196 Fun Facts About US Cities

Which US city is nicknamed the Windy City?

Chicago isn't even the windiest big city: its average wind speed of about 10 mph trails Boston's 12. One theory credits the nickname to rival newspapers mocking its boastful politicians.

Which California city has hosted the Tournament of Roses Parade since 1890?

Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club began the parade in 1890 to flaunt winter flowers while the East lay under snow; its first football game, in 1902, was such a rout that chariot races replaced football until 1916.

Which city is known as the Big Easy?

New Orleans is the Big Easy; its other nickname, Crescent City, comes from the bend of the Mississippi the city was built around.

Which city is called the Motor City?

Detroit earned the Motor City name as the hub of America's Big Three carmakers, and the name travelled: Berry Gordy's Detroit record label, Motown, is a blend of 'motor' and 'town'.

Seattle's Space Needle was built for what 1962 event?

The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair, the Century 21 Exposition, which also gave Seattle its monorail.

Which city is the Mile High City, its official elevation exactly one mile above sea level?

Denver is the Mile High City, but the exact spot keeps moving: the Capitol's mile-high marker began on the 15th step and has been reset twice as surveys improved, landing on the 13th step in 2003.

What is the oldest continuously inhabited European-founded city in the contiguous United States?

St. Augustine, Florida was founded by Spain's Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565 and named for the saint whose feast day it was when his fleet first sighted the coast.

Which Alaskan city, once the capital of Russian America, is the largest in the US by total area?

Sitka covers about 4,800 square miles of island and sea because city and borough merged in 1971; in 1867 it hosted the ceremony that handed Alaska from Russia to the United States.

Which is the largest city by total area in the contiguous US, and also Florida's most populous?

Jacksonville merged with Duval County in 1968, so the city limits take in almost the whole county: about 875 square miles of land and water.

Which city beat New York by seven years when it opened the nation's first subway in 1897?

Boston dug the Tremont Street subway to get streetcars off its traffic-clogged streets; the tunnel opened in 1897 and now forms the heart of the Green Line.

What was New York City called under Dutch rule?

New Amsterdam was the Dutch West India Company's settlement at the tip of Manhattan; when English warships arrived in 1664 its settlers refused to fight, and the town was renamed New York for the Duke of York.

Which Colorado silver-boom city, more than 10,000 feet up, is the highest incorporated city in the United States?

Leadville sits at about 10,150 feet; its mines launched the fortunes of Horace Tabor, the Guggenheim family and Margaret Brown, the 'Unsinkable Molly Brown'.

Kansas City, Missouri is nicknamed the City of what, with more than 200 of them?

Fountains in Kansas City began as practical works: in the early 1900s the Humane Society built public drinking fountains with a basin for horses and low pools for dogs.

Bristol, a twin city divided by State Street, straddles Virginia and which state?

Bristol's State Street runs along the Virginia–Tennessee line, and 1927 recording sessions held on it launched the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, earning the twin city the title Birthplace of Country Music.

Which desert city was born on May 15, 1905, when a railroad auctioned 110 acres?

Las Vegas began as a railroad town: its springs made the valley a natural water stop, so Senator William Clark's Los Angeles line bought a ranch there and auctioned off the townsite.

Which New Jersey resort's streets gave the Monopoly board its property names?

Atlantic City's streets fill the board, but one square is wrong: Marvin Gardens misspells Marven Gardens, a nearby neighbourhood, and Parker Brothers formally apologised to its residents in 1995.

Which is the most populous state capital in the United States?

Phoenix had only about 105,000 residents in 1950; air conditioning made its desert summers bearable, and by the 2020 census it had 1.6 million, more than any other state capital.

Which Florida city is the only major US city founded by a woman, landowner Julia Tuttle?

Miami incorporated in 1896 after Julia Tuttle, who owned the land, persuaded Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway south to Biscayne Bay.

Pittsburgh's 446 spans over its three rivers give it what nickname?

Pittsburgh's 446 bridges, three more than Venice, earned it the City of Bridges nickname.

Portland is Oregon's largest city, but which city is the state capital?

Salem took the capital from Oregon City in 1851, lost it to Corvallis in 1855 when a faction of lawmakers voted to move, and won it back the same year.

