document_title: Vancouver, Washington

question_text: how far is vancouver washington from vancouver canada

text: Vancouver, Washington

text: Etymology[edit]

text: Vancouver shares its name with the larger city of Vancouver in southern British Columbia, Canada, approximately 300 mi (480 km) to the north. Both cities were named after sea captain George Vancouver, but the American city is older; Vancouver, B.C., was incorporated 29 years after the incorporation of Vancouver, Washington, and more than 60 years after the name Vancouver was first used in reference to the historic Fort Vancouver trading post on the Columbia River. City officials have periodically suggested changing the U.S. city's name to Fort Vancouver to reduce confusion with its larger and better-known northern neighbor. Many Pacific Northwest residents distinguish between the two cities by referring to the Canadian city as "Vancouver, B.C." and the United States city as "Vancouver, Washington," or "Vancouver, USA." Local nicknames include "Vantucky" (though this is often used as a derogatory term)[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] and "The 'Couv(e)".[20] In 2013, the nickname "Vansterdam" surfaced as a result of the legalization of marijuana in the state of Washington; this is a reference to the cannabis-legal city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.[21]

text: History[edit]

text: The Vancouver area was inhabited by a variety of Native American tribes, most recently the Chinook and Klickitat nations, with permanent settlements of timber longhouses.[22] The Chinookan and Klickitat names for the area were reportedly Skit-so-to-ho and Ala-si-kas, respectively, meaning "land of the mud-turtles."[23] First European contact was made in 1775, with approximately half of the indigenous population dead from smallpox before the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area in 1806.[22] Within another fifty years, other actions and diseases such as measles, malaria and influenza had reduced the Chinookan population from an estimated 80,000 "to a few dozen refugees, landless, slaveless and swindled out of a treaty."[22]

text: Meriwether Lewis wrote that the Vancouver area was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The first permanent European settlement did not occur until 1824, 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 led to the Oregon boundary dispute and ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. Before 1845, American Henry Williamson laid out a large claim west of the Hudson's Bay Company (including part of the present-day Port of Vancouver), called Vancouver City and properly registered his claim at the U.S. courthouse in Oregon City, before leaving for California.[24] In 1850, Amos Short traced over the claim of Williamson and named the town Columbia City. It changed to Vancouver in 1855.[25] The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857.[26]

text: Based on an act in the 1859–60 legislature, Vancouver was briefly the capital of Washington Territory, before capital status was returned to Olympia, Washington by a 2–1 ruling of the territory's supreme court, in accordance with Isaac Stevens' preference and concern that proximity to the border with Oregon might give some of the state's influence away to Oregon.[27][28][29]

text: U.S. Army Captain (and future President) Ulysses S. Grant was quartermaster 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. Other notable generals to have served in Vancouver include George B. McClellan, Philip Sheridan, Oliver O. Howard and 1953 Nobel Peace Prize recipient George Marshall.[30]

text: Army presence in Vancouver was very strong, as the Department of the Columbia built and moved to Vancouver Barracks, the military reservation for which stretched from the river to what is currently Fourth Plain Boulevard and was the largest Army base in the region until surpassed by Fort Lewis, 120 miles (190 km) to the north. Built on the old company gardens and skirmish range, Pearson Army Field (later Pearson Field) was a key facility, and at one point the US Army Signal Corps operated the largest spruce cut-up plant in the world to provide much-needed wood for airplanes. Vancouver became the end point for two ultra-long flights from Moscow, USSR over the North Pole. The first of these flights was performed by Valery Chkalov in 1937 on a Tupolev ANT-25RD airplane. Chkalov was originally scheduled to land at an airstrip in nearby Portland, Oregon, but redirected at the last minute to Vancouver's Pearson Airfield. Today there is a street named for him in Vancouver. In 1975 an obelisk was erected at Pearson Field commemorating this event.

text: Separated from Oregon until 1917, when the Interstate Bridge began to replace ferries, Vancouver had three shipyards just downstream which produced ships for World War I before World War II brought an enormous economic boom. An Alcoa aluminum plant opened on September 2, 1940, using inexpensive power from the nearby New Deal hydropower turbines at Bonneville Dam. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Henry Kaiser opened a shipyard next to the U.S. Army base, which by 1944 employed as many as 36,000 people in a twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week production of liberty ships, LST's, and "baby flat tops." This influx of shipyard workers boosted the population from 18,000 to over 80,000 in just a few months, leading to the creation of the Vancouver Housing Authority and six new residential developments: Fruit Valley, Fourth Plain Village, Bagley Downs, Ogden Meadows, Burton Homes and McLoughlin Heights. Each of these was later incorporated into the city, and are well-known neighborhoods, while the neighboring "shipyard city" of Vanport, Oregon, would be destroyed by the Memorial Day flood of 1948.

text: Vancouver has recently experienced conflicts with other Clark County communities because of rapid growth in the area. The city's first annexation more than doubled its size in 1909, with the largest annexation of 1997 adding 11,258 acres (45.56 km2) and 58,171 residents.[31] As a result of urban growth and the 1997 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 city, as well as recent high-density mixed-use development.

text: More than one-third of the Vancouver urban area's population lives in unincorporated urban area north of the city limits, including the communities of Hazel Dell, Felida, Orchards and Salmon Creek. If county leaders had approved a major annexation plan in 2006, Vancouver would have passed Tacoma and Spokane to become the state's second-largest city.[32]

text: Geography and climate[edit]

text: Vancouver is located just north of the Columbia River, just west of where the Columbia River Gorge bisects the volcanic Cascade Range and just east of where the Willamette River enters the Columbia. The city of Vancouver[33] is in the Western Lowlands region of Washington.[34] When clouds do not blanket the Puget-Willamette trough formed by the Cascade and Coast Range, Mount Hood, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Jefferson and Mount Adams are all visible from Vancouver.

