Salt Lake City, also abbreviated as Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous municipality in the United States of America’s state of Utah. With a 2014 population estimate of 190,884, the city is located in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,153,340. (2014 estimate). Additionally, Salt Lake City is a part of a larger metropolitan area known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This area is a continuous corridor of urban and suburban growth that stretches for roughly 120 miles (190 kilometers) along the Wasatch Front, with a total population of 2,423,912 as of 2014. It is one of the Great Basin’s only two major metropolitan centres (the other being Reno, Nevada), and the biggest in the Intermountain West.
Brigham Young, Isaac Morley, George Washington Bradley, and countless other Mormon followers built the city in 1847, substantially irrigating and cultivating the desert valley. The city was originally titled “Great Salt Lake City” due to its closeness to the Great Salt Lake—the term “great” was omitted from the official name in 1868 by the 17th Utah Territorial Legislature. Salt Lake City, which is home to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and Temple Square, was traditionally regarded as a sacred city by LDS members; Brigham Young referred to it as a “Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.” However, fewer than half of Salt Lake City’s population is now a member of the LDS Church.
Economic expansion was first fueled by immigration of foreign LDS members, mining booms, and the building of the first transcontinental railroad, earning the city the moniker the Crossroads of the West. The Lincoln Roadway, the first transcontinental highway, passed through the city in 1913, and two major cross-country highways, I-15 and I-80, meet in the city today. Salt Lake City has subsequently grown a sizable outdoor recreation tourism business centered on skiing and hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is the United States’ industrial banking hub.