Which word was dropped from Salt Lake City's original name in 1868?

Great Salt Lake City was the name Brigham Young's pioneers gave their 1847 settlement; Utah marks their July 24 arrival each year with a state holiday, Pioneer Day.

Which Maui whaling port was the Hawaiian Kingdom's capital before the royal court moved to Honolulu in 1845?

Lahaina was the royal seat and a busy stop for whaling fleets; as trade shifted to Oahu, Kamehameha III moved his court to Honolulu in 1845.

Anchorage was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake on Good Friday of which year?

The Good Friday earthquake struck on March 27, 1964, and shook for about four and a half minutes; at magnitude 9.2 it was the most powerful ever recorded in North America.

Minneapolis and which neighbor make up the Twin Cities?

Saint Paul was first known as Pig's Eye, after the nickname of a tavern keeper there, until a priest built a log chapel to St. Paul in 1841 and the settlement took its name instead.

The 44 settlers who founded Los Angeles in 1781 were recruited in which present-day country?

Mexico: the 44 pobladores, eleven families recruited in Sonora and Sinaloa, were mostly of African, Indigenous or mixed descent; only two of the adults were recorded as Spaniards.

Which Texas port was struck in 1900 by the deadliest hurricane in US history?

Galveston lost at least 6,000 people; survivors built a 17-foot seawall and jacked up more than 2,000 buildings to raise the city, while investors turned to Houston instead.

Which San Antonio landmark began in 1718 as Mission San Antonio de Valero?

The Alamo was a mission for 75 years; after it closed in 1793, Spanish cavalry from Álamo de Parras moved in and made the compound a barracks, the fort later besieged in 1836.

Which three breweries made Milwaukee a national leader in beer production?

Miller, Pabst and Schlitz made Milwaukee Brew City, but two of them left: Schlitz, once America's biggest brewer, shut its Milwaukee plant after a 1981 strike, and Pabst closed its brewery there in 1996.

Francis Scott Key wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner' after watching the British bombard which Baltimore stronghold?

Fort McHenry withstood a 25-hour British bombardment on September 13–14, 1814; Key's poem about its flag became the national anthem in 1931.

Nashville's Centennial Park contains a full-scale replica of which ancient building?

Nashville's Parthenon, a full-scale replica built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, matches the city's nickname, the Athens of the South.

What was Atlanta called immediately before it took its present name?

Marthasville honoured Martha, the daughter of former governor Wilson Lumpkin; within a few years the town swapped the name for Atlanta.

Which Cleveland river caught fire in June 1969, helping launch the environmental movement?

The Cuyahoga River had caught fire at least a dozen times before; the blaze of June 22, 1969 made national news and helped spur a stronger Clean Water Act and the creation of the EPA.

Which San Francisco street packs eight hairpin turns into one block and is billed as the world's crookedest?

Lombard Street got its switchbacks in 1922 because the hill's 27 percent grade was too steep for most cars; despite the billing, the city's Vermont Street has been measured as more crooked.

Which engineer drew up the 1791 plan for Washington, D.C.?

Pierre L'Enfant, a French-born veteran of the Continental Army, laid diagonal avenues over a grid, but President Washington dismissed him and surveyor Andrew Ellicott finished the map.

Which Memphis thoroughfare is central to the birth of the Memphis blues?

Beale Street made W.C. Handy's name: his 'Memphis Blues' of 1912 is said to have begun as a campaign tune for mayoral candidate E.H. Crump, and in 1977 Congress declared the street the Home of the Blues.

The first Indianapolis 500 winner replaced his riding mechanic with which device?

A rear-view mirror answered rivals who objected that Ray Harroun's single-seat Marmon had no mechanic to watch for overtaking cars; he later said it shook too much on the bricks to be of any use.

Boise, Idaho is home to one of the largest US communities of which European ethnic group?

Basques first reached Idaho around statehood in 1890; some went home, but many stayed and were joined by their families, and Boise's Basque Block now hosts Jaialdi, a festival held every five years.

Which two state capitals can be reached from the lower 48 only by sea or air?

