Driving Around Stunning Downtown Burlington, IA in 4k Video
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 เม.ย. 2023
- Filmed on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, I drive around the beautiful small town of Burlington, Iowa to see what's going on.
Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,982 in the 2020 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in 2000. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area, which includes West Burlington and Middletown, Iowa, and Gulfport, Illinois. Burlington is the home of Snake Alley, an extremely crooked street.
Prior to European settlement, the area was neutral territory for the Sac and Fox Native American tribes, who called it Shoquoquon, meaning Flint Hills.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson organized two parties of explorers to map the Louisiana Purchase. The Lewis and Clark Expedition followed the Missouri River, while Lt. Zebulon Pike followed the Mississippi River. In 1805, Pike landed at the bluffs below Burlington and raised the United States Flag for the first time on what would become Iowa soil and recommended construction of a fort. The recommendation went unheeded.
The American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor established a post in the area in 1829. Settlement began in 1833, shortly after the Black Hawk Purchase, when Samuel (aka Simpson) White, Amzi Doolitle, and Morton M. McCarver crossed the Mississippi River from Big Island and staked claims there. According to an account A.T. Andreas wrote in 1875, White erected a cabin in the area later platted to be Front Street between Court and High streets. Andreas called White and Doolittle the Romulus and Remus of their settlement, referring to the mythic heroes who founded Rome, a city surrounded by hills. A few weeks later, William R. Ross joined them and established a general store. In November and December, he surveyed the settlement for White and Doolittle.
In the spring of 1834 they allowed John Gray, who purchased the first lot with his wife Eliza Jane, to rename the town for $50. Gray chose to name it Burlington in honor of his hometown in Vermont. The Grays' daughter Abigail was born in Burlington that same year, the first European-descended American settler child born on Iowa soil.
Iowa's nickname, "The Hawkeye State," has its roots in Burlington. At Judge David Rorer's suggestion, publisher James G. Edwards changed The Iowa Patriot newspaper's name to The Hawk-Eye and Iowa Patriot in tribute to his friend, Chief Black Hawk.
Burlington was a bustling river port in the steamboat era and a central city to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The "Burlington Route" merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad, which in turn merged into the BNSF Railway. The "Burlington" name has been given to one of the United States' largest railroads.
Burlington's roots are in transportation and manufacturing. Manufacturing plants are among the largest employers in the area, including companies such as American Ordnance LLC, Case Corporation, ABB (formerly General Electric), Champion Spark Plugs, Shearer's Foods and Winegard Company. The largest employer in the area is the Great River Medical Center.
Over the last several years, several businesses have either left the area or relocated elsewhere. These businesses include Exide, makers of vehicle batteries, CAT, Case Corporation's closest competitor in American made construction equipment, and Lehigh-Leopold, makers of office furniture.
The downtown area holds a number of buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, among them the Burlington Apartments (listed as the Hotel Burlington), the Burlington Railroad Depot, the Des Moines County Courthouse, the Burlington Fire Department central station, and many more.
Downtown Burlington is perhaps best known for Snake Alley, the most crooked street in the US.
Burlington is the home of the Burlington Bees baseball team, a member of the Prospect League, a collegiate summer baseball league. They were previously members of Minor League Baseball's Class A Midwest League until Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minor leagues after the 2020 season.
Burlington hosts the Snake Alley Criterium, one of the most physically challenging races in the Midwest. The annual event is held on a 15-block course, with differences in elevation from 555 feet to 678 feet. The course is entirely on city streets, mostly in the downtown commercial area. A one-block-long climb is on the historic brick street named Snake Alley. The 276-foot-long Snake Alley has five switchbacks in a 60-foot climb. The average grade is 12.5 percent in that one block.
Twice, Burlington has been the finishing point for RAGBRAI, the annual bicycle ride that starts at the Missouri River in western Iowa and ends in eastern Iowa at the Mississippi River. #driving #travel #drivingtour
My wife and I live in Washington state and are moving to Burlington here in the next few months. We've watched this video a gazillion times. It not only showcases this lovely town well, but you also drive by the house we're buying, with your camera pointed right at it. It looks GREAT!!! Thanks for showing us our house!
good move!