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 49.86 square miles (129.14 km2), of which, 46.46 square miles (120.33 km2) is land and 3.40 square miles (8.81 km2) is water.[1]

text: Vancouver lies just north of Portland, Oregon and shares a similar climate. Both are classified as dry-summer subtropical (Csb) on the Köppen climate classification, with certain key exceptions. High pressures east of the Cascade Range create something of a venturi effect, leading to cold east winds down the Columbia River Gorge. Unsheltered by the Willamette Valley, Vancouver has historically seen colder temperatures, including "silver thaw" storms where freezing rain cakes limbs and power lines. Such storms can paralyze Vancouver. This occasionally freezes the river, and in 1916 cut electric power in the city for almost two weeks. Rainfall occurs frequently throughout the fall, winter, and spring, but ceases around the middle of June, with dry and warm weather lasting through September. Average annual precipitation is 42 inches (1,100 mm). Heavy snowfalls are infrequent and snow often falls and doesn't stick, with major snowstorms only occurring every 2–4 years. Close proximity to the river was also a concern for flooding, before dams constricted the river, destroying features such as Celilo Falls. Periodic floods have been a nuisance, with two of the most destructive in June 1894 and May, 1948. The 1948 Memorial Day flood almost topped the Interstate Bridge's support piers and completely destroyed nearby Vanport, Oregon. Other unusual storms include the Columbus Day windstorm of 1962 and an April 5, 1972 tornado which rated F3 on the Fujita scale, striking a local school. A F1 tornado struck on January 10, 2008 just after noon causing moderate damage along a 2-mile (3.2 km) path from Vancouver Lake to the unincorporated Hazel Dell area.

text: Because many Vancouver residents work in Portland, there is typically significant rush hour traffic congestion on two bridges that cross the Columbia River — the Interstate Bridge and the Glenn Jackson Bridge. In 2006 there were 278,043 weekday vehicle crossings on the two bridges.[35]

text:
[hide]Climate data for Vancouver, Washington

Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Year

Record high °F (°C)
65
(18)
73
(23)
83
(28)
90
(32)
99
(37)
105
(41)
105
(41)
105
(41)
103
(39)
90
(32)
72
(22)
65
(18)
105
(41)

Average high °F (°C)
45.6
(7.6)
49.9
(9.9)
55.0
(12.8)
59.8
(15.4)
66.0
(18.9)
73.5
(23.1)
75
(24)
74
(23)
73.5
(23.1)
63.4
(17.4)
51.8
(11)
45.5
(7.5)
61.08
(16.14)

Average low °F (°C)
32.4
(0.2)
34.1
(1.2)
37.3
(2.9)
40.3
(4.6)
45.5
(7.5)
50.0
(10)
53.5
(11.9)
52.8
(11.6)
47.9
(8.8)
41.4
(5.2)
37.6
(3.1)
33.3
(0.7)
42.18
(5.64)

Record low °F (°C)
−8
(−22)
−3
(−19)
18
(−8)
24
(−4)
28
(−2)
34
(1)
37
(3)
35
(2)
28
(−2)
19
(−7)
8
(−13)
−10
(−23)
−10
(−23)

Average precipitation inches (mm)
5.81
(147.6)
4.86
(123.4)
4.21
(106.9)
3.07
(78)
2.64
(67.1)
1.73
(43.9)
0.80
(20.3)
1.07
(27.2)
1.78
(45.2)
3.28
(83.3)
6.29
(159.8)
6.38
(162.1)
41.92
(1,064.8)

Average snowfall inches (cm)
3.2
(8.1)
1.1
(2.8)
0.3
(0.8)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0.3
(0.8)
1.1
(2.8)
6.0
(15.2)

Average precipitation days
24
19
18.9
18
17
9.3
4.6
5.0
8.6
13.0
25.0
19.8
182.2

Average snowy days
0.8
0.9
0.1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.1
0.8
2.7

Source: NOAA [36] The Weather Channel (Oct record low) [37] Wunderground[38]

text: Demographics[edit]

text:
Historical population

Census
Pop.

%±

1880
1,722

—

1890
3,545

105.9%

1900
3,126

−11.8%

1910
9,300

197.5%

1920
12,637

35.9%

1930
15,766

24.8%

1940
18,788

19.2%

1950
41,664

121.8%

1960
32,464

−22.1%

1970
41,859

28.9%

1980
42,834

2.3%

1990
46,380

8.3%

2000
143,560

209.5%

2010
161,791

12.7%

Est. 2016
174,826
[39]
8.1%

U.S. Decennial Census[40]
2015 Estimate[3]

text: 2010 census[edit]

text: As of the census[2] of 2010, there were 161,791 people, 65,691 households, and 40,246 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,482.4 inhabitants per square mile (1,344.6/km2). There were 70,005 housing units at an average density of 1,506.8 per square mile (581.8/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 80.9% White, 2.9% African American, 1.0% Native American, 5.0% Asian, 1.0% Pacific Islander, 4.3% from other races, and 4.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 10.4% of the population.

text: There were 65,691 households of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.6% were married couples living together, 13.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 38.7% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 3.02.

text: The median age in the city was 35.9 years. 24% of residents were under the age of 18; 9.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 28.9% were from 25 to 44; 25.3% were from 45 to 64; and 12.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.8% male and 51.2% female.

text: 2000 census[edit]

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 143,560 people, there were 56,628 households, and 36,298 families living in the city. The population density is 3,354.7 people per square mile (1,295.4/km²). There were 60,039 housing units at an average density of 1,403.0 per square mile (541.7/km²). According to the 2010 US Census, The racial makeup of the city was 76.2% White, 2.9% African American, 1.0% Native American, 5.0% Asian, 1.0% Pacific Islander, and 4.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 10.4% of the population.[41] 16.4% were of German, 9.2% English, 8.4% Irish and 7.9% American ancestry. 89.2% spoke English, 5.1% Spanish, 3.2% Russian, 1.4% Ukrainian and 1.1% Vietnamese as their first language. A large increase in persons with Russian or Ukrainian as their primary language has occurred.

text: There were 56,628 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.3% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.9% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 3.06.

