Salt Lake City     Population: 218,430
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city in Utah.   It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state.   Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young.   The street grid system is based on a standard compass grid plan, with the southeast corner of Temple Square serving as the origin of the Salt Lake meridian.   Owing to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, it was originally named Great Salt Lake City; the word "Great" was dropped from the city's name in 1868.   Salt Lake City has developed a strong tourist industry based primarily on skiing, outdoor recreation, and religious tourism.   It hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and is set to host the 2034 Winter Olympics.   It is the industrial banking center of the United States.   Salt Lake City and the surrounding area are the location of several institutions of higher education including the state's flagship research school, the University of Utah.   The city is in the northeast corner of the Salt Lake Valley surrounded by the Great Salt Lake to the northwest, the steep Wasatch Range to the east, and Oquirrh Mountains to the west.   Its encircling mountains contain several narrow canyons.   The highest mountaintop visible from Salt Lake City is Twin Peaks, which reaches 11,330 feet.   Twin Peaks is southeast of Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Mountain Range.   The second-highest mountain range is the Oquirrhs, reaching a maximum height of 10,620 feet at Flat Top.   The east–west-oriented Traverse Mountains to the south extend to 6,000 feet, nearly connecting the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains.   The Salt Lake Valley floor is the ancient lakebed of Lake Bonneville, which existed at the end of the last ice age.   Several Lake Bonneville shorelines can be distinctly seen as terraces on the foothills or benches of nearby mountains.   Ancient folds of Lake Bonneville shorelines also lie underneath Salt Lake City.   Downtown Salt Lake City has been a hub of commerce for the Intermountain West, and its architecture reflects this history.   Main Street, which was the primary commercial avenue for the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   A distinctive feature of the cityscape is the very large block sizes, which are 660 feet square and separated by streets 132 feet wide, making them the largest in the United States.   This and the resulting development patterns gives the city and its buildings a unique sense of scale but also a distinct challenge to urban walkability, with many streets boasting six lanes for automobile traffic.
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Salt Lake City lies at the convergence of two cross-country freeways; I-15 running north–south, and I-80, which connects downtown with Salt Lake City International Airport to the west and exits to the east through Parley's Canyon.   I-215 forms a 270-degree loop around the city.   SR-201 extends to the western Salt Lake City suburbs.   The Legacy Parkway (SR-67), opened September 2008, heading north from I-215 into Davis County along the east shore of the Great Salt Lake.   Travel to and from Davis County is complicated by geography as roads have to squeeze through the narrow opening between the Great Salt Lake to the west and the Wasatch Mountains to the east.   Only four roads run between the two counties to carry the load of rush hour traffic from Davis County.   Salt Lake City's surface street system is laid out on a simple grid pattern.   Road names are numbered with a north, south, east, or west designation, with the grid originating at the southeast corner of Temple Square downtown.   One of the visions of Brigham Young and the early settlers was to create wide spacious streets which characterizes downtown.   The grid pattern remains fairly intact in the city, except on the East Bench, where geography makes it impossible.   The entire Salt Lake Valley is laid out on the same numbered grid system, although it becomes increasingly irregular further into the suburbs.   Many streets carry both a name and a grid coordinate.   US-89 enters the city from the northwest, becomes 900 West Street through the northern part of the city, and then exits Salt Lake City as State Street.   Salt Lake City's mass transit service is operated by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) and includes a bus system, light rail, and a commuter rail line.   Intercity services are provided by Amtrak and various intercity bus lines.   These services are all interconnected at the Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub (Salt Lake Central Station), west of the city center.   Transit bus service: UTA's bus system extends throughout the Wasatch Front from Brigham City in the north to Santaquin in the south and as far west as Grantsville, as well as east to Park City.   UTA also operates routes to the ski resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, as well as Sundance in Provo Canyon, during the ski season from November to April.   The 44.8-mile light rail system, called TRAX, has three lines.   The system has 50 stations, 23 of which are within the city limits.   The commuter rail system, FrontRunner, extends from the Intermodal Hub north through Davis County to the northern border of Weber County.   An expansion called "FrontRunner South", which extended FrontRunner to Provo in central Utah County.   Salt Lake City International Airport is 4 miles west of downtown and falls entirely within the boundary of Salt Lake City.   Delta Air Lines operates a hub at the airport serving over 100 non-stop destinations in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, as well as Europe.
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