Juneau and Honolulu have no road link to the lower 48: Juneau is walled off by steep mountains and the Juneau Icefield, and Honolulu sits on the island of Oahu.

Which city is both the oldest and the highest state capital in the United States?

Santa Fe, about 7,000 feet up, became a Spanish capital in 1610; the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove the Spanish out, and they did not return until 1692.

Buffalo, New York became the western end of which waterway, completed in 1825?

The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, ran 363 miles from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson, making Buffalo a major inland port.

Albuquerque hosts the world's largest festival of what?

Hot-air balloons favour Albuquerque for its 'box': low winds blow one way and higher winds the other, so pilots can drift out and back. The first fiesta, in 1972, had 13 balloons in a mall parking lot.

Tucson's desert 'Boneyard' is the world's largest storage site for what?

Retired military aircraft, about 4,000 of them, sit at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base because Tucson's dry air and alkaline soil slow corrosion, and the ground is hard enough to park planes without paving.

Which Kentucky city has staged the Kentucky Derby every year since 1875?

Louisville's Derby was the idea of a local racing man who had watched England's Epsom Derby and built a track to copy it; Aristides won the first, before a crowd of about 10,000.

El Paso sits on the Rio Grande directly across the border from which Mexican city?

Ciudad Juárez was the original El Paso: founded in 1659 as El Paso del Norte, it was renamed in 1888 for President Benito Juárez, leaving the old name to the Texas town across the river.

Which South Carolina city's harbor holds Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began in 1861?

Charleston's Fort Sumter took 34 hours of Confederate shelling in April 1861, yet no one on either side was killed by it; the only deaths came from an explosion during the surrender salute.

Which Georgia city's historic downtown is laid out around 22 park-like squares?

Savannah was laid out around four squares in 1733 and had 24 by 1851; three were lost to road works in the 20th century, and one of those, Ellis Square, was rebuilt in 2010.

Which explorer claimed San Diego Bay for Spain in 1542, naming it San Miguel?

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into the bay on September 28, 1542, named it San Miguel and claimed it for Spain; Sebastián Vizcaíno renamed it San Diego in 1602.

Oklahoma City was founded during which 1889 event, gaining 10,000 residents within hours?

The Land Run opened at noon on April 22, 1889; settlers who slipped in early to grab the best claims were called 'sooners', a taunt Oklahoma later adopted as its state nickname.

Which Nevada city calls itself 'The Biggest Little City in the World'?

Reno's slogan won a $100 prize in a contest to find words for the downtown arch, put up in 1926 to promote a highways exposition; it first lit up the arch in 1929.

Providence, Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by which religious exile from Massachusetts?

Roger Williams, banished from Massachusetts Bay in 1635 for his views on church and state, founded Providence in 1636 and named it for God's providence.

Which city in Kansas was dubbed the 'Air Capital of the World' in 1929?

Wichita earned the title as home to Travel Air, where Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman built planes together before each founded a company under his own name; by 1929 it made a quarter of US commercial aircraft.

Which Nebraska city is the headquarters of Berkshire Hathaway and Union Pacific?

Omaha is where Warren Buffett, the 'Oracle of Omaha', turned Berkshire Hathaway from a shrinking New England textile maker into a giant; Union Pacific began building the transcontinental railroad west from the city in 1863.

Which company did George Eastman found in Rochester, New York in 1892?

Kodak took its name from Eastman's first camera of 1888, sold loaded with film for 100 exposures; owners sent the whole camera back to Rochester to have the pictures developed and new film put in.

Which Alaskan city has been the finish line of the Iditarod sled-dog race since 1973?

Nome has been the finish line since the first long race in 1973. In 1925 the town was saved from a diphtheria outbreak when 20 mushers relayed antitoxin 674 miles by dog sled.

What was the northernmost US city, Utqiagvik, called before a 2016 vote changed its name?

Barrow honoured Sir John Barrow of the British Admiralty, a name the explorer Frederick Beechey gave nearby Point Barrow; in a 2016 referendum residents restored the Iñupiaq name Utqiagvik to support their language.

Which Californian city was mostly farmland until July 17, 1955, when a theme park opened?

