The
Saskatchewan River flows through Edmonton, and shapes a lot of its character, with the river valley (mostly free from development) constituting the largest contiguous urban park in Canada. The city was originally two settlements, with
on the north side, and
on the south.
The chief roadway into the city from the south is
, while the two original main drags are
on the north side, and
on the south side. Much of the city is laid out on a numbered grid system, with avenues running
and streets running
. Two freeways run through the city, the
on the north side, and the
on the south. The
is a ring road around the city, although there is already quite a bit of development on the outer side of it.
As is the case with many cities, what used to be separate small adjacent towns are now just city neighbourhoods - a couple of examples are
in the west end, and
in the east. The town of
, just south of Edmonton, was the site of a crude oil discovery in 1947 which kickstarted Alberta's petroleum industry, still a major part of the province's economy.
The main things most outsiders know about Edmonton are
Edmonton Mall, which was once the largest indoor shopping mall in the world, and is still in the top twenty, worldwide, and the NHL hockey team, the Edmonton
, which had a magnificent run in the 1980s, winning five Stanley Cups.
For those of us who live here, though, the city is more about treed streets, parks, and summer festivals.
