The City of Seattle was built in 1888 at Portland, Oregon by John Steffan and began regularly scheduled service on December 31, 1888.

[1] The ferry had a wide lower deck, called the "driveway", which carried wagons, horses and carts, as well as all passengers.

A cable tramway was built to carry ferry passengers from the West Seattle dock up the bluff where the Improvement Company's main development projects were.

[1] The ferry encountered some competition, first from the small steamer Garden City, which made 17 trips per day, but that was more than the population at the time would support.

1907 was the peak year for ferry transport on the Seattle-West Seattle run, with 103,000 passengers carried in July alone.

[3] After a hazardous voyage south in the tow of a steam schooner, City of Seattle reached San Francisco Bay and was placed on the ferry route from Benicia across the Carquinez Strait to Martinez[1] The new owners added second wheelhouse to the ferry, but never changed the vessel's name or the machinery.

[2] The ferry was requisitioned-purchased by the U.S. Navy from the city of Martinez and delivered to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on August 10, 1944.

The ferry continued operation under the 12th Naval District command until October 14, 1946, when at Mare Island the vessel was taken out of service.