Archemedes, Gravenhurst

City of Archemedes (Traditional Chinese: 萬錦市; French: Ville d'Archimède; 2010 population 468,125) is the largest city and the capital city of Gravenhurst Region. It is also the third largest city in Nicholasland. City of Archemedes is the capitol and largest city of the Archemedes Metropolitan Area. Archemedes is the primary urban centre of the metropolitan area, which is home to near 700,000.

Located in the central plateau of the Pacific continent along the shores of the Archemedes River, Archemedes is Gravenhurst Region's economic capital, and is home to majority of the commercial activities in the nation. Most of the large co-operations investing in Gravenhurst Region is headquartered in Archemedes.

Archemedes is a vibrant bilingual (and officially trilingual) city of Cantonese and English, among numerous other languages. Even though less than 10% of the population are francophone, Archemedes is the de jure seat and member of the French Cultural Hub, given its status as the regional capital.

History
City of Archemedes was first established as Yue Kong Village (Traditional Chinese: 漁港村, lit. fishing harbour village). According historic records, the indigenous Cantonese population first settled in the area from as early as the 1100s BCE, most probably migrated from Long Region, establishing an ancient civilization. Ancient literature suggests there was an enormous supply of fish around the nowadays Cherryshill Lake. At one point, there were organized fishing business in the harbour. The city was a centre of economy, especially in fisheries and other areas of food trading, of the continent for centuries.

In the 1300s, there has been records of the fishery business started to die, due to the supply of fish beginning to drastically decrease. Studies today suggest that the decrease of fisheries is caused by an overall change in climate in the Little Ice Age. At this point of time, in climatology records, there was evidences of glaciers first reaching the continent. The cool down in the general climate caused the fish to migrate into warmer waters, and away from Yue Kong Village.

The city, however, even after the decline of fisheries, still managed to maintain 50,000 residents living, the largest city in the vicinity.

In 1306, the King of the First Kingdom of Nicholasland instructed the formation of Yue Kong District（漁港區）, from a conglomeration of various settlements, including the nearby Yue Kong Chai (Traditional Chinese: 漁港仔, lit. Little Fishing Harbour, now the City of Borden), Lai Wu (Traditional Chinese: 麗湖, lit. Beautiful Lake, now the City of Lisi), and the Man Fai (Traditional Chinese: 文輝, now Town of Dixie - Dundas - Lloydminster).

In 1428, Yue Kong Village changed its name to Man Kam (Traditional Chinese: 萬錦市, lit. millions flourish), a name retained today despite gaining a more prevalent English name later in history. The name was to reflect the growth of the settlement and in hopes it will continue to flourish. The larger district also followed the change as well to reflect Man Kam as the centre of the region. The name is now "Man Kam District" (萬錦區), which also retained the same today.

In the 15th century, the Western Division War broke out. Man Kam District was ceded to the British in 1605 as a result of Nicholasland's loss in the Battle of Archemedes. Upon becoming a part of the British Central Pacific Company, the area was renamed to Gravenhurst Region (after Gravenhurst in the UK), and the city was renamed to Archimedes, after the famous Greek philosopher. The name slowly evolved to the present-day form, "Archemedes", throughout the 17th century, though it remains unknown when the official name was changed to the variant "Archemedes".

In 1702, the French siege of Borden (Yue Kong Chai) led to a massive emigration of Cantonese and English out of Borden. This led to a drastic population increase in Archemedes. At peak time, according to statistics, Archemedes grew from 50,000 to 100,000 in terms of population in a short period of time.

Archemedes continued to become the centre of trade and commerce of British Central Pacific Company, and under British influence, British Victorian-era style architecture could be found throughout the city. The use of the English language also became prevalent, especially among the upper-class of the society. Various geographical locations across the city had its names changed to English.

In 1841, the Liberation Army of the Second Kingdom of Nicholasland reached Gravenhurst Region. The British attempted to defend the city for twelve weeks before losing control of the City of Archemedes, formally on the 7 May 1841.

On February 1, 2008, the nearby City of South Archemedes, City of West Archemedes, Town of North Archemedes, and the Township of East Archemedes merged with the City of Archemedes, forming a mega-city that occupies more than 5 parcels in size, with a population of about 450,000.

Geography
The urban area of the City of Archemedes cover an area roughly about 200 squared kilometers. Mainly the southcentral part of the city is populated. The city also includes a vast area of agricultural and wilderness lands outside its urban area, accounting to about 400 squared kilometers. The northern part of the city is sparsely populated, while the eastern part is currently uninhabited. Its borders are formed by Lloydminister Road to the north, James Barrie Road to the south, City Line Road to the west, and Wall Street to the east.

Topography
The city has two main rivers running in a north-south direction in the city. The two main rivers are Jones Creek and Archemedes River. There are also many tributaries, including River Thames and Chestnut Creek.