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.7% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 32.1% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 96.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.8 males.

text: The median income for a household in the city was $41,618, and the median income for a family was $47,696. Males had a median income of $37,306 versus $26,940 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,192. 9.4% of families and 12.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.1% of those under the age of 18 and 8.2% of those 65 and older.

text: Economy[edit]

text: This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The Vancouver economy is characterized by border economics with neighboring Portland, Oregon. The state of Washington levies no individual or corporate income taxes and levies a property tax below the national average and a sales tax above the national median.[42] The State of Oregon has even lower property taxes and no sales tax but one of the highest state income taxes.[43] As a result, many Vancouver residents prefer to shop in neighboring Portland where they do not pay sales taxes then live and work in Vancouver where they do not pay state income tax. (Washington residents who work in Oregon must pay Oregon income tax.) For the same reasons, the city is popular with retirees. Conversely, the city is less favored by students and young adults.[citation needed] In 2003, 70% of workers in Vancouver worked in Clark County. There is a risk in sales tax avoidance because Washington has a use tax due on all purchases made in Oregon that are then returned to Washington. Vancouver residents "shop at their own risk" when attempting to avoid the sales tax in Washington, although the rule is rarely, if ever, enforced[citation needed] except for purchases requiring registration, such as motor vehicles.

text: The taxation and demographics of the area depresses the retail sector of Vancouver's economy.[citation needed] Oregon has stricter development laws to protect the timber industry;[citation needed] therefore, Vancouver tends to attract a higher proportion of the region's sprawling development. The voting base also led to rejection of extension of Portland's light-rail system into the city for several years.[citation needed] In 2013, Washington transitioned away from being a control state.

text: The economic history of Vancouver reflects the region. Moving from a salmon- and trade-based indigenous economy by the Chinook people, the Hudson's Bay Company pioneered extractive industries such as the fur trade and timber. Subsistence agricultural gave way to market and export crops such as apples, strawberries and prunes. Largely bypassed by the railroad in the 1880s, when the Oregon Steam Navigation company would ferry trains across the river downstream from St. Helens, Oregon to Kalama, Washington, early downtown development was focused around Washington Street (where ferries arrived), lumber and Vancouver Barracks activities such as a large spruce mill for manufacturing airplanes. A 1908 railroad swing bridge across the Columbia allowed greater industrial developments such as the Standifer Shipyard during the first world war. With the Interstate Bridge and Bonneville Dam Vancouver saw an industrial boom in the 1940s, including the Kaiser shipyard and Alcoa, as well as a Boise Cascade paper mill, just west of the Interstate Bridge.[44]

text: As the old-growth forests were depleted and heavy industry left the United States, Vancouver's economy has largely changed to high tech and service industry jobs, with many residents commuting to Portland. Vancouver contains the corporate headquarters for Nautilus, Inc. and The Holland (parent company of the Burgerville, USA restaurant chain).[45]

text: The Port of Vancouver USA operates a 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.

text: The Vancouver Energy project is a proposed crude oil transport hub in the Port of Vancouver USA. It has a tentative construction start date of December 2014 and estimated operation date of 2016. It is estimated, that this project would produce the equivalent of $1.6 billion in employment income during the terminal's construction and for its first 15 years of operation.[46]

text: Largest employers[edit]

text: According to the City's 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[47] the largest employers in the city are:

text:
#
Employer
# of employees

1
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center
2,841

2
Evergreen Public Schools
2,455

3
Vancouver Public Schools
2,203

4
County of Clark
1,561

5
Fred Meyer
1,500

6
Clark College
985

7
City of Vancouver
962

8
The Vancouver Clinic
912

9
BNSF Railway
800

10
Kaiser Permanente
724

text: Downtown revitalization[edit]

text: In 1997, the city of Vancouver decided to dedicate the next 15–20 years to redeveloping and revitalizing the downtown core, west of I-5 and south of Evergreen Boulevard. The first projects started in the early 2000s with the construction of many tall condominium structures around Esther Short park. The most lauded outside investment was the construction of a Hilton hotel directly across from the park.

text: The Columbian newspaper finished building a new seven-story building adjacent to the Hilton in 2008. Early in 2010, The Columbian filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the building defaulted to Bank of America. In June 2010, the City of Vancouver agreed to purchase the former downtown Columbian office building for use as a new city hall. The city bought the two-year-old building and 5.14 acres (20,800 m2) for $18.5 million, a fraction of the $41.5 million sale price the owners of The Columbian office building had been asking prior to filing for bankruptcy. In 2011, the city consolidated five separate buildings housing 300 employees into one at the new City Hall, located at 415 W. 6th St. The move is saving the city approximately $1 million a year in facility lease and maintenance costs.[48]

text: The Fort Vancouver Regional Library District opened a new, award-winning library on C Street at Evergreen Boulevard in 2011. Future plans on C Street include a new Marriott hotel and roughly 250 new condominiums. Other planned projects in the downtown area include:

text:
Library Square – Mixed-use project which includes a condominiums building, hotel/condominiums building, office building, and a new main library.
The Luxe – six-story office and condominium building.
Waterfront Redevelopment – includes 10K Residents Envision, retail, offices, parks, and more
Prestige Plaza – six-story building which includes condominiums and offices

text: Education[edit]

text: Public schools[edit]

text: Vancouver has two school districts: Vancouver Public Schools and Evergreen School District.

text: The Vancouver Public Schools cover most of west Vancouver and has seven high schools: Hudson's Bay High School, Columbia River High School, Fort Vancouver High School, Lewis and Clark High School, Skyview High School, Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and Vancouver iTech Preparatory (grades 6–12). It also has six middle schools: Alki Middle School, Discovery Middle School, Gaiser Middle School, Jason Lee Middle School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School, and McLoughlin Middle School.

text: Vancouver Public Schools' elementary schools include Sarah J. Anderson, Chinook, Eisenhower, Felida, Ben Franklin, Fruit Valley Community Learning Center, Harney, Hazel Dell, Hough, Martin Luther King, Lake Shore, Lincoln, Marshall, Minnehaha, Peter S. Ogden, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sacajawea, Salmon Creek, Truman, Walnut Grove, and Washington.

text: The Evergreen School District covers most of east Vancouver and has seven high schools: Evergreen High School, Mountain View High School, Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience High School, Heritage High School, Union High School, Legacy High School, and Cascadia Technical Academy (formerly Clark County Vocational Skills Center).[49]

text: The district has six middle schools: Cascade, Covington, Frontier, Pacific, Shahala, and Wy'East.

text: Evergreen School District's 21 elementary schools are: Burton, Burnt Bridge Creek, Columbia Valley, Crestline, Ellsworth, Endeavour, Fircrest, Fisher's Landing, Harmony, Hearthwood, Illahee, Image, Marrion, Mill Plain, Orchards, Pioneer, Riverview, Sifton, Silver Star, Sunset, and York.

text: Vancouver is also home to the Washington School for the Deaf and Washington School for the Blind, and (through Evergreen School District) Home Choice Academy, for home-schoolers.

