The three mile-long Las Vegas Strip, is not just any ole strip. This is the strip of neon lights and non-stop excitement. It is a clockless strip where time stands still and anytime is gambling time. This is the strip where dreams are made and sadly, dreams are broken even more often. Welcome to the Las Vegas Strip, witness to the largest number of rags-to-riches stories...and riches-to-rags stories as well.
So, how did it come to be named the Strip? Police captain, Guy MacAfee renamed this Los Angeles Highway The Strip after he saw the Flamingo, which brought back memories of the sophisticated clubs he had seen on the Sunset Strip. So the story goes...
The Last Vegas Strip started out as Arrowhead Highway and changed several names before settling down with this name that has made it so famous. Some of the other names the strip has been known by include Fifth Street, Salt Lake Highway, Route 91 and Los Angeles Highway.
In 1953, 1,800 hotel rooms were available on the strip and you could stay at a five-star hotel on the strip for a princely sum of $7.50 a day. A room at any motel was cheaper and would set you back $3 a day. A far cry from the 1990's, when a total of 4645 were demolished after just five resorts on the strip were imploded. The new resorts that replaced the demolished ones have even more rooms than ever before.
In April 1958, an exodus of grasshoppers that visited the city every night and left in the morning, forced casino owners to shut off their neon signs when they realized it was the lights that were attracting the insects.
Speaking of neon lights, in 1966, Las Vegas was reported to be the brightest city in the world. This data was obtained from a satellite that was orbiting the earth at a distance of more than 500 miles. Luxor's beacon, with an intensity of 40 searchlights, was the brightest artificial light in the world.
There were no red stop lights when the strip first opened. Stop lights were only installed in 1961, after owner and publisher of Fabulous Las Vegas Magazine actively crusaded for them following several accidents.
The Las Vegas Strip is a strip that never sleeps. You can get married or divorced, hire a lawyer or get a hair cut any time of the day or night. All you need in order to get a marriage license issued is valid identification and $55.
With no clocks in sight and non-stop excitement 24hours a day, at the Las Vegas Strip you can do anything you want to anytime you want. It is probably the only place in the world where jet-lag is unheard of.
