Vancouver (redirected from Vancouver, BC)

Vancouver, city, Canada

Vancouver, city (1991 pop. 471,844), SW British Columbia, Canada, on Burrard Inlet of the Strait of Georgia, opposite Vancouver Island and just N of the Wash. border. It is the largest city on Canada's Pacific coast, the center of the third largest metropolitan area in Canada, and the nation's chief Pacific port, with an excellent year-round harbor. It is the major western terminus of trans-Canadian railroads, highways, and airways, as well as the terminus of a pipeline bringing oil to the west coast from Edmonton. The city's industries include lumbering, shipbuilding, fish processing, and sugar and oil refining. It has textile and knitting mills and plants making metal, wood, paper, and mineral products.

Vancouver's location on hills with views of the harbor, its many waterways, and the nearby mountains of the Coast Range as well as its mild winter climate make it a year-round tourist center. As Canada's main connection to Pacific Rim countries, Vancouver has become increasingly ethnically diverse as large numbers of Chinese, Japanese, and South Asians have settled in the city. Vancouver's Chinatown is second only to San Francisco's.

Simon Fraser Univ. and the British Columbia Institute of Technology are in the city. At Point Grey in metropolitan Vancouver is the Univ. of British Columbia. Stanley Park (900 acres/364 hectares), the largest of the city's more than 170 parks, has a zoo, a marine science center, and famous gardens with outstanding specimens of native trees. Other attractions include the Granville Island Museums and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site some 20 mi (32 km) south of the city. Vancouver is home to the Canucks (National Hockey League), and Lions (Canadian Football League). An international exposition devoted to transportation, Expo '86, brought international recognition and 20 million visitors to the city, and the city will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Vancouver was settled before 1875 and originally called Granville. It was incorporated in 1886, after a rail link was built, and named in honor of Capt. George Vancouver.

Bibliography

See A. Kloppenborg et al., Vancouver's First Century: A City Album, 1860–1960 (1978); R. A. J. McDonald and J. Burman, ed., Vancouver's Past: Essays in Social History (1986).

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Vancouver, city, United States

Vancouver, city (1990 pop. 46,380), seat of Clark co., SW Wash., on the Columbia River opposite Portland, Oreg., with which it is connected by bridges; inc. 1857. An important deepwater port, it has an extensive shipping industry, many lumber mills, and an enormous grain elevator. Power from the nearby Bonneville Dam supplies its industries; manufactures include aluminum goods, paper products, telephone equipment, and sportswear. It was founded by the Hudson's Bay Company as Fort Vancouver in 1825–26 (see McLoughlin, John). After the area was ceded to the United States in 1846, the U.S. army established (1849) a fort there, which remains in operation. Vancouver has an art gallery and a sports stadium. It is also the headquarters for Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Historic attractions include Fort Vancouver National Historic Site (see National Parks and Monuments, table); Covington House (1845), one of the oldest houses in the state; and the Ulysses S. Grant house and museum.

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Vancouver

City (pop., 2001: metro. area, 1,986,965), southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Located on a fine natural harbour, it originated as a lumber-processing settlement in the 1870s. It recovered from a disastrous fire (1886) to become Canada's principal seaport. Its development was aided by completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1887 and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, which made it economically feasible to export grain and lumber from Vancouver to the North American east coast and Europe. Economic activities include producing lumber and plywood, oil refining, fishing, and shipbuilding.

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Vancouver¹

Captain George. 1757--98, English navigator, noted for his exploration of the Pacific coast of North America (1792--94)

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Vancouver²

1. Vancouver Island an island of SW Canada, off the SW coast of British Columbia: separated from the Canadian mainland by the Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound, and from the US mainland by Juan de Fuca Strait; the largest island off the W coast of North America. Chief town: Victoria. Pop.: 706 243 (2001). Area: 32 137 sq. km (12 408 sq. miles)

2. a city in SW Canada, in SW British Columbia: Canada's chief Pacific port, named after Captain George Vancouver: university (1908). Pop.: 545 671 (2001)

3. Mount. a mountain on the border between Canada and Alaska, in the St Elias Mountains. Height: 4785 m (15 700 ft.)

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Vancouver 

the largest island on the western coast of North America. Part of the territory of Canada (province of British Columbia). Area, 32,200 sq km; population, over 300,000 (1965). Mountains cover most of the island and reach elevations of up to 2,200 m with ancient glacial formations. There are fjords on the western coast, and there is a lowland strip on the east coast where cities and major transportation routes are concentrated. The climate is moderate and marine (annual precipitation may reach 2,000 mm); it is drier (1,000 mm) in the east, with warm summers. Vegetation consists of coniferous forests. Major occupations include lumber processing, coal and iron ore mining, fishing, agriculture, and tourism. Victoria is the island’s major city and port. The island is named after G. Vancouver, who explored it in 1792.

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Vancouver 

a city in southwestern Canada in the province of British Columbia. Located on the shore of Burrard Inlet near the border with the USA. Canada’s third largest city in population (after Montreal and Toronto). Population, 955,000 (1968; including the suburbs).

Vancouver was founded in 1886 on the site of old Indian stopping places and the later European settlement of Granville. Its rapid growth occurred late in the 19th century, caused primarily by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the terminus of which was and still is Vancouver.

Vancouver is a principal port for the export of wheat (from the prairie provinces of Canada), lumber, and nonferrous metals (from British Columbia). It is a large railroad station at the western terminus of two trans-Canadian lines. Near Vancouver is the Sea Island Airport. Pipelines connect the city with deposits of petroleum and natural gas (in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta). Vancouver is an important industrial center (with approximately one-half of the province’s industrial output), as well as a trade and financial center. There is lumber processing (employing 35 percent of the work force), food-processing (20 percent), shipbuilding, and the production of equipment for the lumber and mining industries. Vancouver also has an oil refinery and a metalworking plant.

The city is named after G. Vancouver, the British navigator and explorer of the Pacific coastline of North America. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries a rectangular network of streets, as well as many parks, was constructed in Vancouver. There are neoclassical buildings (the city hall, 1936), large modern buildings (the headquarters of the Electric Company of British Columbia, 1957), and prefabricated wooden frame houses. The Lions Gate steel suspension bridge (1939) is in Vancouver. The art gallery and the city museum contain collections of Canadian art, including that of the Indians and Eskimo. There is also a university in Vancouver.

REFERENCE

Morley, A. Vancouver. From Milltown to Metropolis. Vancouver [1961].

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Vancouver 

a city located in the northwestern USA in the state of Washington; a northern suburb of Portland, Ore. Population, 40,000 (1969).

Vancouver is a port on the Columbia River that can be used by oceangoing vessels. Aluminum is produced in Vancouver. The city also has sawmills and paper and food-processing industries. In 1947 the heroic team of Soviet air-men headed by V. P. Chkalov ended its USSR-USA polar flight near Vancouver.