The modern-day Shoreline area is within the historic territory of local Coast Salish peoples, now considered subgroups of the Duwamish.

A trail stretched from Salmon Bay (šilšul), where Shilshole (šilšulabš) villages were, to Green Lake, and then traveled north through bogs that housed Licton Springs and the headwaters of the south fork of Thornton Creek, and continued up to Haller Lake.

Large quantities of cranberries were once gathered at these bogs, as well as salmonberries and skunk cabbage along the banks of Thornton Creek.

There was a large burned area from Echo Lake, through the Richmond Highlands, and south to Bitter Lake, likely a clearing intentionally burned to maintain the harvest of roots like bracken fern and camas, berries, and hunting grounds.

[7] Shoreline as is now known began in 1890 with the platting of the neighborhood of Richmond Beach, on Puget Sound, in anticipation of the arrival of the Great Northern Railway the next year.

Over the next two decades, Shoreline was connected to Seattle via the Seattle–Everett Interurban streetcar line (1906) and North Trunk Road (now Aurora Avenue N., State Route 99) (1913), helping to increase its population.

[8] Though the modern borders of the city do not stretch to Lake Washington, the area has kept the "Shoreline" name.

[9] After the incorporation of Lake Forest Park in 1961, the remainder of the Shoreline School District remained an unincorporated portion of King County.

The school district remained the main identifier for the area for several decades; a set of welcome signs were installed in 1983 by the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce bearing the name.

[10] The City of Seattle began studying an annexation of the area in 1988, causing local residents to organize an incorporation measure to retain their separate school system.

[11] A half-century after it had been named, on August 31, 1995, Shoreline was officially incorporated as a code city, and it adopted the council–manager form of government.

In recent years, its voting habits - as well as those of neighboring Lake Forest Park - have become even more similar to those of Seattle, overwhelmingly in support of Democratic politicians.

[21] If its offer to annex Point Wells is accepted by the developer, Shoreline will extend into south Snohomish County.

The governments of both of the urban areas have taken steps to update their plans in accordance to their joint committee.

[29] Shoreline is bisected by two major north–south highways: Interstate 5, the main inter-city freeway in Western Washington; and State Route 99 (Aurora Avenue), which travels south to Seattle and north to Everett.

Both stations have park-and-ride garages with a combined 1,000 stalls and will become termini for bus rapid transit lines.