text: Colleges and universities[edit]

text:
Clark College (two-year)
Washington State University, Vancouver
Charter College, Vancouver

text: Architecture and notable buildings[edit]

text: Mother Joseph was one of the first architects in the region, and because of its relatively long history, Vancouver contains a variety of buildings. Homes vary from Victorians and craftsman bungalows downtown, to small wartime tract housing and ranch-styles mid-town, with rural styles and larger homes in the outer ring. In addition to the reconstructed Fort Vancouver at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, the city was named one of the National Register of Historic Places' "Dozen Distinctive Destinations" for 2003.[50]

text: Other notable buildings in Vancouver include:

text:
The Covington House at 4201 Main Street, a log cabin and boarding school built 1846-1848
Officers Row, including the Grant House (first house on the Columbia Barracks) and the Queen Anne-style 1866 Marshall House
Mother Joseph's Providence Academy, dedicated in 1873, where Evergreen Boulevard crosses Interstate 5
The Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater (formerly St. James Church) saw its first Roman Catholic mass celebrated August 16, 1885
The Carnegie library at Sixteenth and Main, which opened on New Year's Eve, 1909, to showcase its unusual electric lights; it is now the site of the Clark County Historical Museum
The 1914 Chicago-style U.S. National Bank (now the Heritage Building) at sixth and Main
The 1916 U.S. Post Office at 1211 Daniels Street
The vertical-lift Interstate Bridge, which opened on February 14, 1917, Oregon's 58th anniversary
The 1935 art deco telephone exchange building at Eleventh and Washington
The 1941 Clark County Courthouse, designed by prolific local architect Day Hillborn
Smith Tower, a round downtown apartment building for the elderly, built in 1965
The Hilton Hotel and Vancouver Convention Center across from Esther Short Park

text: Many of these buildings have been re-purposed. The 1867 Slocum House, an Italianate villa style residence originally built one block south of its current location in Esther Short Park, was moved to its present location in 1966 and now houses a winery and art gallery.[51] The Carnegie Library was expanded in the 1940s, becoming the Clark County Historical Museum after a new library was built in 1963. Other buildings have been torn down for urban renewal or renovated to house professional offices for lawyers and accountants.

text: Art and culture[edit]

text: In the early 2000s, Vancouver began seeing a revitalization of local art scene and cultural events. In 2010 there was a movement among local artists to form cooperatives and meet with established local gallery owners for a monthly forum known as "Art Conversations." Many of Vancouver's art galleries are located in downtown Vancouver, and in 2014, the City Council formally designated an "Arts District" in the downtown core.[52]

text: The Kiggins Theatre located within the Downtown Vancouver Art District, was built in 1936 by architect Day Hillborn. It was named for J.P. Kiggins, an entrepreneur and politician who cut a swath through town in the early 20th century, serving as Vancouver's mayor for 15 non-consecutive years between 1908 and 1935. It was renovated and reopened in 2011 as independent film and community event venue.

text: The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra first formed in the late 1970s. Conducted and directed by Dr. Salvadore Brotons, the Symphony performs regular season concerts, a chamber music series and occasional theme concerts throughout the year.[53]

text: Annual events[edit]

text: Since the mid-1960s, Vancouver hosted a Fourth of July fireworks display on the grounds of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site that draws many people to the city. The display routinely ran to 45 minutes, attracted up to 60,000 visitors and was broadcast on area television, one of the largest west of the Mississippi River. Due to the death of key organizer "Mister Fireworks" Jim Larson and a poor economy, the show was not held in 2009.[54] A shorter, redesigned show debuted in 2010 and brought in approximately 35,000 people.[55] The annual event is now managed by the Fort Vancouver National Trust and features live music, food and entertainment all day on the Fort Vancouver parade grounds, along with a fireworks display synchronized with music.[56]

text: Late August features the Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival in Esther Short Park, which brought 13,500 attendees and which is considered the largest jazz festival in the Pacific Northwest.[57][58]

text: Local media[edit]

text: Vancouver is located within the Portland media market for print, radio, and television media. It does, however, serve as the hometown for some media.

text:
The Columbian
The Oregonian (based in Portland, Oregon; also covers some southwest Washington news)
The Vancouver Voice was, at one time, southwest Washington's only alternative periodical, published from 2006 to 2011.

text: Transportation[edit]

text: Vancouver has two interstate freeways, I-5 and I-205, both of which run north–south, across the Columbia River into Portland and toward Seattle. 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 Boulevard, and meets with the south end of north-south-oriented 117th Ave., SR 503. 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. Route 501 – SR501 dead ends a few miles north of Vancouver.

text: 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.

text: In 1995, Clark County voters defeated a ballot measure that would have funded extension of Portland's MAX Light Rail system north into Vancouver.[59] Opposition to paying for light rail was strong at that time, but slowly declined over the following several years, eventually leading Vancouver officials to begin discussing the idea again.[60][61] Meanwhile, TriMet reconstituted its planned MAX line to Vancouver as a shorter line running only within Portland, which potentially could later be extended across the river and into Clark County. This extension of the MAX system opened in 2004 as the Yellow Line,[62] running as far north as the Portland Expo Center, approximately 1 mile (2 km) south of downtown Vancouver. Vancouver voters have rejected light rail operations monies in connection with the Columbia River Crossing proposal.[63]

text: 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. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Vancouver Station. Three routes, the Coast Starlight, the Empire Builder, and the Amtrak Cascades, serve the city.

text: Pearson Field, located near 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).

text: In 2008, Vancouver passed a citywide law requiring anyone on a wheeled device such as a bicycle, skateboard, scooter or skates to wear a helmet while on any sidewalk, street, trail or other public property. Many local cyclists opposed the law as a misuse of city funds and police efforts, as well as encroachment on personal freedoms. Despite opposition from the public, the Vancouver City Council passed the measure 5-1 with then Mayor Royce Pollard saying, "[S]tatistics be damned. I support this."[64][65]

text: Sister cities[edit]

text: Vancouver has one sister city:[66]

text: Joyo, Kyoto, Kansai, Japan

text: Vancouver previously had a sister-city relationship with Arequipa, Peru, between 1961 and 1993, but that relationship ended.[67]

text: Notable people[edit]

