Vancouver

City, southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is the major urban centre of western Canada and the focus of one of the country's most populous metropolitan regions.

Vancouver lies between Burrard Inlet (an arm of the Strait of Georgia) to the north and the Fraser River delta to the south, opposite Vancouver Island. The city is just north of the U.S. state of Washington. It has a fine natural harbour on a superb site facing the sea and mountains. Pop. (2001) city, 545,671; metropolitan area, 1,986,965; (2006) city, 578,041; metropolitan area, 2,116,581.

History

The region had long been inhabited by several Native American peoples when a trading post, Fort Langley, was set up by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1827 near the mouth of the Fraser River. Few white Europeans lived in the area until the late 1850s, when the town of New Westminster (now a suburb of Vancouver) was established near the site of the original fort (in 1839 the fort itself had been relocated a little farther upstream). Thousands of miners flooded into the region in the 1860s, attracted by the gold rush in the Cariboo Mountains to the northeast.

Vancouver itself was originally a small sawmilling settlement called Granville in the 1870s. It was incorporated as a city in 1886 (after it became the terminus of the first trans-Canada railroad, the Canadian Pacific) and was renamed to honour the English navigator George Vancouver, of the Royal Navy, who had explored and surveyed the coast in 1792. The city recovered from a disastrous fire (1886) to become a prosperous port, aided in part by the opening of the Panama Canal (1914), which made it economically feasible to export grain and lumber from Vancouver to the American east coast and Europe. By the 1930s Vancouver had become Canada's third most populous city (including its metropolitan area population) and its major Pacific coast port. After World War II it developed into Canada's main business hub for trade with Asia and the Pacific Rim. The city has long been a popular destination for immigrants from both other parts of Canada and overseas; notable has been the influx of East Asians, especially since World War II.

The contemporary city

The city is the industrial, commercial, and financial heart of British Columbia, with trade and transportation as basic components of its economy. Its ice-free deepwater port, Canada's largest, has extensive docks and grain elevator facilities; it handles freighters, a fishing fleet, and ferries (to Vancouver Island). Major cargoes include bulk commodities (grain, coal, sulfur, potash, and petrochemicals), forest products, steel, and containers. It is also an important cruise-ship port.

The region is connected to mainland Canada and the United States by three rail lines. An international airport serves the city, as do roads to the eastern provinces (Trans-Canada Highway) and Seattle, Washington, which is located about 125 miles (200 km) to the south. Since the mid-1980s the Greater Vancouver area has been served by an automated light-rail system called SkyTrain. In addition, a commuter rail line connects downtown Vancouver with points eastward to the city of Mission.

Forestry, tourism, and mining are important economic activities; related factors are manufacturing and shipping. Processing of forest and agricultural products and fish also are significant, as is oil refining. Production of metals, chemicals, boats, trucks, and machinery for sawmilling, mining, and pulp and paper processing are major manufacturing activities. Power for sawmilling and plywood and paper manufacturing is provided by hydroelectric developments to the north and by oil and natural gas pipelines from Alberta. The city has become a centre for high technology industries and television and film production.

Vancouver's atmosphere is somewhat British in character with East Asian overtones. Its Chinatown is overshadowed on the Pacific coast only by San Francisco's. Gastown is a restoration of the original 1880s-era heart of the city. The business and financial district adjoins the port facilities along Burrard Inlet. Large, attractively landscaped residential suburbs included in the metropolitan area extend to the south and east along the mouth of the Fraser River and encompass the cities of Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, Delta, and Richmond. To the north, across Burrard Inlet, are the residential suburbs of North Vancouver and West Vancouver, which are backed by steep mountains up to 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) high and are connected to Vancouver by the Lions Gate and Second Narrows bridges.

Educational institutions within the metropolitan area include the University of British Columbia (1908; with a notable Museum of Anthropology on its campus) and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (1925) in Vancouver and Simon Fraser University (1963) in Burnaby. Notable museums include the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium, the Vancouver and Maritime museums, and the Vancouver Art Gallery (1931). B.C. Place Stadium (1983) is the city's main venue for sporting events, concerts, and conventions. Vancouver has a symphony orchestra, which performs in a variety of locations in the metropolitan area, including the Orpheum Theatre (1927) downtown; opera and ballet companies, both based at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre complex (1959); and a lively theatre community. In 1986 Vancouver celebrated its centennial with a world's fair, known as Expo 86. Canada Place, with its white sail-like roof, was built for the fair. It juts out into Burrard Inlet and houses a convention centre, cruise ship docking facilities, restaurants, shops, and a hotel.

Stanley Park (with its gardens, aquarium, and zoo) occupies some 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of the downtown peninsula at the harbour entrance. The 55-acre (22-hectare) VanDusen Botanical Garden excels among many other parks and gardens in the city, which includes Bloedel Floral Conservatory just to the east in Queen Elizabeth Park. Vancouver is home to several professional sports teams, including the Canucks (ice hockey), the Whitecaps (football [soccer]), and the BC Lions (Canadian gridiron football). Cypress and Mount Seymour provincial parks are nearby. Vancouver was chosen to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, with many of the events scheduled at the winter-sports area in Whistler, about 80 miles (130 km) north of the city.

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