| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Vancouver. |
Vancouver History
|
|
Vancouver is a young city,
both in population and history. The charming late-Victorian
architecture of Gastown (named for the loquacious “Gassy
Jack” Deighton, owner of the city’s first bar)
is ancient by Vancouver standards.
American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set
up camp near the Vancouver waterfront in
|
1806, and Clark even wrote that it was the only area west of the
Rockies worth settling. At Fort Vancouver the British both regulated
the booming fur trade and kept watch over the Oregon Territory,
and though most of that land was turned over to United States in
1846, William Clark’s favored spot was unfortunately not included.
Strangely enough, British fears of an American invasion allowed
for the preservation of what is now the city’s most treasured
natural space, Stanley Park.
While European loggers, trappers, and other enterprising explorers
were establishing themselves on the Pacific coast, the Chinese were
arriving to capitalize on the gold rush; and had they not built
the Canadian Pacific Railway to link the new settlement with the
eastern Commonwealth, British Columbia might have joined it much
later than 1871. It comes as no surprise, then, that Chinatown and
adjacent Gastown are the oldest sections of the city, and Burrard
Inlet is as busy a port today as it ever was. The railway (along
with its shipping fleet) was up and running several years before
America’s transcontinental line, meaning that British Columbian
merchants could deliver Oriental goods to the New York markets faster
than the Californians could.
Granville Townsite, adopted home of loggers, railway men, retired
sailors, and saloon-keepers, was renamed in 1886 after George Vancouver,
a British explorer who had passed through the area nearly a century
before. The city had to be rebuilt from scratch after a widespread
fire just a few months after its rechristening, which is why Gastown’s
architecture dates only from the 1890s. The city has been expanding
steadily ever since, fueled by exploitation of the natural resources
of the Pacific Northwest; Vancouver had the world’s largest
spruce lumber mill for airplane production during World War I, and
the city was an important shipbuilding center during World War II.
Today it’s easy to see why Vancouver was honored with the
“All-America City” award from the National Civic League
in 1957 and 1987. But you have to wonder: why only twice?
More Information:
 www.state.gov
|
|
|
Vancouver Travel Guides
Frommer's Vancouver
Lonely Planet Vancouver
Let's Go Vancouver
Fodors Vancouver
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
