UW Women's Rowing Virtual Tour
Part 4: The Venue - Mercer Island
For a brief, fragile moment it seemed...as if all of them were part of a single thing, something alive with breath and spirit of its own.
- Dan Brown, The Boys in the Boat
Set in the "Emerald City" of Seattle on the shores of Lake Washington, the University of Washington is unique in many ways: a major, state University with world-class academic standards, situated in a large city, but with instant access to the natural world. When it comes to rowing, at least some of the UW's tradition of success in the sport can be traced to the fact that the campus is bordered by water on two sides. The team's boathouse – Conibear Shellhouse – sits on the east side of campus in between the other world-class athletic facilities and allows UW rowers to walk from home, to class, to practice with ease. Twenty-two mile long Lake Washington connects to Lake Union via the historic Montlake Cut – a rowing "stadium" unmatched anywhere in the world.
