Vancouver (pop. 190,915) is a port city on the Columbia River in southwestern Washington. It lies across the river from Portland, Oregon. Vancouver is also an important banking and railroad center for southwestern Washington.
Nearby Bonneville Dam, a large federal power project on the Columbia River, helps provide electric power for the region. The area’s main industries include a paper mill and electronics companies.
Vancouver is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the state of Washington. The city grew up around Fort Vancouver, which was completed in 1825 by the Hudson’s Bay Company, a British trading firm. The fort was named for Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer who had sailed along the coast of Washington in 1792. Vancouver was incorporated as a city in 1857. It is the seat of Clark County and has a council-manager form of government.
