世界城市博览（29）Las Vegas（美国）

世界城市博览（29）Las Vegas（美国）       Las Vegas is in the southern part of the state of Nevada, about 50 miles east of the California border and 30 miles west of the Arizona border. The city is divided into two main parts: a compact downtown called Glitter Gulch and the Strip, a corridor of hotels and casinos（娱乐场，赌场）.

The only natural feature to account for the location of Las Vegas is a spring north of downtown. Once used by Paiute Indians on their seasonal visits to the area, it was re-discovered by Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. The area became known to overland travelers as las vegas - ''the meadows'' - a place with reliable water and feed for horses. Las Vegas became a regular stop on the southern emigrant route to California, the Spanish Trail. In the 1850s, Mormons（摩门教徒） built the town''s first structures, a small mission（教堂） and fort（堡垒）; the fort became a ranch house（低矮的平房）, but there was little development until 1902, when much of the land was sold to a railroad company. The area that is now downtown was subdivided when the tracks came through, with 1200 lots sold on 15 May 1905 alone - a date now celebrated as the city''s birthday.

As a railroad town, Las Vegas had machine shops, a good number of hotels, saloons and gambling houses. The railroad laid off（解雇） hundreds in the mid 1920s, but one Depression-era development gave the city a new life. The huge Hoover Dam（胡佛水坝）project commenced in 1931, providing jobs and growth in the short term and water and power for the ci

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