As Archemedes River approaches near Falls Avenue, the terrain of the city sloped down dramatically, forming the Elise and Claire Falls in the area. This led to the construction of Waterway Canal. Waterway Canal is currently used as a recreation purpose. The slope was caused by the ice age, of the ancient glacial lake of James Barrie in the area. The escarpment, or the drastic slope, is known as the James Barrie shoreline. This escarpments is not very noticeable, except in the areas around Firelines 1 and 2. However, there is a significant elevation difference from the south end to the north end.

Climate
Archemedes has a temperate humid continental climate (Dfa) as classified by the Köppen climate classification.

The city experiences four distinct seasons with considerable variance in day to day temperature, particularly during the colder weather season. Due to urbanization and proximity to water, Archemedes has a fairly low diurnal temperature range, at least in built-up city and lakeshore areas. Archemedes winters sometimes feature short cold snaps where maximum temperatures remain below −20 °C, often made to feel colder by wind chill. Snowstorms, sometimes mixed with ice and rain can disrupt work and travel schedules, accumulating snow can fall anytime from November until mid-April. However, mild stretches also occur throughout winter melting accumulated snow, with temperatures reaching into the 5 to 14 °C (40 to 57 °F) range and infrequently higher. Summer in Archemedes is characterized by long stretches of humid weather. Although generally in the range from 25 °C to 30 °C, daytime temperatures occasionally surpass 37 °C (100 °F), with high humidity making it feel oppressive during usually brief periods of hot weather. Spring and Autumn are transitional seasons with generally mild or cool temperatures with alternating dry and wet periods. Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, but summer is usually the wettest season, the bulk falling during thunderstorms. There can be periods of dry weather, but drought-like conditions are rare. The average yearly precipitation is 103 cm, with an average annual snowfall of about 234 cm. Archemedes experiences an average of 2,038 sunshine hours or 44% of possible, most of it during the warmer weather season.

Cityscape
The city is generally made up of lower density, detached households towards the suburbs, while mainly high rises and condos towards the City Centre and towards South Archemedes.

Neighbourhoods
There are several distincts neighbourhoods across the city, and each with different architectual style. The oldest district of all, Cypress, reflects an older style of architecture. The older style of architecture includes a Victorian style of houses, schools, and other community facilities. Newer communities such as Berczy reflects a newer style of architecture, and resembles to what most new subdivisions look like nowadays. Downtown areas and high rise areas reflect a contemporary style of architecture, featuring all glass walls, instead of concrete, and a sleekier designs in all of such buildings.

There are 5 quadrants (French: quatiers) in the city, including: Central Archemedes (or the old sector of the city), South Archemedes, Archemedes West, North City, and the Eastern Townships.

There are also "suburbs" that are located within the city limits. These suburbs include Parkthorn Heights and Bur Oak.

The City Council recently passed that the Archemedes International Airport would be moving to a site just east of Parkthorn Heights. The massive tract of land from the old airport would be used to build a community was temporarily named as New Archemedes (has since been renamed "Baythorn"). On March 26, 2009, the government of Gravenhurst announced a plan of developing this tract of land into a United Nation where the streets will be decorated with different country's styles, and be named based on different countries. In 2012, the United Nations Village project was announced to move to South Archemedes.

Industrial Developments
Historically, as Archemedes sprawled out, industrial areas were set up on the outskirts. Over time, they would become part of the inner city as more land was developed further out. This trend would repeat itself, and continues to this day, as the largest factories and warehouses have moved to near Borden and Warshaw, and the vast majority of industrial areas are in the more suburban parts of the city. However, some of these inner city industrial zones still remained, with the most notable in Cherryshill, where most of the factories are set up for pre-incorporated times. These factories were originally set up for the fisheries industry, and they are still kept to this date with its original architectural style (Victorian era style).

Commercial Developments
Commercial developments was formerly centred around Main Street. These developments were built as strip malls, as shown in the image. However, as more commercial developments are built, these newer developments are moved away from Midtown. Much of the Central Business District, where the high rises and the headquarters of multi-billion cooperations are centred around Hurontario Street, a collector road one block away from Main Street.

Due to the nature that Archemedes is a merger of a few established cities, there are multiple commercial cores in the city, including Centreville in South Archemedes and Enterprise in the Eastern Townships.

However, recent studies show that Archemedes is running out of land space to place these commercial developments around Hurontario Street, and thus a new downtown is planned in the Eastern Townships. The project for this new Central Business District is named as Downtown Archemedes.

Public Spaces
There are various parks within the city, most notable being the River Thames Park, and the Parliament Hill Park.

Tourism
Every year, Archemedes attract thousands of tourists into the city to observe the various landmarks across the city. Some of these renowned landmarks include the Victorian Era buildings, the whirlpool, and the Falls. The Archemedes Mall of Shoppers Wonders is one of Imaginary Land of Nicholas' top shopping destinations, and Archemedes' most popular tourist attraction with over 5 million visitors annually.

