislative Building, Olympia, Washington.

Olympia

Washington, United States
Also known as: Smithfield
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

Olympia, city, capital of Washington, U.S., seat (1852) of Thurston county, on Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake (at the south end of Puget Sound), at the mouth of the Deschutes River, 29 miles (47 km) southwest of Tacoma. Laid out in 1851 as Smithfield, it became the site of a U.S. customs house and was renamed for the nearby Olympic Mountains. Chosen as the territorial capital in 1853, Olympia developed port facilities and a lumber-based...

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