Salt Lake City's Map, Explained

The map of Salt Lake City reflects the values of the Latter Day Saint settlers and the tension they had with the united states government.

00:00 Introduction
01:14 Establishing Zion
03:55 Significance of the Valley
04:58 Ad Read
06:04 The Plat of Zion
08:25 The Wide Streets
09:30 The Plat in Practice
12:37 Impact of outside factors
14:25 Conclusion

[bobbynay]

It’s actually insane to think that before cars they made these streets so wide. Definitely went against the norm of building walkable cities.

[brycechristensen]

I don't think this was mentioned, but the blocks in SLC are 1/8 mile on each side, making them a perfect 10 acres. Living here, that makes it somewhat easier to quickly estimate distances and even lot sizes. If you are jogging, each lap around a full block is 1/2 mile.

[empiricalandinquirical]

Utah resident here. Another thing is that this urban planning mindset did not just apply to Salt Lake City, but a variety of settlements that the Latter Day Saints set up across the Intermountain West. Provo, Ogden, Manti, Logan, St. George. Each have a temple built at the center and base their street names off of this. (Provo had a tabernacle that had an unfortunate fire break out, it was then rededicated as a temple).

Wonderful video! Thoroughly impressed! 🙏🏻

[robynh]

This is amazing. I work at the Salt Lake County Recorders and I am in love with everything “map.” I wish you had swung by our office so we could show you all sorts of Salt Lake City maps! But this was so well done! I’d love to show it to new employees for training purposes!

[Zezetheb]

Utah native here, just wanted to say that this video was awesome! I learned some new things and I appreciated how unbiased and factual it felt! Nice job!

[Kevbot]

As an SLC native I actually learned a few things, didn’t know the horse carriage being able to make a U turn thing was a myth. Very well made video and underrated channel!

[lavantant]

Amazing video.
I'm a transplant to SLC and have been for more than a few years. I'm moving back out soon, likely forever, and I think that the thing I will miss most about the city is its grid, its so unique to have such a perfectly sorted city, and it has made so many years of my life so much easier to be able to use the perfect grid. I believe that many people cant truly comprehend how much easier it can make travel to know exactly how far everything is from you at all times, and what direction anything is given its address, and knowing what streets you will take to get to anything, even if you have never been somewhere. The best I can do to explain it is telling people that its like finding people in any game by their coordinates; if someone tells you their coordinates in minecraft, you can easily point yourself towards them and just go until you get to them, discovering or even generating for the first time all the land in between.

[adastra]

I did my thesis on Mormon community-building, so I can be a bit persnickety about how people talk about it, so it’s great to see such a well-put-together video for general audiences on the subject! I’ll definitely be sharing this around!

[iea]

Huge fan of this video style! Some insight into European capitals and their layouts could also be very interesting to see for comparison.

[riversidepark]

Very refreshing to watch an urban planning video in the US that isn’t just snarky complaining about transit, highways, cars and the suburbs. 19th century city planning is also very interesting too, it gives a lot of context to how cities are today.

[JabbaDaWhat_]

Probably my favorite series on YouTube, its incredibly well made. You're very talented and I can't wait to see what city comes next.

[kathleenhudson]

Thanks for this video. I have family in Salt Lake City, so I have visited a lot. One thing you didn’t talk about was how easy it is to find your way around. Not only is it based on a grid, with all the streets numbered from Temple Square, even named streets are also given the number they would have had if they were a numbered street. I never get lost there.

[sambishop]

Thank you for making a real effort to understand the history of Salt Lake City! Not a lot of people do. I've seen many a bad take over the years. (I've lost track of how many times I've heard the myth about the streets being wide to make it easy to turn wagons around.)

[davidbuckley]

Long time subscriber and Utahn here, thank you for your outstanding journalism. I never knew about that 900 south boundary, so I learned something new!

[RazzlePazzleDooDot]

The algorithm directed to your videos here bc I loved hearing in-depth explanations of random topics, and I clicked on the SLC one right away bc I was born here (not raised here, but I came back) and the way you spoke about the Saints was so respectful. I really appreciated it. I am a member of the church and hardly any non members talk so fairly and factually about early pioneers. Thank you for the video, i look forward to binging the rest of your content!

[AP-rtrl]

For such a new channel this is really high quality work man. Very well done. I don’t typically watch these kinds of videos but being that I live in Utah, I had to see an outsiders perspective on it. Very well put together.

[wickerbasket]

Thank you Steven for bearing that cold, cold January day with Daniel to teach us about Salt Lake City!

[CalTxDude]

Although I lived in SLC for only a short time, I have nothing but fond memories of the beautiful city and the wonderful friends I made!

[jdrocker]

Awesome video! One correction to the meeting of the transcontinental railroad. It took place at Promontory Summit. Promontory Point is the end of the peninsula jutting out into the lake.

[sssdddkkksss]

Great intro - I clicked on this video to just give a chance, and was immediately drawn in with that intro. Very compelling.