Today a common description of Bellevue Washington includes shopping malls and white middle class Americans living in the perfect suburb. In fact Bellevue is very diverse and almost half of the population lives in apartments, condominiums or other multi-family housing, not in the suburbs. Bellevue was not always the perfect suburb. Prior to the 1940’s Bellevue was primarily a farming community that was known for its strawberries. With the opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940 Bellevue started growing as a suburb. After all, it was only “15 minutes to your home in the country.” Bellevue Square , the area’s first shopping center opened in 1946. Shortly after this, in 1953 Bellevue became incorporated as a city. The second Lake Washington Floating Bridge was opened in 1963. Bellevue ’s population continued to expand. Banking and high tech industries moved their headquarters to Bellevue — Bellevue was no longer a community of commuters. The Up-Scaling of Bellevue continued into the 1990’s and even today.