text:
Greg Biffle, NASCAR driver
Jason V. Brock, filmmaker and writer
Alina Cho, journalist
Tina Ellertson, soccer player
Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. President[68]
Seth Aaron Henderson, fashion designer
Lars Larson, conservative talk show host
Ron Larson, author and mathematician
Hugo McCord, preacher and biblical scholar
Scott Mosier, film producer
Randy Myers, baseball player
William F. Nolan, writer
Chuck Palahniuk, writer
Greg Peach, Canadian football player
Michael Roos, National Football League player
Isaac Scott, blues guitarist and singer[69]
Lon Simmons, sportscaster
Tamina Snuka, professional wrestler
Gerry Staley, baseball player[70]
Taylor Williams, baseball player
Jeffrey C. Wynn, geophysicist
Frances Yeend, concert and opera singer


document_title: Electric charge

question_text: who came up with positive and negative charges

root

text: Electric charge

text: Overview[edit]

text: Charge is the fundamental property of forms of matter that exhibit electrostatic attraction or repulsion in the presence of other matter. Electric charge is a characteristic property of many subatomic particles. The charges of free-standing particles are integer multiples of the elementary charge e; we say that electric charge is quantized. Michael Faraday, in his electrolysis experiments, was the first to note the discrete nature of electric charge. Robert Millikan's oil drop experiment demonstrated this fact directly, and measured the elementary charge. It has been discovered that one type of particle, quarks, have fractional charges of either −1/3 or +2/3, but it is believed they always occur in multiples of integral charge; free-standing quarks have never been observed.

tag: p

text: By convention, the charge of an electron is negative, −e, while that of a proton is positive, +e. Charged particles whose charges have the same sign repel one another, and particles whose charges have different signs attract. Coulomb's law quantifies the electrostatic force between two particles by asserting that the force is proportional to the product of their charges, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The charge of an antiparticle equals that of the corresponding particle, but with opposite sign.

text: The electric charge of a macroscopic object is the sum of the electric charges of the particles that make it up. This charge is often small, because matter is made of atoms, and atoms typically have equal numbers of protons and electrons, in which case their charges cancel out, yielding a net charge of zero, thus making the atom neutral.

text: An ion is an atom (or group of atoms) that has lost one or more electrons, giving it a net positive charge (cation), or that has gained one or more electrons, giving it a net negative charge (anion). Monatomic ions are formed from single atoms, while polyatomic ions are formed from two or more atoms that have been bonded together, in each case yielding an ion with a positive or negative net charge.

text: During formation of macroscopic objects, constituent atoms and ions usually combine to form structures composed of neutral ionic compounds electrically bound to neutral atoms. Thus macroscopic objects tend toward being neutral overall, but macroscopic objects are rarely perfectly net neutral.

text: Sometimes macroscopic objects contain ions distributed throughout the material, rigidly bound in place, giving an overall net positive or negative charge to the object. Also, macroscopic objects made of conductive elements, can more or less easily (depending on the element) take on or give off electrons, and then maintain a net negative or positive charge indefinitely. When the net electric charge of an object is non-zero and motionless, the phenomenon is known as static electricity. This can easily be produced by rubbing two dissimilar materials together, such as rubbing amber with fur or glass with silk. In this way non-conductive materials can be charged to a significant degree, either positively or negatively. Charge taken from one material is moved to the other material, leaving an opposite charge of the same magnitude behind. The law of conservation of charge always applies, giving the object from which a negative charge is taken a positive charge of the same magnitude, and vice versa.

text: Even when an object's net charge is zero, charge can be distributed non-uniformly in the object (e.g., due to an external electromagnetic field, or bound polar molecules). In such cases the object is said to be polarized. The charge due to polarization is known as bound charge, while charge on an object produced by electrons gained or lost from outside the object is called free charge. The motion of electrons in conductive metals in a specific direction is known as electric current.

text: Units[edit]

text: The SI derived unit of quantity of electric charge is the coulomb (symbol: C). The coulomb is defined as the quantity of charge that passes through the cross section of an electrical conductor carrying one ampere for one second.[2] This unit was proposed in 1946 and ratified in 1948.[2] In modern practice, the phrase "amount of charge" is used instead of "quantity of charge".[3] The amount of charge in 1 electron (elementary charge) is approximately 6981160000000000000♠1.6×10−19 C, and 1 coulomb corresponds to the amount of charge for about 7018624000000000000♠6.24×1018 electrons. The symbol Q is often used to denote a quantity of electricity or charge. The quantity of electric charge can be directly measured with an electrometer, or indirectly measured with a ballistic galvanometer.

text: After finding the quantized character of charge, in 1891 George Stoney proposed the unit 'electron' for this fundamental unit of electrical charge. This was before the discovery of the particle by J. J. Thomson in 1897. The unit is today treated as nameless, referred to as elementary charge, fundamental unit of charge, or simply as e. A measure of charge should be a multiple of the elementary charge e, even if at large scales charge seems to behave as a real quantity. In some contexts it is meaningful to speak of fractions of a charge; for example in the charging of a capacitor, or in the fractional quantum Hall effect.

text: The unit faraday is sometimes used in electrochemistry. One faraday of charge is the magnitude of the charge of one mole of electrons,[4] i.e. 96485.33289(59) C.

text: In systems of units other than SI such as cgs, electric charge is expressed as combination of only three fundamental quantities (length, mass, and time), and not four, as in SI, where electric charge is a combination of length, mass, time, and electric current.[5][6]

text: History[edit]

text:
From ancient times, persons were familiar with four types of phenomena that today would all be explained using the concept of electric charge: (a) lightning, (b) the torpedo fish (or electric ray), (c) St Elmo's Fire, and (d) that amber rubbed with fur would attract small, light objects.[7] The first account of the amber effect is often attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Thales of Miletus, who lived from c. 624 – c. 546 BC, but there are doubts about whether Thales left any writings;[8] his account about amber is known from an account from early 200s.[9] This account can be taken as evidence that knowledge the phenomenon was known since at least c. 600 BC, but Thales explained this phenomenon as evidence for inanimate objects having a soul.[9] In other words, there was no indication of any conception of electric charge. More generally, the ancient Greeks did not understand the connections among these four kinds of phenomena. The Greeks observed that the charged amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair. They also found that if they rubbed the amber for long enough, they could even get an electric spark to jump,[citation needed] but there is also a claim that no mention of electric sparks appeared until late 17th century.[10] This property derives from the triboelectric effect.
In late 1100s, the substance jet, a compacted form of coal, was noted to have an amber effect,[11] and in the middle of the 1500s, Girolamo Fracastoro, discovered that diamond also showed this effect.[12] Some efforts were made by Fracastoro and others, especially Gerolamo Cardano to develop explanations for this phenomenon.[13]

