Fremont Street Experience, Las Vegas (must see)

The Fremont Street Experience unfolds along the westernmost five blocks of Fremont Street, forming a pedestrian corridor that traces the city’s earliest commercial and gaming history beneath a vast light canopy. This stretch, long known as “Glitter Gulch,” is where many of Las Vegas’ first milestones took place and where visitors can still walk past their original locations within a compact area.

At the western end of the Fremont Street Experience, near the intersection with Main Street, stands the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino. Opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada, it was the city’s first hotel. Facing Fremont Street, the Golden Gate sits directly to your right if you are standing on Fremont and looking east, marking the traditional gateway into Glitter Gulch.

From here, walk east along Fremont Street for about 200 feet. On the north side of the street, to your left, once stood the Northern Club, located at 15 East Fremont Street. Although the Northern Club is no longer there, this site is historically important as the place where Nevada’s first gaming license was issued, formalizing casino gambling in the state. Continuing east for another approximately 820 feet, you reach the area near Las Vegas Boulevard, where the Fremont Hotel stays. Completed in 1956, it is Las Vegas’ first high-rise hotel. Its location lies to your left, just before Fremont Street crosses Las Vegas Boulevard.

As you proceed east, you move fully beneath the Fremont Street Experience’s defining feature: the barrel-vault canopy. Rising 90 feet overhead and extending approximately 1,375 feet from Main Street to Fourth Street, the canopy covers the central portion of the pedestrian mall. Before each Viva Vision light-and-sound show, surrounding building facades dim briefly, focusing attention upward as the canopy comes alive with synchronized visuals and music.

Continue walking east under the canopy toward Fourth Street, and you will see the SlotZilla Zip Line launch tower ahead. Located near the intersection of Fremont Street and Fourth Street, the slot-machine-shaped tower rises above the pedestrian mall. From here, riders launch either in a seated position or in a horizontal “Superman” style, flying westward above Fremont Street, directly beneath the canopy, with a full aerial view of the entertainment district below.