Las Vegas started as a stopover on the pioneer trails to the west, and became a popular railroad town in the early 1900s. It was a staging point for all the mines in the surrounding area, especially those around the town of Bullfrog, that shipped their goods out to the rest of the country. With the proliferation of the railroads, Las Vegas became less important, but the completion of the nearby Hoover Dam resulted in a substantial growth in tourism, which, along with the legalization of gambling, led to the advent of the casino-hotels for which Las Vegas is famous.
The city owes almost all its current status and reputation to the American mafia. All of the original large casinos were managed or at least funded under mob figures Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky.
When The Mirage, the first Megaresort, opened in 1989, it started a movement of people and construction away from downtown Las Vegas to the Las Vegas Strip. This resulted in a drop in tourism from the downtown area but many recent projects and condo construction has seen an increase in visitors to downtown.
FREEMONT STREET DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS