For all of you who don't live in SLC I need to explain the basic and straight forward layout the city's street planing. But first a quick history of the town - straight from wikipedia -
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census,[3] the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197. Salt Lake City is further situated in a larger urban area known as the Wasatch Front, which has a population of 2,238,697.[4]
The city was founded in 1847 as Great Salt Lake City by Brigham Young and his Mormon followers, who extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley. Although Salt Lake City is still home to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), less than half the population of Salt Lake City proper is Mormon today.[5]
Mining booms and the construction of the first transcontinental railroad initially brought economic growth, and the city was nicknamed the Crossroads of the West. Salt Lake City has since developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing. Salt Lake City was host to the 2002 Winter Olympics and is the industrial banking center of the United States.[6]
With that brief history lesson done, lets move on to how the city is located geographically speaking. Salt Lake City is located at 40°45′N 111°53′W / 40.75°N 111.883°W. The total area is 110.4 square miles (285.9 km²) and has an average elevation of 4,327 feet (1,320 m)
SLC is a Valley between two mountain ranges on the West and East. The Western is the Oquirrh and the Eastern is the Wasatch and to the Northwest is Great Salt Lake.
Now the street system layout, and for everyone that is a fan of the grid , welcome to the best city I've seen for keeping with the grid throughout the entire city.
Ok, so the LDS temple is the most sacred place in town , so naturally the entire grid was laid out with the temple as the starting point. From the temple stepping south(but traveling east west) the first street is South Temple - then 100 South , 200 South , 300 S, 400 S etc. This goes on all the way south to 13800 S. Going North it is North Temple which is also 2 Ave , First Ave starts in the mid point of the temple block.
Then lanes of travel North South begin from the center of the temple block as Main St (heading East) as 100 East (which is better know as State Street) , 200 E, 300 E etc , then heading West its 100 West (also know as W Temple) 200 W, 300 W etc.
Then you have the freeway system. I-15 that cuts the city's West Side off then I-80 goes East - West through town but to the south of most of the classic urban pattern of the city. South of that it turns into the modern sprawling community of big box and strip malls, though still based on the grid system. Until you hit I-215 the belt line. As it sounds it wraps a belt line from the North to the South then cutting to East and back into I-80, South of that you have big communities structured by the grid but within them you have the curvilinear 'garden' neighborhoods, and lots of big box , and strip malls.
So this is all leading into further discussions on the potential of SLC and its environs.
For a more details on Salt Lake City - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City
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