[10]: 26  Subsequent to the enactment of the Pre-emption Act of 1860, Moody settled the Lower Mainland and selected the site and founded the new capital, New Westminster.

Moody and the Royal Engineers were trained in settlement and selected the site because of its defensibility: it was farther from the American border than the site of the colony's proclamation, Fort Langley, possessed "great facilities for communication by water, as well as by future great trunk railways into the interior",[11]: 174  and possessed an excellent port.

[10]: 26  Moody was also struck by the majestic beauty of the site, writing in his letter to Blackwood: The entrance to the Fraser is very striking—Extending miles to the right & left are low marsh lands (apparently of very rich qualities) & yet fr [sic] the Background of Superb Mountains—Swiss in outline, dark in woods, grandly towering into the clouds there is a sublimity that deeply impresses you.

[...] My imagination converted the silent marshes into Cuyp-like pictures of horses and cattle lazily fattening in rich meadows in a glowing sunset.

[...] The water of the deep clear Frazer was of a glassy stillness, not a ripple before us, except when a fish rose to the surface or broods of wild ducks fluttered away.

[11]: 177  In contrast to Victoria, where settlers from England had established a strong British presence, New Westminster's early citizens were largely Canadians and Maritimers, who brought a more business-oriented approach to commerce and dismissed the pretensions of the older community.

From 1927 to 1969, the British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program was collecting coastal water temperature and salinity measurements from New Westminster every day for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

[15] Along with the rest of the Greater Vancouver region, in 2020 New Westminster experienced the worst air quality in the world due to the combined effects of the 2020 Western American wildfires and a fire at the old Pier at the quay.

It is 19 kilometres (12 mi) southeast of the City of Vancouver proper, adjacent to Burnaby and Coquitlam and across the Fraser River from Surrey and Delta.

The "Swamp" name is because area was then boggy ground of low value for the stone and brick buildings of the main part of downtown up Columbia Street to the northeast; and also close to the river and the railway.

[citation needed] Chinatown was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1898 and only partly rebuilt afterwards,[20]: 2  with a church and cultural and community events hall the first to be started.

Known as "the golden mile", it hosted major department stores such as Eaton's, Kresge's and Woolworths as well as long-established New Westminster retailers.

Department stores (other than the Army and Navy) left downtown as the Uptown area continued to develop to become New Westminster's main retail and services centre.

The westernmost neighbourhood in the city, Connaught Heights, began life as District Lot 172 after the Royal Engineers surveyed the land in the 1860s.

The City of Burnaby also chose not to incorporate District Lot 172 when its official civic boundaries were set, resulting in the area being outside any municipal jurisdiction.

In early 2016, a partial demolition of the parkade commenced as part of the City's continued efforts to revitalize and improve their waterfront area.

[31][32] Queensborough was the name originally chosen for the colonial capital by Royal Engineer commander Colonel Richard Clement Moody.

Sapperton was originally a "suburb" of New Westminster, named for the Columbia Detachment of Royal Engineers ("Sappers"), whose camp was on the hill now occupied by the Fraserview neighbourhood.

[36] A legacy of early 20th century settlement, the Queensborough neighbourhood has a large South Asian population, primarily of Punjabi Sikh descent.

[citation needed] CKNW, one of Canada's first private news radio, hot-line and talk stations, began broadcasting from studios in New Westminster on April 1, 1944, originally in the Royal Windsor Hotel, then at a few other locations in the city, before moving to downtown Vancouver from its final New Westminster location at 8th and McBride, which it occupied from 1967 onwards.

In May 2022, New West Anchor,[46] a biweekly newsletter delivering news and event listings via email, was launched by former CKNW and CityNews Vancouver journalist Ria Renouf.

The Royal City Musical Theatre, a long-established New Westminster tradition, uses the Massey, while comedy and mystery theatricals use the stages in Queens Park.

In the museum are treasures such as the 1876 coach used by Lord Dufferin, then Governor General of Canada, to tour the new province of British Columbia including Barkerville via the Cariboo Road.

With no cannons available in the early colony, the Fire Department—known as the Hyacks, from the Chinook Jargon for "fast" or "quick", here derived from its use as a command for "hurry up!

The Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) is accessible from nearby Coquitlam, via the Brunette Avenue interchange, and Burnaby, via the Cariboo Road and Canada Way interchanges, and provides expressway access to Vancouver, the North Shore, and the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal (to the west), and to the British Columbia interior and the communities of the Fraser Valley (to the east, via the Port Mann Bridge).

Kingsway connects New Westminster with the major shopping and entertainment district of Metrotown, in central Burnaby, and then proceeds to downtown Vancouver.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city reallocated road space in New Westminster for cyclists and pedestrians as part of Streets for People in 2020 initiative.

Playing at Queen's Park Arena were two incarnations of a Western Hockey League junior team, the New Westminster Bruins (1971–1981 and 1983–1988).

[53] The Hyack Swim Club, in operation since 1973, trains swimmers at Canada Games Pool, from a grassroots level up to international competition.

In July 2014, Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced plans to launch a USL-Pro team in New Westminster.