In tracing the City of Reno back to its beginnings, some, like local biographer Jack Harpster, would say it all began with an inn by the Truckee River and a bridge.
In his newest book, The Genesis of Reno: The History of the Riverside Hotel and the Virginia Street Bridge, he dissects the influence the two landmarks have had on Reno throughout the past and present.
“The fact that an inn is still in the same site a hundred sixty-eight years later and a bridge is on the same site a hundred sixty-eight years later and both, by the way, are the sixth iteration of an inn and a bridge… it just looked like a good way to tell the story,” Harpster said.
Harpster sat down with our Reno Public Radio reporter, Marcus Lavergne, to discuss the book and the city's ongoing growth.