Then in World War II, the city boomed, and downtown Vancouver reached its zenith, so busy that a visiting reporter compared it to Fourth and Pike in Seattle. Stores are rapidly running short of even the necessities of life because of the ballooning population.
Public transportation is painfully overcrowded.
It was a big change of pace from most of the earlier era, as in the 1850s, when the town gradually grew along the military reservation's west side, despite controversy over land titles. The south end of the business district ended at the Columbia River, where steamboats landed in the early decades. Early development moved north from the waterfront, along trails that later became roads. Later, store buildings continued to encroach upon residential districts. Meanwhile, nearby farms were taken over for residential building.