I moved to Rome, Iowa in July 2021- September 16,2021 I had a Veterans doctor office ther in Burlington, Iowa and in July of 2024 I will be moving back to Rome, Iowa from Orting, Wa
@TraciAckerman-mr5wq I know where Orting, WA is. Drove through a couple of times. We've been renting here in Toledo, Washington for many years now, waiting for the bottom to drop out so we can afford to buy. Well, it ain't happening. And we can't afford it here any longer. As an update, we now OWN the house in Burlington and will be heading out in a couple of weeks. I will be finishing my career (with the post office) in Mt Pleasant. Not too far from Rome. Hope to see you around.
How was the move Michael? I plan on moving to Iowa soon from Washington as well
@Chill-bl6vd well, the travel time took a little longer than expected. It was the middle of March and they closed I80 in Wyoming for a couple of days. But we eventually made it through. We love our house. We love this town. I've been working in Mt Pleasant. We really really really like it here. Hope it works out well for you too. Keep me posted!
Well done. I love Burlington
Greetings from 🇬🇧 I enjoyed watching this . Thanks 🤗🙏
Glad you enjoyed it
🤝👍thank u for alllllll u video! 🌹
my pleasure
I used to live in that town as a kid now I live i Denver
I was born there in 1950 and lived there until 1988
I grew up here. Thanks for taking me back. Sadly, B-Town is now just an extension for the trash from Chicago. I used to take walks down Jefferson St. at 3am back in the day. Wouldn't dare do that now.
Went to junior college and lived there for two years. And an aunt and uncle and their family lived there. Glad to see a couple of looks at Snake Alley! Nice place, and especially nice river town.
My grandparents lived in Burlington. I'd move there if the winters weren't so cold.
Summer home in Burlington, winter home in Vegas. Get to work!
Brings back many memories .thank you
You're welcome
Wonderful 😍 thank you so much for sharing your amazing video !!!
Thank you
Nice job; interesting look around a very historic River town. Lots of flowering trees added to the view. I worked on the RR through BUR for many years, but never had a chance to have a “look around” until your Video showed it to me.
Great little city, love it
Looking forward to visiting this town in July.
Excellent! If you have a vehicle, you must drive up the hills and take a look at these gorgeous mansions. My video doesn't even cover half of them.
@@exploreusacities This town looks kind of amazing. Great footage!
Nice shot of the cameras. You must have stock in GoPro. Noticed the audio is louder now, more road/wind noise. Thanks for the view of the bridge and the river towards the end.
My grandmother was born in 1869 in Burlington and moved away as a young woman, probably in her late twenties. I'd never seen any photos of the town till finding this video. It shows a beautiful river town with the trees at their spring peak. The houses appear carefully maintained, and many must have been in place when my grandma was a child. The video would benefit from some narration and eliminating the shots of the cameras on the roof of the car.
Yes, that historic district was beautifully preserved, I'm sure your grandma would have walked by many of those houses and she surely walked up and down snake alley!
I see now why we are not subjected to wheezing, sneezing, coughing, or farting.......cameras on the top of the car. Spring has sprung in Burlington. Thanks for a peek at a beautiful town.
I could splice some of that in if you find that you are missing it... :)
We used to build nice towns like this. Look at all the nice houses they could 100 plus years ago. I don't know what happened. Housing is expensive now but not built as well. I wonder if there were working-class people then and where did they live.
Back in the day they used to value beauty in architecture, these days it's not valued as much. Sad!
The town's character was forever changed in the early 70's when some braniac's decided to bulldoze beautiful old homes to put in 3 miles of interstate highway to connect the bridge to no where
Some good press for our beautiful town 😊
We would go there to shop
Im born and raised in Burlington Wisconsin. I'm 42 years old I need a need start and. So saltwater aquariums business out of my house . I'm ready to move out of my parents house again . I'm looking at moving to Burlington IA
go for it man. and if that doesn't work out, there's always Burlington, Vermont. Just try every town named Burlington.
Or Burlington, Washington. There's, like, a gazillion of them!
Got a few blocks from my house, but you turned off.
Been there many times, my daughter used to live there, nice town, yes, "stunning," no.
All the pavement seem to be busted up all over town! They need to repair virtually every road I see in the video.
This video shows some of the work that was being done last year. The new streets look awesome now.
I live here and this place sucks if you wanna see a nice place go to Keokuk iowa it’s perfect there
I did Keokuk as well. I thought Burlington was lovely! Why don't you like Burlington?
Now that you've revealed the secret of Keokuk, everyone will be moving there, and it probably won't be perfect anymore.
It's far from perfect, but not as bad as people make out
@@maryDunn2023It had more jobs in 1970
I wouldnt call burlington stunning..but ok, btw you drove past my home