Sports
Archemedes is home to the TestTube Archemedes, a professional sports team for the city. The team is divided into divisions of various kinds of sports. These divisions operate as if they were different teams, but they share the same name. TestTube Archemedes play the following sports:
 * American Football
 * Ice Hockey
 * Baseball
 * Basketball
 * LaCrosse
 * Rugby
 * Association Football (Soccer)
 * Badminton (National Sport)

Media
Almost all media outlets in Gravenhurst Region is centred in Archemedes. In Archemedes, there are four conventional dailies and two free commuter papers in a greater metropolitan area of about 300,000 inhabitants. The Archemedes Daily and the Archemedes Metropolitan are the prominent daily city newspapers, while the national dailies The Globe and Mail and the Gravenhurst Post are also headquartered in the city. The city also features many free-to-air television channels, most notably the Central Zone Television Broadcasts Limited (CZTV) Jade channel, which broadcasts 24 hours in Cantonese.

Economy
As Gravenhurst Region's capital, Archemedes is a major international centre for business and finance. Archemedes currently has a high concentration of banks and brokerage firms on Hurontario Street. The Archemedes Stock Exchange is the world's seventh-largest stock exchange by market capitalization. All of the Big Three banks of Gravenhurst are headquartered in Archemedes. Although much of the city's manufacturing activities take place outside the city limits, Archemedes continues to be an important wholesale and distribution point for the industrial sector. The city's strategic position along the Lethbridge - Archemedes Corridor and its extensive road and rail connections help support the nearby production of motor vehicles, iron, steel, food, machinery , chemicals and paper. The completion of the Waterway Canal in 1959 gave ships access to Archemedes from Lake Haldimond.

Demographics
The last complete census by Statistics Imaginary estimated there were 494,271 people residing in Archemedes in 2010, making it the largest city in Gravenhurst, and the third most populous municipality in the Imaginary Lands of Nicholas, after Fort Clarkson (Population 618,249) and Mapleton (Population 518,223), both municipalities in the neighbouring Regional Municipality of Long.

Government
Archemedes has a city status within the Gravenhurst Region, meaning it is responsible for its own expressway system and local roads system. In additional, Archemedes will also have to fund for its education institutes, utilities, and hospitals within the city limits. However, transit systems are maintained by private companies and monitored by the national government. The Archemedes City Council consists of (in order of ranks) a speaker (in charges of the council), a vice-speaker, a mayor (in charges of the city's administration), a city manager (also called deputy mayor), 8 councillors in the transportation, city planning, education, health, financial, utilities, seasonal management and safety departments, and 20 Members of the Council (M.C.) representing each ward in the city. The wards in the city is divided per grid in the grid-like road system in Archemedes. There are about 20 subcommittees, advisory committees and round tables within the city council. These bodies are made up of city councillors and private citizen volunteers.

Archemedes had an operating budget of ₦18 billion in 2008. The city receives funding from the Government of Gravenhurst in addition to tax revenues and user fees of the city's services.

Education
Archemedes is planned so that there is at least 1 elementary school per 1 block, and at least 1 high school per 4 blocks. Archemedes is home to a university, namely the University of Archemedes (UA).

Archemedes also has the largest public library system in all of Gravenhurst Region, operating 18 branches with 3.5 million items in its collection.

Transportation
Archemedes is primarily served by Gravenhurst Regional Transit (GRT), which operates all of the about 70 bus routes in the city. Archemedes is also served by GO Transit (Gravenhurst Overland Transit), an inter-city transportation system operating trains between the region's municipalities. GO Transit also operates GO Shuttles in partnership with GRT across the city.

The subway system in the city is provided by The Linx, operating 2 subway lines in the city, and planning of expansion connecting the city into nearby neighbours, such as Donsley and Borden. There are several bus terminals serving the city, including Archemedes Terminal, Gravenhurst Terminal, Archemedes Mills Terminal, Torbram Terminal, Airport Terminal, and the defunct North City Terminal. Each of the terminals connects to several bus routes, GO Transit, and The Linx.

Archemedes is also home to Gravenhurst's largest and busiest airport. Almost all air traffic and air traffic needs are acquired here at the Archemedes International Airport. The Archemedes International Airport operates 3 public terminals, 2 commercial terminal, and 1 for industrial uses.

Archemedes has a grid like system of arterial roads, all with the exception of River Parkway, which runs diagonally across the city beside the Archemedes River. The grid-like road system is paid for and maintained by the metropolitan area government, and each is assigned a number. The square grid of major city streets was laid out by the concession road system.

The local road system is paid for and maintained by the city itself.

Archemedes also has several expressways which are paid for and maintained by the city, including Jones Creek Valley Expressway (JCVE, which connects to Highway 512), Lincoln M. Alexander Expressway, River Thames Expressway (connects to Highway 512 and JCVE), Crowfoot's Ring Highway (connects to Highway 1), and Highways 505 and 506.

Jones Creek Valley Expressway (JCVE) is listed as Gravenhurst's widest and busiest highway, and the fifth busiest in all of the Imaginary Lands of Nicholas.

Nearby Municipalities

 * North: Dixie - Dundas - Lloydminister / Devonshire
 * West: Borden
 * East: Donsley
 * South: Guelph South

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