Denver is a great example of a city made possible by the industrial age. Its high elevation and low precipitation stymie agriculture of nearly all sorts, and its erratic climate — it sits where the Rockies meet the Great Plains on the edge of what used to be called the Great American Desert — limit population possibilities. But add rail lines and electricity and fertilizers and steel and so on and you get one of America’s most dynamic urban zones. High-end manufacturing, a mini-Silicon Valley, food processing, a globally significant air hub, and the core of Colorado’s Front Range population of nearly four million people.
That, and it’s home.