text: In contrast to astronomy, mechanics, and optics, which had been studied quantitatively since antiquity, the start of ongoing qualitative and quantitative research into electrical phenomena can marked with the publication of De Magnete by the English scientist William Gilbert in 1600.[14] In this book, there was a small section where Gilbert returned to the amber effect (as he called it) in addressing many of the earlier theories[13], and coined the New Latin word electrica (from ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron), the Greek word for amber). The Latin word was translated into English as electrics.[15] Gilbert is also credited with the term electrical, while the term electricity came later, first attributed to Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica from 1646.[16] (For more linguistic details see Etymology of electricity.) Gilbert was followed in 1660 by Otto von Guericke, who invented what was probably the first electrostatic generator. Other European pioneers were Robert Boyle, who in 1675 stated that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum; Stephen Gray, who in 1729 classified materials as conductors and insulators. In 1733 Charles François de Cisternay du Fay, inspired by Gray's work, made a series of experiments (reported in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences), showing that more or less all substances could be 'electrified' by rubbing, except for metals and fluids[17] and proposed that electricity comes in two varieties that cancel each other, which he expressed in terms of a two-fluid theory.[18] When glass was rubbed with silk, du Fay said that the glass was charged with vitreous electricity, and, when amber was rubbed with fur, the amber was charged with resinous electricity. Another important two-fluid theory from this time was proposed by Jean-Antoine Nollet (1745).[19] In 1839, Michael Faraday showed that the apparent division between static electricity, current electricity, and bioelectricity was incorrect, and all were a consequence of the behavior of a single kind of electricity appearing in opposite polarities. It is arbitrary which polarity is called positive and which is called negative. Positive charge can be defined as the charge left on a glass rod after being rubbed with silk.[20]

text: One of the foremost experts on electricity in the 18th century was Benjamin Franklin, who argued in favour of a one-fluid theory of electricity. Franklin imagined electricity as being a type of invisible fluid present in all matter; for example, he believed that it was the glass in a Leyden jar that held the accumulated charge. He posited that rubbing insulating surfaces together caused this fluid to change location, and that a flow of this fluid constitutes an electric current. He also posited that when matter contained too little of the fluid it was negatively charged, and when it had an excess it was positively charged. For a reason that was not recorded, he identified the term positive with vitreous electricity and negative with resinous electricity. William Watson independently arrived at the same explanation at about the same time (1746).

text: It is now known that the Franklin–Watson model was fundamentally correct. There is only one kind of electrical charge, and only one variable is required to keep track of the amount of charge.[21] On the other hand, just knowing the charge is not a complete description of the situation. Matter is composed of several kinds of electrically charged particles, and these particles have many properties, not just charge.

text: The role of charge in electrostatics[edit]

text: This section may be confusing or unclear to readers. In particular, section title was created in a guess about the intention of this paragraph, maybe this material needs two or more sections.  (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: All bodies are electrified, but may appear not electrified because of the relatively similar charge of neighboring objects in the environment. An object further electrified + or – creates an equivalent or opposite charge by default in neighboring objects, until those charges can equalize. The effects of attraction can be observed in high-voltage experiments, while lower voltage effects are merely weaker and therefore less obvious. Coulomb's law has a corollary for acceleration in a gravitational field. See also Casimir effect.

text: The role of charge in static electricity[edit]

text: Static electricity refers to the electric charge of an object and the related electrostatic discharge when two objects are brought together that are not at equilibrium. An electrostatic discharge creates a change in the charge of each of the two objects.

text: Electrification by friction[edit]

text: This section contains close paraphrasing of an external source, https://archive.org/details/ATreatiseOnElectricityMagnetism-Volume1. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Ideas in this article should be expressed in an original manner. (November 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: When a piece of glass and a piece of resin—neither of which exhibit any electrical properties—are rubbed together and left with the rubbed surfaces in contact, they still exhibit no electrical properties. When separated, they attract each other.

text: A second piece of glass rubbed with a second piece of resin, then separated and suspended near the former pieces of glass and resin causes these phenomena:

text:
The two pieces of glass repel each other.
Each piece of glass attracts each piece of resin.
The two pieces of resin repel each other.

tag: ul

text: This attraction and repulsion is an electrical phenomenon, and the bodies that exhibit them are said to be electrified, or electrically charged. Bodies may be electrified in many other ways, as well as by friction. The electrical properties of the two pieces of glass are similar to each other but opposite to those of the two pieces of resin: The glass attracts what the resin repels and repels what the resin attracts.

text: If a body electrified in any manner whatsoever behaves as the glass does, that is, if it repels the glass and attracts the resin, the body is said to be vitreously electrified, and if it attracts the glass and repels the resin it is said to be resinously electrified. All electrified bodies are either vitreously or resinously electrified.

text: An established convention in the scientific community defines vitreous electrification as positive, and resinous electrification as negative. The exactly opposite properties of the two kinds of electrification justify our indicating them by opposite signs, but the application of the positive sign to one rather than to the other kind must be considered as a matter of arbitrary convention—just as it is a matter of convention in mathematical diagram to reckon positive distances towards the right hand.

text: No force, either of attraction or of repulsion, can be observed between an electrified body and a body not electrified.[22]

text: The role of charge in electric current[edit]

text: Electric current is the flow of electric charge through an object, which produces no net loss or gain of electric charge. The most common charge carriers are the positively charged proton and the negatively charged electron. The movement of any of these charged particles constitutes an electric current. In many situations, it suffices to speak of the conventional current without regard to whether it is carried by positive charges moving in the direction of the conventional current or by negative charges moving in the opposite direction. This macroscopic viewpoint is an approximation that simplifies electromagnetic concepts and calculations.

text: At the opposite extreme, if one looks at the microscopic situation, one sees there are many ways of carrying an electric current, including: a flow of electrons; a flow of electron holes that act like positive particles; and both negative and positive particles (ions or other charged particles) flowing in opposite directions in an electrolytic solution or a plasma.

text: Beware that, in the common and important case of metallic wires, the direction of the conventional current is opposite to the drift velocity of the actual charge carriers; i.e., the electrons. This is a source of confusion for beginners.

text:
Flavour inparticle physics
Flavour quantum numbers
Isospin: I or I3
Charm: C
Strangeness: S
Topness: T
Bottomness: B′

