 Starting in 1836, steamships started plying the waters of Puget Sound and quickly developed into what was eventually dubbed the "Mosquito Fleet".Gig Harbor, isolated from Tacoma and Seattle by Puget Sound and the Tacoma Narrows, could not be reached by automobile or horseback except by a very long and arduous trip south around Puget Sound and Hammersly Inlet.The boom was to be short lived, as the first bridge collapsed just months after it was completed.