[4] The street originates at Alaskan Way on the downtown Seattle waterfront and runs east through Yesler Terrace, the Central District, and Leschi to just east of 32nd Avenue, where the arterial route switches to Lake Dell Avenue.

The line today followed by Yesler Way originally served to demarcate a place where two conflicting surveying efforts met.

In the 1850s Arthur Denny and David Maynard, each working independently using different methods, created plats for the settlement that did not neatly overlay.

To eventually settle the claims, the two plats were split along this line, with the southern portion following Maynard's east-west layout and the northern portion following the Denny approach of following the shoreline.

[7][8] The street was renamed Yesler Way and later paved by Patrick J. McHugh in 1903.