The Mile High City

Denver calls itself the Mile High City, and that is not just a marketing line. The city sits exactly five thousand two hundred eighty feet above sea level, one mile precisely. Three markers on the west steps of the State Capitol make this official, each placed by a different team of surveyors at a different time.

Students from the University of Denver marked the fifteenth step in nineteen oh nine. Colorado State University surveyors recalculated and moved the marker in nineteen sixty-nine. In two thousand three, Metropolitan State University students settled on the thirteenth step as the true one-mile mark.

A purple row of seats wraps the upper deck of Coors Field at the same elevation. The thin air here is real. At this height the atmosphere is only about eighty-three percent as dense as at sea level.

Newcomers often feel winded on stairs or get headaches in the first few days. Water boils at about two hundred two degrees rather than two twelve, so food takes longer to cook and baked goods rise faster and need less leavening. Ultraviolet radiation runs about twenty-five percent stronger because there is less atmosphere filtering it.

Alcohol also hits harder, since dehydration and lower oxygen amplify its effects. Locals account for all of this without thinking. Visitors figure it out quickly.