Disneyland opened in Anaheim on July 17, 1955 on 160 acres of former orange groves; Walt Disney so disliked the businesses that sprang up around it that he sought far more land for his Florida park.

Which is the only NFL team owned by a publicly held non-profit corporation?

The Green Bay Packers have been owned by public shareholders since their first stock sale in 1923; the name comes from the Indian Packing Company, which sponsored the team in 1919.

Which city has been Iowa's capital since 1857?

Des Moines took over from Iowa City in 1857 as the more central city; the old capitol left behind became the University of Iowa's first permanent building.

Fargo, North Dakota was founded in 1871 on the floodplain of which waterway?

The Red River of the North crosses the dead-flat bed of an ancient glacial lake, so spring snowmelt has nowhere to drain and spreads for miles; at Fargo the record crest, in 2009, reached nearly 41 feet.

Nevada's capital is named after which frontiersman?

Kit Carson was John Frémont's scout; Frémont named the Carson River for him in the 1840s, and the town laid out beside it in 1858 took the name too, becoming Nevada's territorial capital in 1861.

Which city's official slogan calls it 'The Live Music Capital of the World'?

Austin adopted the slogan in 1991 on the strength of its stages: it claims more live music venues per capita than any other US city, and its PBS series Austin City Limits has run since the 1970s.

Who established the permanent settlement of Dallas in 1841?

John Neely Bryan scouted the site in 1839 for a trading post; when he came back in 1841, a treaty had removed the Native Americans he meant to trade with, so he founded a town instead.

Which city was California's first state capital?

San Jose, founded in 1777 as California's first civilian pueblo, hosted the first state legislature in 1849–51 before the capital moved to Vallejo, Benicia and finally Sacramento.

Columbus, Ohio was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and which other river?

The Olentangy River joins the Scioto just north of downtown Columbus and runs past the Ohio State University campus.

Charlotte, North Carolina is named after the queen consort of which British king?

George III's queen was Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, yet the town named for her turned on the Crown: after residents harried his troops in 1780, Cornwallis is said to have called it a hornet's nest of rebellion.

Charlotte, North Carolina is a major financial centre and the headquarters of which lender?

Bank of America is really Charlotte's own NationsBank: it merged with California's BankAmerica in 1998, kept the better-known name and kept the headquarters in North Carolina.

Which Texas city is nicknamed Cowtown for the cattle drives that built it?

Fort Worth earned the name Cowtown as a stop on the Chisholm Trail, where herds of longhorns passed on the way north; after the railroad came in 1876 the city built its own stockyards and shipped the cattle out by rail.

Cecil Calvert, the first proprietor of Maryland, held which title that gave the state's largest city its name?

Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, inherited Maryland's charter when his father died just before it was granted in 1632, then ran the colony from England without ever travelling there.

Which city is home to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889?

Baltimore merchant Johns Hopkins left $7 million for a university and hospital; the medical school opened in 1893 only after Mary Garrett and other women raised the missing money on condition that it admit women.

Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, laid out in the 1800s, stands on what?

Filled-in tidal marsh: from 1857, trains hauled gravel in from Needham day and night until the bay behind the old town became streets of houses.

Which landmark, set aside in 1634, is the oldest public park in the United States?

Boston Common was bought by the town from William Blaxton in 1634 as a shared cow pasture and militia ground, which makes it the nation's oldest public park.

Which settler received Mexican permission in 1839 to colonise the Sacramento Valley?

John Augustus Sutter built Sutter's Fort, the seed of Sacramento, but the gold found at his sawmill in 1848 ruined him: his workers left, and gold seekers overran his land and drove off his cattle.

Which Florida city stages a mock pirate invasion each year at its Gasparilla festival?

Tampa has held Gasparilla most years since 1904: costumed pirates sail in and demand the key to the city from the mayor, all in the name of José Gaspar, a pirate there is no evidence ever existed.

The factories of Tampa's Ybor City district earned the city which nickname?

Cigar Capital of the World: Vicente Martinez Ybor left Key West for Tampa in 1885 to escape labour unrest and cramped quarters, and by 1929 the district's rollers were making 500 million cigars a year.

Missouri's Gateway city was named in 1764 for which French king?

