[13] In the summer of 1775, settlers began clearing the land and built two or three log huts, but the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War delayed permanent settlement until after its conclusion.

The American troops involved were commanded by Naval Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough, later a hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain.

[21] In fact, the entire Burlington waterfront was a derelict wasteland as late as the mid-1980s, with rail yards, industrial uses and 90 oil storage tanks crowding the 60 acres of shoreline filled into the harbor during the lumbering era.

They now run a bike ferry during the summer to get bicycles across a 200 yard gap in the railroad causeway, so they can get all the way out to the Lake Champlain islands.

[28] They also cited reports by Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem that find Israel guilty of the crime of apartheid.

[29][30] The American Jewish Committee condemned the resolution as "deceptive and one-sided" and criticized it for its sole focus on Israel.

It was built on a strip of land extending about 6 miles (9.7 km) south from the mouth of the Winooski River along the lake shore, and rises from the water's edge to a height of 300 feet (91 m).

[37] A large ravine in what is now downtown was filled in with refuse and raw sewage in the 19th century to make way for further development.

The city's location east of Lake Champlain sometimes accounts for localized snow squalls, producing up to 13 inches (33 cm) in 12 hours on rare occasions.

[59] General Electric develops software for the healthcare industry in South Burlington at the former headquarters of IDX Systems, which it purchased in 2006.

[77] Other acts with ties to the city include Matisyahu,[78] Kat Wright,[79][80] Strangefolk, The Essex Green, RAQ, James Kochalka, The Jazz Mandolin Project, Pork Tornado, Anaïs Mitchell, Greg Davis, Koushik, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Dispatch, Prydein, Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello, Noah Kahan, Morgan Page, KT Tunstall, Rubblebucket, The Vacant Lots, Drowningman, 99 Neighbors, Greg Freeman,[81] and Twiddle.

[84] The building had major settling problems in 1973 where it had been built over a former railroad ravine, which had been improperly filled in, and the library's collection was moved elsewhere.

The Conservative Ohavi Zedek synagogue is also located in the city, and there is an active Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

[95] The Ira Allen Chapel, on the grounds of the University of Vermont campus, was completed in 1926, and was designed in the Georgian Revival style by McKim, Mead & White.

The University of Vermont's men's hockey team, the Catamounts, play their home games at the 4,007-seat Gutterson Field House on the UVM campus.

[101][102] A professional basketball franchise, the Vermont Frost Heaves, played half of their season in the city until the team folded in 2011.

The Frost Heaves, owned by Sports Illustrated writer Alexander Wolff, played their Burlington games at the Memorial Auditorium, on South Union Street, at the corner of Main.

Saint Michael's College and a satellite campus of Southern New Hampshire University are in the neighboring town of Colchester.

Burlington is the central focus of Green Mountain Transit (GMT), which provides bus service within the city and to and from surrounding municipalities.

As part of its expansion, the CCTA merged with the Green Mountain Transit Authority (GMTA), which provided bus service in the Barre-Montpelier area and surrounding communities in central Vermont.

Premier Coach's Vermont Translines also provides intercity bus service between Burlington and Albany, New York, along the U.S. Route 7 corridor in a partnership with Greyhound, also from the airport.

The last passenger train to run north via the Burlington Tunnel to Alburgh, a town in the northwest extremity of Vermont, was in June 1938.

[126] From 2011 to 2018, the only available international commercial flights for BTV were via Porter Airlines' winter seasonal service to and from Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto.

Gordon Paquette made the decision to completely transition from coal to wood at the McNeil Generating Station in 1977, and Bernie Sanders picked up this momentum of the environmental movement in the small city.

This continued with Peter Clavelle, who mandated recycling in the city, and passed a number of bonds which funded energy improvements in infrastructure.

In 1995, the city issued the Legacy Plan, which aimed to "go beyond the branding and rhetoric and create actual examples that will resonate and make a difference in people's lives.

[135] This made Burlington the first city to run completely on sustainable energy sources: a landmark for green infrastructure.

The city has also worked on drastic building restoration projects, installed bikeways for more efficient transportation, and prioritized energy saving in the downtown.

[138] Howard Center, headquartered in Burlington, provides social services to state residents, and runs Vermont's first and the area's only methadone maintenance program, the Chittenden Clinic.

[citation needed] Burlington City Council unanimously voted on August 8, 2011 a resolution to promote the use of French in municipal public services, in restaurant menus and in second language courses in schools.