14641 25th Ave. SW
2 acres of tidelands
247 feet of beach
6 acres of wooded uplands

Eagle Landing Park, with its shoreline access, 247 feet of beach, 2 acres of tidelands, and 6 acres of wooded uplands, is a new member of Burien’s developing park system. The goal of the park is to "provide an open space where community education and access are in harmony with habitat and critical areas preservation. . . ." The park entrance is at the west end of SW 149th St. The park contains an eagle nest viewpoint, interpretive trail, and five-car paved parking lot. The quarter-mile trail from the parking lot to the beach drops 275 feet in elevation. The park contains many native plants, mammals, and birds.

In the early 1900s, the land known as Eagle Landing Park belonged to the Branson family. The Branson property was part of a 200-acre parcel owned by the Seahurst Land Company, which supplied water to local residents from springs on the property. The original Branson estate was a 9-acre wooded waterfront residential lot. In 1915, a relative of the owner built a residence in the northern portion of the property, which was upgraded and expanded in the 1930s. A county road through the property was platted but never built, and has been vacated since 1935. The property was logged about 90 years ago, when much of the timber in Burien, Seahurst, and Gregory Heights was felled to supply wood for America's Liberty Ships in World War I.

The steeply sloped property sits atop two geologic units - glacial lake clay and silt below, and glacial outwash sand and gravel above - both deposited during glaciation of Puget Sound in the last Ice Age. Springs trickle from the hillside at an elevation of about 50 feet. The area has a long history of slope instability, according to oral history and the topographic features of the site.

Continue on to learn about how the City acquired this land.