By the 1980s, the area surrounding Fremont Street had a reputation for squalor. This was on trend with the urban decline of the central districts of many American cities during this time. However, with the airport established and direct freeway links available to the strip we know today, Fremont began to lose popularity. Prior to the establishment of the local airport, the most common entry for tourists coming into Las Vegas was the train station, from which Fremont Street benefited as it was close in proximity.

It was the Golden Nugget, with the addition of the Flamingo Hotel in 1946, where the Las Vegas strip that we know today was born. The most famous Las Vegas casino of the time, the Golden Nugget Gambling Hall, featured a gigantic neon sign itself. Electricity from the nearby Hoover Dam was plentiful and available to power the signs down Fremont, which had earned the nickname of 'Glitter Gulch'. However, as short as its tenure in the nightlife of Las Vegas was, its combination of a full casino, restaurant and showroom under one roof would prove revolutionary to the very entity of the city.Īs gaming facilities began to grow along Fremont Street, Las Vegas began to see the emergence of neon signs. Fremont Street was home to the city's first paved street, first traffic light, and perhaps most influentially, its first casino, the Meadows Hotel, which operated between 19. Long before the flashy casinos for which Las Vegas is famous for today, there was downtown Las Vegas and Fremont Street. The Original Las Vegas Strip Fremont Street today exists in the form of the 'Fremont Street Experience'.

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