Geography of Denver

Climate, neighborhoods and infrastructure of Denver
The City and County of Denver, Colorado, is located at 39°43'35" North, 104°57'56" West (39.726287, −104.965486) in the Colorado Front Range region. The Southern Rocky Mountains lie to the west of Denver and the High Plains lie to the east. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 401.3 km² (154.9 mi²). 397.2 km² (153.4 mi²) of it is land and 4.1 km² (1.6 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 1.03% water.

Denver has 79 neighborhoods that the City and community groups use for planning and administration. Although the City's delineation of the neighborhood boundaries is somewhat arbitrary, the City's definitions of its neighborhoods roughly correspond to those used by residents. Denver also has a number of neighborhoods not reflected in the City's administrative neighborhoods. Sometimes these neighborhoods reflect the way people in an area identify themselves; sometimes they reflect how others, such as real estate developers, have defined those areas. Among the neighborhoods commonly spoken of are historic and trendy LoDo (short for "Lower Downtown"), part of the City's Union Station neighborhood; Capitol Hill, Washington Park; Uptown, part of the North Capitol Hill neighborhood; Curtis Park, part of the Five Points neighborhood; Alamo Placita, the northern part of the Speer neighborhood; and the Golden Triangle, roughly the Civic Center neighborhood.

Most of Denver has a straightforward street grid oriented to the four cardinal directions. Blocks are usually identified in hundreds from the median streets, identified as "0", which are Broadway (the west east median) and Ellsworth Avenue (the north south median). Colfax Avenue, the major east west artery through Denver, is 15 blocks (1500 North) of the median. Avenues north of Ellsworth are numbered (except for Colfax Avenue and a few others), while avenues south of Ellsworth are named. There is also an older downtown grid system that was designed to be parallel to the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. Most of the streets downtown and in LoDo run northeast southwest and northwest southeast. This system has an unplanned benefit for snow removal; if the streets were in a normal N S/E W grid, only the N S streets would get sun. With the grid pointed in diagonal directions, the NW SE streets get the sun to melt snow in the morning and the NE SW streets get it in the afternoon. The NW SE streets are numbered, while the NE SW streets are named. The named streets start at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway with the block long Cheyenne Place. The numbered streets start underneath the Colfax and I 25 viaducts. There are 27 named and 44 numbered streets on this grid. There are also a few vestiges of the old grid system in the normal grid, such as Park Avenue, Morrison Road, and Speer Boulevard.

Denver is primarily served by the interstate highways I 25 and I 70. The intersection of the two interstates is referred to locally as "the mousetrap." I 70 runs east west from Utah to Baltimore, Maryland. I 25 runs north south from the New Mexico border through Denver to Buffalo, Wyoming. I 225 traverses neighboring Aurora and connects with I 25 in the southeastern corner of Denver. Additionally, I 76 begins from I 70 on the south edge of the city of Arvada. It intersects I 25 north of the city and runs northeast to Nebraska where it ends at I 80. U. S. Highway 6 connects downtown Denver to the suburb of Golden. A highway expansion and transit project, dubbed "T REX", was recently completed along the I 25 corridor. The project included the addition of extra freeway lanes, the redesign of several highway overpasses, and a light rail line along the I 25 corridor between downtown Denver and the Denver Technological Center. The massive project was finished in the Fall of 2006, ahead of schedule and under budget.

Mass transportation throughout the Denver Aurora metropolitan area is managed and coordinated by the Regional Transportation District (RTD). RTD currently operates more than 1,000 buses serving 10,000 bus stops in 38 municipal jurisdictions. Additionally, RTD operates seven light rail lines (the C Line, D Line, E Line, F Line, H Line, R Line, and the W Line) as well as two commuter rail lines serving a total of 53 stations. The current RTD local fare is $2.25. FasTracks, an expansion project approved by voters in 2004, will allow the light rail to serve cities such as Lakewood, Golden, and Aurora. Commuter rail lines will serve Boulder, Longmont, and the Denver International Airport, augmenting existing light rail extending from the downtown area to C 470 servicing the Denver suburbs.

Passenger train service to Denver is provided by Amtrak's California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area with major stops in Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. Additionally, the Winter Park Express provides winter weekend service from Denver to Winter Park Resort. Both trains stop at Denver's historic Union Station, where travelers can transfer to RTD's 16th Street Free MallRide or use light rail to tour the city.