Jordan River Temple visible from the interstate I-15
West Jordan Utah
West Jordan is a suburb of Salt Lake City located 18 miles away at the southwest end of Utah Valley. The Jordan Landing mixed-use development is located in the major growth area of Salt Lake County, is the focal point of retail develop-ment and is one of the largest shopping centers in Utah. It is named after the Jordan River with the city limits on the west bank, and go to the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains, where Bingham Copper mine employsmany people. The median income is about $60,000.The population was 102,000 in 2007 making it the 4th highest population in the state. It currently has major retail centers: Jordan Landing, Intermountain West, Wasatch Softwear, Mountain America Credit Union, plus Dunford Bakery, Jordan Valley Hospital and Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake Municipal Airport 2, Gardner Village and the Historic Sugar Factory, which is scheduled to be converted into a Play House. Future plans include the TRAX light rail line, a new library, expansion of the hospital, a new park, a senior center, recreation center, a large new courthouse, etc.
Interstate 15, a twelve-lane freeway, is located east of the city limits, providing access from the north and south, while Interstate 215, an eight-lane beltway, is located northeast of the city. Bangerter Highway (Utah State Route 154), a six-lane expressway, traverses the center of the city, just east of Airport #2 and the Jordan Landing shopping center. Due to severe traffic congestion plaguing the rapidly growing city, "A ten-lane freeway in the Mountain View Corridor is planned to have three exits in the city and run north-south at 5800 West. The road is currently undergoing environmental review and no date for completion has been set.
New Bingham Highway, mostly a four-lane road, begins as 7720 South at State Street (U.S. Route 89) in Midvale, curves into 7800 South as it enters the city, and finally heads southwest to end at Copperton. Redwood Road (Utah State Route 68), a six-lane road, runs through the eastern portion of the city. In the far western extremes of the city, Utah State Route 111, a two-lane road, runs through the developing rural area along the foothills. Development between 4800 West and SR-111 is continuing rapidly with more development extending past SR-111 to as far as 7400 West..
West Jordan was on of the earliest Utah pioneer settlements after the founding of Salt Lake City. The community's roots begin in the later part of 1849 when some pioneers began spreading out in the Salt Lake valley. West Jordan's original unofficial area included most of the valley on the West Side of the Jordan River, and about a three-mile strip on the east side of the river past State Street in an area now occupied by Midvale, Sandy and the formerCrescent area.West Jordan's name captures some of the flavor of what the Mormon pioneers considered their promised land. They saw strong similarities in this arid western desert and the biblical lands. Both contained fresh water lakes (Sea of Galilee and Utah Lake) and dead salt water rivers (River Jordan and Utah River.) This similarity in geological features led to this area being referred to as a western Jordan and the southern part of the valley as the Jordan Valley. Brigham Young reinforced this concept when he renamed the Utah River the West Jordan River, which was shortened through time and use to the Jordan River.
It was 10 January 1941 before the town of West Jordan, with a population of less than 2,000, was officially incorporated. In the late 1960s the community began growing at such a rate it became one of the fastest growing small communities in the United States. By 1990 the population had reached 42,912. During this time the community has developed a degree of economic diversity with segments of industrial and commercial development along with its population growth. In the process, over a dozen community parks have been acquired and developed. This push to strengthen quality of life for citizens is also reflected in a recent successful proposal that brought it together with its sister city, South Jordan, to win the location site for a new 100-acre Salt Lake Community College campus, which will be built straddling the cities' shared border.
For more info see: www.thingamajob.com/L-Us-West-jordan-Utah-0.aspx
www.apartments.com/Utah/NorthernUtah/SaltLakeCity&Vicinity/WestJordan
www.city-data.com/city/West-Jordan-Utah.html
www.wjordan.com