City

:For alternate meanings see city (disambiguation)

Geography

The geographies of cities are diverse. Often cities will either be coastal and have a harbour or be situated near a river giving economic advantage. Water transports on rivers and oceans were (and in most cases still are) cheaper and more efficient than road transport over long distances.

Related Topics:
Harbour - River - Water transports - Road transport

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The kernels of older European cities, which have not been extensively rebuilt, tend to have city centres where the streets are jumbled together, often seemingly without a structural plan. This is a legacy of earlier unplanned or organic development. Today this is usually perceived by tourists to be picturesque.

Related Topics:
Europe - Tourist

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Modern city planning has seen many different schemes for how a city should look. The most commonly seen pattern is the grid, almost a rule in parts of the United States, and used for thousands of years in China. Derry was the first ever planned city in Ireland, begun in 1613, with the walls being completed 5 years later in 1618. The central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to be a good design for defence. The grid pattern chosen was subsequently much copied in the colonies of British North America http://worldfacts.us/UK-Londonderry.htm.

Related Topics:
Grid - United States - China - Derry - Planned city - 1613 - 1618

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Other forms may include a radial structure in which main roads converge on a central point, often the effect of successive growth over long time with concentric traces of town walls and citadels - recently supplemented by ring-roads that take traffic around the edge of a town. Many Dutch cities are structured that way: a central square surrounded by a concentric canals. Every city expansion would imply a new circle (canals + town walls). In cities like Amsterdam and Haarlem this pattern is still clearly visible.

Related Topics:
Town wall - Citadel - Dutch - Amsterdam - Haarlem

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