The contract to build the submarine was awarded to Huntington Ingalls Industries in partnership with the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Newport News, Virginia, on 22 December 2008.

[15] At the time, she had recently returned from a deployment covering approximately 45,000 nautical miles (52,000 mi; 83,000 km) with stops in Rota, Spain, and Faslane, Scotland.

[19] In December 2023, Washington returned to Naval Station Norfolk after a six-month deployment covering over 37,000 nautical miles, with stops in Scotland and Norway.

[21] At that ceremony, Washington was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for completing "three demanding missions vital to national security that resulted in obtaining sensitive and unique intelligence information.

[23] In late September 2024, the boat arrived at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, for scheduled maintenance and system upgrades.

[24] The crest contains images including Mount Rainier, the Seattle skyline, evergreen trees, and silhouettes of two previous USS Washingtons.