Lake Washington Ship Canal begun in 1906, and work began in earnest five years later. The delays in canal planning and construction resulted in the U.S. Navy building the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, which is located across the Sound from Seattle. For centuries, people had been dragging boats between the lakes, giving names like "carry a canoe" "sxWátSadweehL" to the crossing points. In 1854 Seattle pioneer Thomas Mercer proposed canals connecting Lake Union and Lake Washington to Puget Sound in a speech at the first Independence Day celebration of the Seattle area's first permanent white settlement, shortly after its founding. Mercer
Puget Sound sea urchins, and sand dollars. Dungeness crabs ("Metacarcinus magister") occur throughout Washington waters, including Puget Sound. Many bivalves occur in Puget Sound, such as Pacific oysters ("Crassostrea gigas") and geoduck clams ("Panopea generosa"). The Olympia oyster ("Ostreola conchaphila"), once common in Puget Sound, was depleted by human activities during the 20th century. There are ongoing efforts to restore Olympia oysters in Puget Sound. There are many seabird species of Puget Sound. Among these are grebes such as the western grebe ("Aechmophorus occidentalis"); loons such as the common loon ("Gavia immer"); auks such as the pigeon guillemot ("Cepphus columba"), rhinoceros auklet