Established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1825 as Fort Vancouver, this southern Washington city across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, is the oldest permanent non-Native American settlement in the Pacific Northwest.

The fort was named for British navigator George Vancouver, who surveyed the northern Pacific Coast in the late 1700s. For many years it was the center of British control over the Oregon Territory.

Along with most of the Pacific Northwest, it came under United States’ control in 1846.

The deepwater Port of Vancouver was established in 1912. Today, the city has a population of 135,100, and is seeing growth from high-technology industries and the aluminum industry.

Much of the area’s history is recalled at the Vancouver National Historic Reserve. Fort Vancouver National Historic Site was the center of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s furtrading region from 1825 to 1849. Officers’ Row has 21 Victorian homes built between 1849 and 1906 to house US Army officers. The Pearson Air Museum has exhibits on the history of aviation at Pearson Airfield, the oldest operating airfield in the country and the place where three Soviet pilots landed in 1937, after completing the first non-stop flight from Russia to the United States.

Primary road access to Vancouver is via north-south I-5, or eastwest I-84/US-30 along the Columbia River. Portland International Airport provides air service, and bus and rail service is available as well.