Related quantum numbers
Baryon number: B
Lepton number: L
Weak isospin: T or T3
Electric charge: Q
X-charge: X

Combinations
Hypercharge: Y
Y = (B + S + C + B′ + T)
Y = 2 (Q − I3)
Weak hypercharge: YW
YW = 2 (Q − T3)
X + 2YW = 5 (B − L)

Flavour mixing
CKM matrix
PMNS matrix
Flavour complementarity
vte

text: Conservation of electric charge[edit]

text: The total electric charge of an isolated system remains constant regardless of changes within the system itself. This law is inherent to all processes known to physics and can be derived in a local form from gauge invariance of the wave function. The conservation of charge results in the charge-current continuity equation. More generally, the rate of change in charge density ρ within a volume of integration V is equal to the area integral over the current density J through the closed surface S = ∂V, which is in turn equal to the net current I:

text: Thus, the conservation of electric charge, as expressed by the continuity equation, gives the result:

text:
The charge transferred between times

t

i

{\displaystyle t_{\mathrm {i} }}

 and

t

f

{\displaystyle t_{\mathrm {f} }}

 is obtained by integrating both sides:

text: where I is the net outward current through a closed surface and Q is the electric charge contained within the volume defined by the surface.

text: Relativistic invariance[edit]

text: Aside from the properties described in articles about electromagnetism, charge is a relativistic invariant. This means that any particle that has charge Q, no matter how fast it goes, always has charge Q. This property has been experimentally verified by showing that the charge of one helium nucleus (two protons and two neutrons bound together in a nucleus and moving around at high speeds) is the same as two deuterium nuclei (one proton and one neutron bound together, but moving much more slowly than they would if they were in a helium nucleus).[23][24][25]


document_title: Niger River

question_text: where does river benue and river niger meet

text: Niger River

text: Etymology[edit]

text: The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region:

text:
Manding: Jeliba or Joliba "great river"
Igbo: Orimiri or Orimili "great water"
Tuareg: Egerew n-Igerewen "river of rivers"
Songhay: Isa Ber "big river", or simply Isa "the river" in Zarma
Hausa: Kwara
Yoruba: Oya

text: The earliest use of the name "Niger" for the river is by Leo Africanus in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che iui sono published in Italian in 1550. The name may come from Berber phrase ger-n-ger meaning "river of rivers".[4] As Timbuktu was the southern end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean, it was the source of most European knowledge of the region.

text: Medieval European maps applied the name Niger to the middle reaches of the river, in modern Mali, but Quorra (Kworra) to the lower reaches in modern Nigeria, as these were not recognized at the time as being the same river. When European colonial powers began to send ships along the West coast of Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Senegal River was often postulated to be seaward end of the Niger. The Niger Delta, pouring into the Atlantic through mangrove swamps and thousands of distributaries along more than 160 kilometres (100 miles), was thought to be no more than coastal wetlands. It was only with the 18th-century visits of Mungo Park, who travelled down the Niger River and visited the great Sahelian empires of his day, that Europeans correctly identified the course of the Niger and extended the name to its entire course.

text: The modern nations of Nigeria and Niger take their names from the river, marking contesting national claims by colonial powers of the "Upper", "Lower" and "Middle" Niger river basin during the Scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century.

text: Geography[edit]

text: The Niger River is a relatively "clear" river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Niger's headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt.[5] Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly; this begins in September, peaks in November, and finishes by May.[5]

text: An unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta, which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases.[5] The result is a region of braided streams, marshes, and lakes the size of Belgium; the seasonal floods make the Delta extremely productive for both fishing and agriculture.[6]

text: The river loses nearly two-thirds of its potential flow in the Inner Delta between Ségou and Timbuktu to seepage and evaporation. All the water from the Bani River, which flows into the Delta at Mopti, does not compensate for the 'losses'. The average 'loss' is estimated at 31 km3/year, but varies considerably between years.[7] The river is then joined by various tributaries, but also loses more water to evaporation. The quantity of water entering Nigeria measured in Yola was estimated at 25 km3/year before the 1980s and at 13.5 km3/year during the 1980s. The most important tributary of the Niger in Nigeria is the Benue River which merges with the river at Lokoja in Nigeria. The total volume of tributaries in Nigeria is six times higher than the inflow into Nigeria, with a flow near the mouth of the river standing at 177.0 km3/year before the 1980s and 147.3 km3/year during the 1980s.[7]

text: Unusual route[edit]

text: The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled geographers for two centuries. Its source is just 240 km (150 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs directly away from the sea into the Sahara Desert, then takes a sharp right turn near the ancient city of Timbuktu (Tombouctou) and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea.

text: This strange geography apparently came about because the Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together. The upper Niger, from the source west of Timbuktu to the bend in the current river near Timbuktu, once emptied into a now dry lake to the east northeast of Timbuktu, while the lower Niger started to the south of Timbuktu and flowed south into the Gulf of Guinea. Over time upstream erosion by the lower Niger resulted in stream capture of the upper Niger by the lower Niger.[8]

text: The northern part of the river, known as the Niger bend, is an important area because it is the major river and source of water in that part of the Sahara desert. This made it the focal point of trade across the western Sahara, and the centre of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao.

text: The surrounding Niger River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the Sudan province, which in turn is part of the larger African massive physiographic division.

text: European exploration[edit]

text: The origin of the river's name remains unclear. What is clear is that "Niger" was an appellation applied in the Mediterranean world from at least the Classical era, when knowledge of the area by Europeans was slightly better than fable. A careful study of Classical writings on the interior of the Sahara begins with Ptolemy, who mentions two rivers in the desert: the "Gir" and farther south, the "Ni-Gir".[9][10] The first has been since identified as the Wadi Ghir on the north western edge of the Tuat, along the borders of modern Morocco and Algeria.[9][11] This would likely have been as far as Ptolemy would have had consistent records. The Ni-Ger was likely speculation, although the name stuck as that of a river south of the Mediterranean's "known world". Suetonius reports Romans traveling to the "Ger", although in reporting any river's name derived from a Berber language, in which "gher" means "watercourse", confusion could easily arise.[12] Pliny connected these two rivers as one long watercourse which flowed (via lakes and underground sections) into the Nile,[13] a notion which persisted in the Arab and European worlds – and further added the Senegal River as the "Ger" – until the 19th century. The connection to the Nile River was made not simply because this was then known as the great river of "Aethiopia" (by which all lands south of the desert were called by Classical writers), but because the Nile flooded every summer. In Europe and Western Asia, floods are expected in the Spring, following snow melt. Classical authors explained the summer flood by calculating the time it took for flood waters to move down a river, and calculating how long the Nile must have been for the waters to travel from a mountain range in the spring. However the cycle of the Nile is influenced by tropical rain patterns instead of by melting snow, a characteristic unknown to the Classical Mediterranean world.[14] Through the descriptions of Leo Africanus and even Ibn Battuta – despite his visit to the river – the myth connecting the Niger to the Nile persisted.

