The Seahawks faithful bursted Bremerton at the seams this morning. Fans scrambled for parking, invaded local coffeehouses and formed the longest line for the Bremerton ferry to Seattle that anyone can remember. Over on the Seattle side, the Seahawks held their first Super Bowl champions parade ever.
The Bremerton ferries carried 7,981 people through its first six sailings of the day, according to the Washington State Ferries. Gotta be some kind of record. The Kaleetan packed in 2,000 people at capacity while the Chelan could only hold 1,076, as the two boats alternated the trek back and forth to Seattle.
The ferry system actually held cars back from the run to accommodate more walk-on passengers, my colleague Ed Friedrich told me.
The economic impact on downtown was palpable. For four hours, a line snaked through Fraiche Cup, the nearby coffee shop, with $550 in sales in one hour alone (between 8-9 a.m.).
“We’ve at least tripled our business for the day,” said Manager Amanda Boustead. “And the day’s not over yet.”
The coffee house had almost 500 purchases between 5 a.m. and noon, and went through 36 gallons of milk.
Here’s video of the Bremerton line. Were you there?
