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Las Vegas | |||||||||||
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At one time, Fremont Street was the center of action in Las Vegas and was Most of the development during the early part of the 1990's has been along the | ||||||||||||
Special thanks are offered to my brother, for supplying some of the pictures used on this page. *hugs* | ||||||||||||
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This Web Site and its contents (eg. HTML, design and images) are the property of Angelsmist. Please notify the author if you wish to use any of the contents or images. |
as a good stop for the railroads, allowing for replenishing of supplies in route. By 1904, construction began on laying tracks into the Las Vegas Valley, and tent cities popped up in the surrounding area, complete with saloons and boarding houses. In 1910, an anti-gambling law came into effort in Nevada. It lasted fro only three weeks. The first resort to be established was the El Rancho Vegas Hotel-Casino in 1941. By 1946, a construction boom began when Bugsy Sigel opened the Flamingo, which still is in full operation today. Entertainment, as well as gambling, drew visitors to the city. The 1960's brought technology into the casinos, as multiple coin mechanical slot machines began to appear. This further evolved into computerized gambling by the 1970's. The following decade brought the notion of a mega-hotel to realization, and soon Las Vegas was home to thirteen of the twenty largest hotels in the world.
known as the "Glitter Gulch". But was mega hotels/casinos began popping up along the Strip, the downtown casinos became neglected. In an effort to draw visitors, a $70 million project was launched by the downtown casinos to create the Fremont Street Experience. A 90-foot high canopy covering four acres of the downtown street was erected, cover with over two million lights that create dancing and moving images. Throughout the evening all the casinos on Fremont dim their neon lights, as the 
canopy lights come to life hourly in six-minute shows, until midnight. A sound system has been installed to give provide wrap-around sound. Numerous light shows have been programmed into the computer that drives the show, which alternates the shows randomly at each performance. During the summer an fine misting air conditioning system provides relief for visitors, and a heating system handles the chills of the winter season.
southern area of the strip. The Excalibur was the first of the new hotels/casinos to settle in the area that had been dominated by only the Tropicana for more than thirty years. The midevil designed hotel has daily performance of Merlin battling the dragon in the front moot daily. Inside, attractions include jousting in an arena, gambling, a children's play area and shopping. The following year, the Luxor sprung up next door to the Excalibur, bringing a bit of Egypt to the American 
desert. Standing over thirty stories high, this pyramid shaped hotel could hold nine Boeing 747's stacked on atop of another in the middle of the atrium. Inside is a full-scale reproduction of King Tut's Tomb, and from atop the pyramid shine the world's most powerful beam of light. MGM secured a position on the southern strip when they built the MGM 
Grand Hotel and Theme Park in 1993. The MGM is the largest resort hotel in the world with over five thousand rooms. The centerpiece of the resort is a thirty-three acre theme park, accompanied with twelve theme restaurants, three swimming pools, a 15,000 seat arena for concerts and sporting events, two production theaters and a world class casino. The newest addition to this portion of the strip was New York, New York, featuring the buildings and landmarks of the Big Apple.