text: While the true course of the Niger was presumably known to locals, it was a mystery to the outside world until the late 18th century. Ancient Romans such as Pliny (N.H. 5.10) thought that the river near Timbuktu was part of the Nile River, a belief also held by Ibn Battuta, while early European explorers thought that it flowed west and joined the Senegal River.

text: Many European expeditions to plot the river were unsuccessful. In 1788 the African Association was formed in England to promote the exploration of Africa in the hopes of locating the Niger, and in June 1796 the Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first European to lay eyes on the middle portion of the river since antiquity (and perhaps ever). The true course was established in his book Travels in the Interior of Africa, which appeared in 1799.[15] The African Association failed in assaults from the north (Tripoli), the east (Cairo), and the west (Gambia). The membership now proposed that an effort be made from the south. The site chosen in 1804 from which to strike inland was a British trading post in the Gulf of Guinea. Unbeknownst to him, the river mouth that emptied into the Gulf, whence Henry Nicholls was to set out in search of the Niger, was precisely the end of the Niger itself—only the Europeans did not know it yet. The starting point of the expedition was in fact its destination.[16]

text: On October 24, 1946 three Frenchmen, Jean Sauvy, Pierre Ponty and movie maker Jean Rouch, former civil servants in the African French colonies, set out to travel the entire length of the river, as no one else seemed to have done previously. They travelled from the very beginning of the river near Kissidougou in Guinea, walking at first till a raft could be used, then changing to various local crafts as the river broadened and changed. Two of them reached the ocean on March 25, 1947, with Pierre Ponty having had to leave the expedition at Niamey, somewhat past the halfway mark. They carried a 16mm movie camera, the resulting footage giving Jean Rouch his first two ethnographic documentaries: "Au pays des mages noirs", and "La chasse à l’hippopotame". A camera was used to illustrate Jean Rouch's subsequent book "Le Niger En Pirogue" (Fernand Nathan, 1954), as well as Jean Sauvy’s “Descente du Niger” (L'Harmattan 2001). A typewriter was brought as well, on which Pierre Ponty produced newspaper articles he mailed out whenever possible.[17]

text: More recently, Norwegian adventurer Helge Hjelland made another journey through the entire length of the Niger River starting in Guinea-Bissau in 2005. The trip was filmed by the adventurer himself and made into a documentary titled "The Cruellest Journey".[18]

text: Management and development[edit]

text: The water in the Niger River basin is partially regulated through dams. In Mali the Sélingué Dam on the Sankarani River is mainly used for hydropower, but also permits irrigation. Two diversion dams, one at Sotuba just downstream of Bamako, and one at Markala, just downstream of Ségou, are used to irrigate about 54,000 hectares.[7] In Nigeria the Kainji Dam and the Jebba dam are used to generate hydropower.

text: The water resources of the Niger River are under pressure due to increased water abstraction for irrigation and due to the impact of climate change. The construction of dams for hydropower generation is underway or envisaged in order to alleviate chronic power shortages in the countries of the Niger basin.[19]

text: The FAO estimates the irrigation potential of all countries in the Niger river basin at 2.8 million hectares. Only 0.93m hectares (ha) were under irrigation in the late 1980s. The irrigation potential was estimated at 1.68m ha in Nigeria 0.56m ha in Mali, and the actual irrigated area was 0.67m ha and 0.19m ha.[7]

text: Niger Basin Charta and Investment Plan[edit]

text: In order to further coordinate their efforts, in April 2008 the riparian countries which form the Niger Basin Authority adopted a Niger Basin Water Charta, a basin-wide 30-year investment plan and a 5-year priority investment plan. The Charta promotes Integrated Water Resources Management, defines procedures for the examination and approval of new projects, provides a framework for the allocation of water resources between sectors, commits to maintain the integrity of aquatic ecosystems and defines mechanisms for the settlement of disputes between countries and for user participation. Investments include the expansion of irrigated agriculture to improve food security, the construction of the Taoussa (or Tossaye) dam in Mali and the Kandadji Dam in Niger (the latter has been under construction since August 2008), as well as the rehabilitation of the Kainji dam and Jebba dam in Nigeria.[a]

text: Funding[edit]

text: Most of the investments are funded or are expected to be funded through aid. For example, the Kandadji Dam is financed by the Islamic Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the OPEC Development Fund. The World Bank approved a US$500 million soft loan in July 2007 to finance projects in the basin over a 12-year period. Funding will be awarded in two phases. The initial $185 million credit will go to Nigeria, Guinea, Benin, Mali and Niger. The second, $315 million investment, is slated for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Ivory Coast.[22] Besides financing the rehabilitation of dams in Nigeria, the loan will also fund the "sustainable management of selected degraded ecosystems and rehabilitation of small water infrastructure" and capacity building.[23]

text: River transport and dredging[edit]

text: In September 2009, the Nigerian government commenced a 36 billion naira dredging of the Niger River from Baro to Warri, a move which will see silt removed from several hundred kilometres.[24] The dredging is intended to make it easier for goods to be transported to isolated settlements located deep within from the Atlantic Ocean.[24] Estimated to be completed within six to eight months, it had first been proposed and then postponed for 43 years previously by the then government.[24][25] Speaking in Lokoja, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua stated that the project would lead to "all-year-round navigability" on the River Niger and that he hoped that, by 2020, Nigeria would have become one of the twenty most industrialised nations in the world.[24][25] Alhaji Ibrahim Bio, the Nigerian Minister of Transport, said his ministry would work to make certain the project would be completed within its designated timeframe.[25] Some activists have, however, opposed the project in the past, claiming it may have negative effects on waterside villagers.[24]

text: In late March 2010 the dredging project was 50% complete.[26]