3,581,501,859 visitors served.

forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters

Vancouver

Chief Pacific seaport of Canada, on the mainland of British Columbia; population (2001 est) 582,000, metropolitan area

(2001 est)2,078,800. A major commercial, distribution, and tourist centre, it is the terminus of transcontinental rail and road routes, and a 1,144-km/715-mi pipeline from the Alberta oilfields. It is Canada's third-largest metropolitan area. Industries include oil-refining, engineering, shipbuilding, fishing and fish-canning, brewing, timber-milling, and the manufacture of aircraft, pulp and paper, and textiles.

History

Native Canadian Coast Salish peoples originally occupied about ten villages around Burrard Inlet. The first European to visit the area was the Spanish explorer José Maria Narvaez in 1791. He was followed by others, including Captain James Cook in 1778 and in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver, who had served with Cook and claimed the region for Britain. In 1862 a brickworks was set up on the south shore of the inlet; it was soon superseded by a sawmill. The settlement of Gastown was named after ‘Gassy’ Jack Leighton, the proprietor of Leighton's House, a bar opened in 1867 to serve the area's lumber yards. The publican was nicknamed for his talkative nature. The site became known as Granville in 1870, and in 1884 the growing lumber town and port was selected as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway (the first train arrived from Montréal in 1887). The town was renamed on incorporation in 1886.

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 led to an expansion of the port, and in 2002 there were 25 terminals.

Vancouver has a large ethnic Chinese population (140,000 in 1989), and is also home to thousands of immigrants from Hong Kong.

Geography The city is situated on the southern shore of Burrard Inlet, an arm of the Strait of Georgia, at the mouth of the Fraser River, and possesses an ice-free harbour. Its hinterland is bounded by the Coast Mountains. The metropolitan area of Vancouver stretches to the mouth of the Fraser and includes the cities of New Westminster, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody, together with several suburban municipalities. Fairview, an older residential and commercial section with 1920s wooden row houses, is located to the south of the city centre.

Communications Vancouver is the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways, and the northern terminus of the US Great Northern and North Pacific railways. It is also the westernmost mainland point on the Trans-Canada Highway. An international airport is located on Sea Island at the mouth of the Fraser River. Burrard Inlet is spanned at its narrows by the Lions Gate suspension bridge and two other bridges, giving access to north and west Vancouver.

Architecture Gastown, the oldest section of the city, has been restored. Canada Place Convention Centre was built for Expo'86, a Canadian world fair.

Education and culture Vancouver is the seat of the University of British Columbia (1909) and the Emily Carr College of Art and Design (1925). Cultural centres include Vancouver Museum, with displays of aboriginal culture, Vancouver Art Gallery, the Museum of Anthropology, the Canadian Craft Museum, and the Maritime Museum. Vancouver's Chinatown is the second-largest Chinese community in North America, after San Francisco. There was much migration from Hong Kong in the run-up to the colony's reversion to China in 1997. Dr Sun Yat-sen Gardens, completed in 1986, was the first classical Chinese garden built outside China. The city has a symphony orchestra, and opera and theatre companies. Deadman's Island naval base harbours George Vancouver's ship, the Discovery. From 1983, the Heritage Conservation Programme protected 2,200 historic sites.

Entertainment Stanley Park, which contains a zoo and aquarium, and Vanier Park, with museums and the H R MacMillan Planetarium, are the main open spaces. Granville Island, under Granville Street Bridge, is a lively market, bar, and café area. The Pacific Coliseum is home to the city's ice-hockey team. British Columbia Place Stadium is the world's largest air-inflated dome, and seats 60,000 people.

Vancouver

City and administrative headquarters of Clark County, southwest Washington, USA; population (2000) 143,600. It is situated on the Columbia River, 13 km/8 minorth of Portland, Oregon. It is a manufacturing and shipping centre for agriculture and timber. Paper products, clothing, and aluminium are also important to the local economy.It began as a trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company 1825.