LAS VEGAS - Fond of imploding its past and reinventing itself, Las Vegas is celebrating its 100th birthday in its own classic style.
A birthday cake larger than a basketball court, fireworks, concerts - and a mass marriage for 100 couples - are among this weekend's special events honoring a city that didn't have a paved road until 1924.
"Las Vegas was a speck in the desert in 1905," Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha said. "Now there's not a place in the modern world that doesn't recognize Las Vegas."
The town got its start a century ago because the railroad to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City needed a place to house workers.
Today it's a go-go, 24-hour metropolis of gambling, nightclubs and restaurants that lures 37 million tourists a year to mingle with 1.7 million residents who drive on car-choked freeways.
Marquee casinos with dancing fountains and canals sprouted where springs dried up long ago. Down the Las Vegas Strip are scale models of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, the Eiffel Tower and an Egyptian pyramid.
Up the Strip, the curvy, ultra-fancy Wynn Las Vegas resort opened last month at a cost of $2.7 billion.
The roots of modern Las Vegas can be traced to 1931, when state lawmakers relaxed divorce laws and legalized casino gambling, and the federal government began building what would become Hoover Dam 30 miles east of town.
Bugsy Siegel broke ground on a hotel along the Strip in 1945 with $1.5 million from New York and California mob associates. A year later and $4.5 million over budget, it opened as the Flamingo.
Within months the legendary mobster was shot to death, but his hotel - and Las Vegas - would thrive.
The Associated Press
Against big odds, Las Vegas turns 100
May 16, 2005, 8:32 amTrackbacks
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