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Renting an Apartment in Vancouver
What You Should Know
Vancouver, Washington is a city on the north shore of the Columbia River, in
the state of Washington, USA. It is the county seat of Clark County. As of July
1, 2005 it had a population of 157,493, many of whom commute to neighbor
Portland, Oregon. It is part of the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area.
In 1806 the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area. Lewis wrote that it
was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The
first permanent white settlement did not occur until 1825, when Fort Vancouver
was established as a fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From that
time on, the area was settled by both the US and Britain under a "joint
occupation" agreement. Joint occupation ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing
of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. The
City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857. (List of Mayors from
1858 on)
U.S. Army Captain (and future President) Ulysses S. Grant served at what was
then known as Columbia Barracks for 15 months beginning in September 1852. Soon
after leaving Vancouver he resigned from the army and did not serve again until
the outbreak of the American Civil War.
The larger city of Vancouver, British Columbia is located 250 miles (400 km)
north of Vancouver, Washington. Both cities were named for sea captain George
Vancouver, but the Canadian city was not incorporated until 1886, nearly thirty
years after Vancouver, Washington, and more than sixty years after the name Fort
Vancouver was first used. Younger residents of Vancouver jokingly refer to the
city as 'The Couve' (pronounced in the same way that the second syllable in
Vancouver is pronounced). City officials have periodically suggested changing
the city's name to Fort Vancouver, Vancouver USA or even Old Vancouver to reduce
confusion with Vancouver, British Columbia. Washington residents distinguish
between the two cities by referring to the Canadian Vancouver as "Vancouver,
B.C."
Vancouver became the end point for two ultralong flights from Moscow, USSR over
the North Pole. The first of these flights was performed by Valery Chkalov in
1937. Chkalov was originally scheduled to land at an airstrip in nearby
Portland, OR, but redirected at the last minute to Vancouver's Pearson Airfield.
Today there is a street named for him in Vancouver.
Vancouver has recently experienced conflicts with other Clark County communities
because of rapid growth in the area. Due to urban growth and annexation
Vancouver is often thought of as split between two areas, East and West
Vancouver, divided by NE Andresen Road. West Vancouver is home to downtown
Vancouver and some of the more historical parts of the town, while East
Vancouver is in transition between rural farm-land and residential and
commercial development. If the proposed Burnt Bridge Creek annexation is
approved by residents, Vancouver will surpass both Tacoma and Spokane to become
the state's second-largest city.
The Vancouver School District covers most of west Vancouver and has six high
schools: Hudson's Bay High School, Columbia River High School, Fort Vancouver
High School, Lewis and Clark High School, Skyview High School, and the Vancouver
School of Arts and Academics (grades 6-12). It also has six middle schools: Alki
Middle School, Discovery Middle School, Gaiser Middle School, Jason Lee Middle
School, Jefferson Middle School and McLoughlin Middle School.
The Evergreen School District covers most of east Vancouver and has three high
schools: Evergreen High School, Mountain View High School, and Heritage High
School.A fourth high school, Union High School is set to open in fall of 2007.
Vancouver is also home to the Washington School for the Deaf and Washington
School for the Blind.
Vancouver has two interstate freeways, I-5 and I-205, both of which run
North–South, into Portland, Oregon. It also has two heavily travelled state
highways within the city limits. SR-14 begins at I-5 in downtown Vancouver and
makes its way east. It is a freeway all the way until Camas. SR-500 begins from
I-5 at 39th Street in north Vancouver, travels east connecting with I-205, and
continues east into the suburb of Orchards where the freeway terminates at
Fourth Plain Road, and meets with the south end of north-southbound 117th
Ave.,SR-503. Note that there are three traffic signals on SR-500 in Vancouver. A
third state highway, SR-501, starts at I-5 and heads west through downtown and
continues along a path that runs between the Columbia River and Vancouver Lake.
The city also operates its own port on the Columbia River, which separates
Oregon to the south and Washington to the north. It handles over 400 ocean-going
vessels annually, as well as a number of barges which ply the river and its
tributaries as far as Lewiston, Idaho.
The area's mass transit system is C-Tran, the Clark County Public Transportation
Benefit Area Authority, which operates 135 buses, vanpools, and paratransit
vehicles. There are also a number of express routes into Portland's downtown.
In 1994, Clark County voters defeated a ballot measure to extend Portland's
Metropolitain Area Express (MAX) light rail system north into downtown
Vancouver. Portland extended the MAX line in 2004 as far north as the Multnomah
County Expo Center in north Portland, approximately 1 mile south of downtown
Vancouver.
Vancouver has always been well served by rail; current freight railroads
operating in Vancouver include the BNSF, Union Pacific, and the local shortline
Lewis and Clark Railway. Passenger train services are provided by Amtrak from
the Amtrak station in west Vancouver. Amtrak Cascades provides 3 short-haul
trains between Seattle and Portland, all of which stop in Vancouver. Travel time
to Seattle is 3 hours 30 minutes.
Pearson Field Airport, located in downtown Vancouver, is the main airport
serving the city. The airport is intended primarily for general aviation without
any commercial air service. The nearest commercial airport is Portland
International Airport (PDX).