This view (like the one in illustration 7) is taken from the North Hill looking south, and a bit west. It was from this vantage point also that the men of "F Troop", almost 100 years earlier, first viewed the valley site of the post they had been sent to help construct. The magnitude of the intervening century's change can be appreciated by referring again to illustration 2. Development since World War I can be assessed in the contrast between this scene and that in illustration 7. In the modern photograph one can see the finished form of the Centre Street bridge, which was under construction in 1915.
This photograph also provides a striking illustration of Calgary's distinguishing climatic feature. Seen here is a beautiful Chinook Arch, the dramatic skyward signal that warmer weather has arrived. The Arch is formed on the Chinook's leading edge where the warm, rushing, western winds literally roll back the entrenched colder air mass leaving a straight-edged formation of altocumulus cloud. This phenomenon, which causes such remarkable climatic change, has given rise to many fantastic tales that have become an intimate part of the regional folk literature. For some examples, consult Robert E. Gard, Johnny Chinook Tall Tales and True from The Canadian West (Toronto Longmans, Green and Company, 1945).