Pierre Laclède named the post St. Louis for Louis IX, the crusader king canonized in 1297 and patron saint of the reigning Louis XV; Auguste Chouteau began building it in February 1764.

Which name, coined to mean 'town opposite the mouth of the Licking River', did Cincinnati first carry in 1788?

Losantiville stitched together L for Licking, Latin os (mouth), Greek anti (opposite) and French ville; in 1790 Governor Arthur St. Clair renamed it Cincinnati after a society of Revolutionary War officers.

Which Ohio city is nicknamed the Queen City?

Cincinnati was first styled the Queen of the West in print in 1819; Longfellow made the title famous in his 1854 poem 'Catawba Wine', which sends its greeting to 'the Queen of the West' on the banks of the Beautiful River.

Which Ohio city sits on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Maumee River?

Toledo grew up where the Maumee River enters Lake Erie; Ohio and Michigan nearly fought the 1835 Toledo War over the strip of land around it.

Which Alabama city was nicknamed 'The Pittsburgh of the South' for its steel industry?

Birmingham, founded in 1871 and named for England's industrial city, grew so fast on local coal, iron ore and limestone that it was also called the Magic City.

Richmond replaced which city as Virginia's capital in 1780?

Williamsburg had been Virginia's capital since 1699; Governor Thomas Jefferson moved the government to Richmond in 1780 for safety during the Revolution.

The Creek band that founded Tulsa in 1836 was forced out of which state?

Alabama was the homeland the Lochapoka band of the Creek had been forced to leave; they brought the remains of their last home fires to an oak in their new territory that survives as the Creek Council Oak Tree.

Which city was known for most of the 20th century as the 'Oil Capital of the World'?

Tulsa itself had no major oil field: the Red Fork strike of 1901 and the giant Glenn Pool find lay outside town, but city leaders courted the oilmen, who chose to live and do their business there.

Which Connecticut newspaper is the oldest continuously published in the US?

The Hartford Courant began as the weekly Connecticut Courant in October 1764, which makes the paper a dozen years older than the United States itself; it has been a daily since 1837.

Which ancient people built the desert canal network whose ruins inspired the name Phoenix?

The Hohokam turned the Salt River Valley into farmland with a network of irrigation canals; settler Darrell Duppa proposed the name Phoenix because the new town would rise from the ruins of that civilization.

Salt Lake City's street addresses are counted from which landmark?

Temple Square is the grid's zero point because Brigham Young laid the city out in 1847 in 10-acre blocks around the temple block; addresses still count outward from the square's southeast corner.

Which Union general's army captured Atlanta in 1864 and left much of the city in ashes?

William T. Sherman's army took Atlanta in September 1864; before setting out on the March to the Sea that November he ordered its military and industrial sites destroyed, and the fires consumed much of the city.

Which city's airport was the world's busiest for passengers every year from 1998 to 2019?

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson took the title in 1998 from Chicago O'Hare, the leader since the early 1960s, and kept it until the 2020 pandemic; it is the largest hub of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.

Which Ohio city, long home to Goodyear and Firestone, was known as the Rubber Capital of the World?

Akron's rubber boom began when Benjamin Goodrich moved his factory there; Goodyear, founded in the city a generation later, was named in honor of vulcanization inventor Charles Goodyear, who had died in 1860 and never saw it.

Walt Disney World lies outside Orlando and takes its mailing address from which tiny city, created for Disney in 1967?

Lake Buena Vista has only a few dozen residents, and the theme parks themselves stand in neighboring Bay Lake; Florida let Disney set up both cities inside a special district in 1967, with city-style powers over the property.

Which post did Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac found in July 1701?

Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit took its name from Cadillac's patron, the French navy minister Pontchartrain, and from le détroit, 'the strait', between Lakes St. Clair and Erie, where he built the post in 1701.

Besides Motown, which electronic music genre did Detroit give rise to?

Techno was the work of Detroit producers Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, whose early tracks crossed the Atlantic and caused a sensation on Europe's dance floors; house, by contrast, came out of Chicago.

What failed in 2005, leaving about 80 percent of New Orleans under water?

