It is a point jutting into Puget Sound, the westernmost landform in the city's West Seattle district.

To the northeast it continues past Alki Beach roughly to Duwamish Head, the northernmost point of West Seattle.

[4] Prior to American settlement, the Duwamish people used the area for cultivating and gathering at nearby prairies.

Charles C. Terry, who owned the land, and some others held on at Alki for a while, but most eventually joined the others in Pioneer Square.

From 1925 to 1936, a ferry route across Puget Sound connected Alki Point with Manchester, Washington on the Kitsap Peninsula.

There have been summer concerts at Alki Beach since the early 1900s; the original streetcars to West Seattle were established in order to bring people to these events.

The third side of the monument gives the names of the adults composing the first Seattle Colony: "Arthur A. Denny and his Wife.

The fourth side says "Erected by the Washington University State Historical Society, 13 November 1905", and on the base, "Presented by Lenora Denny."

Alki Beach is also famed for its biking and walking trail, which provides a picturesque view of nearby Blake Island.

The main commercial strip in West Seattle, uphill from Alki Beach, California Ave SW provides five-and-dime shops and diners that recall earlier decades.

Though the property is not open to the public, the tower is available for touring on summer weekend afternoons when the lens can be viewed.

[11] Despite its normal inaccessibility, it provides the tourist with the feeling of an authentic beach town and contributes to the overall picturesque.

A scale replica of the Statue of Liberty at Alki Beach was donated by Reginald H. Parsons and the Seattle Area Council of The Boy Scouts of America in 1952.

Many of these bungalows are today in poor condition, and residents have been increasingly forced to renovate or move them to another destination, or risk demolition.