Salt Lake City has an incredibly simple appearance initially. Straight streets, large blocks, a clean grid, and easy navigation are just a few examples of how simple the city appears compared to older US cities with intricate road systems and random intersections. It looks as though someone opened a ruler app and created the entire city in less than a day. However, when you learn more about the reasons behind the way the city was developed, it becomes much more intriguing. The streets are not solely a result of their practicality but also of their connection to religion, politics, geography, and how one particular group attempted to create their vision of a perfect society here on earth; hence all of the streets serve an underlying purpose.
One of the more interesting characteristics about Salt Lake City is that it’s difficult to get completely lost in the city. The mountains provide reliable compass points whether or not you know the names of the streets you are on. You will generally have a good idea as to where you’re located by looking at the landscape because of the way it has been constructed. This was not done by accident; the founders of Salt Lake City wanted to ensure that people could find their way around the city easily and with confidence; therefore, they incorporated orientation, order, and structure into the daily lives of the residents of Salt Lake City. This city was created not just to work well functionally but also to encapsulate a larger vision of spirituality within each component.
Many centuries prior to the establishment of Salt Lake City, the land already housed numerous Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. In 1847, Mormon pioneers began arriving in the region after completing their cross-country voyage searching for a location to build a community without intrusion. The Salt Lake Valley was owned by Mexico when these settlers arrived; however, significant border changes caused by the Mexican-American War were taking place in western North America. The time period was characterized by rapidly changing boundaries, governments, and land ownerships.
When Brigham Young, their leader, arrived in this remote desert, he made immediate connections between the land and Biblical references. The nearby Great Salt Lake appeared to him as similar to the Dead Sea described in the Bible, and with the Jordan River flowing through the valley, this emphasized that relationship. The settlers didn’t just view the valley as a large basin surrounded by mountains, but collectively viewed the valley as a spiritually important area where they would indefinitely create their long-anticipated religious society within the new promised land.
The fact that Salt Lake City was created through a religious plan before becoming an American city is an element of uniqueness to Salt Lake City. Mormon leadership previously established a “Plat of Zion,” which outlined this perfect settlement pattern with long square blocks, wide streets and a grid system that was aligned in a strictly north, south, east and west orientation versus having congested streets and uncontrolled growth. The layout of the city was not just for smart planning; but a reflection of harmony, equity, and divine order.
Salt Lake City is still formed on that original conception today. Temple Square is the center of the city and all addresses consist of 100’s of blocks of Temple Square radiating from it. One block east is 100 East; two blocks east is 200 East and so forth. The city uses a religious center as the reference point for determining which direction, how far away from, etc; you are from the city center. Visitors may be unaware of this aspect while driving this downtown area; but you are driving in a street architecture around a spiritual geography.
Nonetheless, Salt Lake City did not develop into an absolute and idealistic grid system as intended. The city’s architecture is hindered sharply by the surrounding natural landscapes. For example, mountains block the expansion south of the city; steep hills block the expansion northward, and the terrain forced changes to the original planning. As a result of these geographical barriers, Salt Lake City developed into many interrelated grids developed consecutively over time. And you can see the changes in geography where it has interrupted the original planning.
Initially, the Mormon immigrants were surprisingly independent. They built local businesses, formed a local militia, and developed local governments, as well as creating their own economic systems. however, as the Mormon settlement progressed, the federal government became increasingly wary about how independent they had become. Increased tension existed between the Mormon religion leadership and the federal government during the 19th century.
Then the railroad was built.
The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad altered the landscape of Salt Lake City (SLC) forever. Prior to this project, SLC was isolated from the rest of the country; however, once completed, it opened the doors for more outside trade, non-Mormon settlers, other forms of commerce, and the presence of the federal government into the valley. The end result was that SLC could no longer operate as an isolated Mormon outpost within America.
Evidence of this political/cultural conflict can be seen directly on the map with the placement of federal government buildings outside the religious center of the city. The Capitol building was built north on Capitol Hill, with military installations such as Fort Douglas being constructed on the eastern side of the city, and with numerous railroad depots being built further west for the influx of new businesses and non-Mormon settlers. Consequently, over time, a ring of non-religious institutions emerged surrounding the original Mormon settlement, which separated the church’s authority from that of the government.
One interesting aspect of Salt Lake’s layout is the variety of ways that its neighborhoods reflect the city’s historical development. For example, the Avenues area near the mountains has smaller blocks and narrower streets than downtown’s huge rectangular blocks. Also, many streets in the areas south of downtown were built around agriculture, which has contributed to their large size by today’s standards because they were meant to accommodate horse-drawn wagons turning around without needing to back up.
Liberty Park is an example of a place in Salt Lake City that reflects the history of the city through its parks as well. Today, Liberty Park is one of the most well-known parks in Salt Lake City and was once owned by Brigham Young before being turned into public land. Although Liberty Park appears to be simply an urban park today, filled with joggers, cyclists, and families enjoying their time there, it is also a good representation of the many different elements of Salt Lake City’s development that have roots in its atypical founding history.
The fast growing modern day Salt Lake City has a blend of new developments (including glass skyscrapers, new apartment communities, and numerous high-technology companies) interspersed with historically significant buildings associated with the L.D.S. faith. Another major transformation has taken place with the expansion of the Salt Lake City International Airport, which has changed the means of getting into or out of the city and therefore increased communication with the rest of the world. When the Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City in 2002, the exposure to the world increased tremendously, and as a result so did the number of visitors coming to Salt Lake City. Recently there has been a great deal of media coverage regarding the alarming decrease in the size of the Great Salt Lake, which presents an additional risk to the future of Salt Lake City.
Examples of the ways in which Salt Lake is still recognizable today include: the enormous hexagonal blocks; consistently numbered streets; the orientation toward the Wasatch Mountains; and the Temple Square as the physical center of Salt Lake. The organization of Salt Lake City’s layout is not coincidental — it has been deliberately planned in such a way that the city was designed to reflect an attempt to create a Heavenly City.