Levees and floodwalls built by the Army Corps of Engineers gave way after Hurricane Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005; investigators later traced the failures to flaws in the Corps's own engineering.

Seattle is named for a chief of which peoples?

Duwamish and Suquamish people both followed Chief Seattle, known in his own language as Si'ahl; in 1852 pioneer Doc Maynard, whom the chief had drawn to the village of Duwamps, persuaded the settlers to rename it for him.

Which British explorer was the first European to visit the Seattle area, in May 1792?

George Vancouver's HMS Discovery entered Puget Sound in May 1792 during his Royal Navy survey of the Pacific coast; he named the sound for his lieutenant Peter Puget.

Oregon's largest city is named after a Maine city, which was itself named after what?

England's Isle of Portland, off the Dorset coast, gave Portland, Maine its name in 1786; Francis Pettygrove of Maine later won a coin toss against a partner who wanted the name Boston, so the Oregon townsite became Portland too.

Which city is known as the 'Birthplace of California'?

San Diego earned the title in 1769, when Gaspar de Portolá set up Spain's first California presidio on a hill above the bay and Junípero Serra founded the first of the California missions beside it.

Which Los Angeles street, revived in 1930 as a Mexican marketplace, runs through the plaza district where the city began?

Olvera Street was a run-down alley until Christine Sterling campaigned to save the Avila Adobe, the city's oldest surviving house, and reopened the street on Easter Sunday 1930 as a Mexican market.

After the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco hosted which world's fair nine years later?

The Panama–Pacific International Exposition of 1915 celebrated the Panama Canal's opening and San Francisco's rebuilding; its Palace of Fine Arts survives in the Marina District.

Mission San Francisco de Asís, the oldest intact building in its city, is better known by what name?

Mission Dolores took its nickname from a nearby creek, Arroyo de los Dolores; its adobe church came through the 1906 earthquake that wrecked the newer brick church next door.

Legend blames the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 on whose cow?

Mrs. O'Leary's barn on DeKoven Street is where the fire began, but nobody knows how; a reporter later boasted that he had made up the tale of her cow kicking over a lantern.

Which Chicago museum occupies the Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition?

The Museum of Science and Industry opened there in 1933; the palace outlasted the fair's temporary halls because it had a brick structure under its plaster, and it first housed what became the Field Museum.

Modern New York City was formed by the consolidation of its five boroughs in which year?

The City of Greater New York came into being on January 1, 1898, merging Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island; each borough is coextensive with a county.

Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by which English Quaker?

William Penn got the land from Charles II in 1681 to settle a large debt the Crown owed his late father, an admiral; he laid out Philadelphia the next year with surveyor Thomas Holme.

Which building hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774?

Carpenters' Hall, the guild hall of the city's master builders, hosted the First Continental Congress from September 5 to October 26, 1774; the Second Congress met at the State House, now Independence Hall.

The District of Columbia takes its name from which Columbia?

Columbia, a poetic female personification of America coined from Columbus's name, was in wide use by the 1780s; the federal district was named for her in 1791.

Houston was founded in 1836 on which bayou, later dredged into the Houston Ship Channel?

Buffalo Bayou meets White Oak Bayou at the 1836 townsite; when the little steamboat Laura reached it in January 1837, the town's founders had shown that ships could get there.

Which city is home to the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex?

Houston's Texas Medical Center grew from the fortune of cotton merchant Monroe D. Anderson, whose foundation conceived the campus in the 1940s and funded the cancer hospital that now bears his name.

Denver was founded in 1858 at the confluence of Cherry Creek and which river?

Denver grew from the 1858 gold camps where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte River; William Larimer named it for James W. Denver, governor of Kansas Territory.

Anchorage began in 1915 as a tent city near the mouth of which stream?

The tent city at the mouth of Ship Creek housed Alaska Railroad construction workers from 1915; Anchorage incorporated as a city in 1920.

Fort Nashborough, the 1779 settlement that became Nashville, was built on which river?

Cumberland River bluffs were reached overland by James Robertson's party on Christmas Day 1779; John Donelson then brought the families more than 1,000 miles by boat, arriving the following spring.

Which future president was among the three founders of Memphis in 1819?

Andrew Jackson, with John Overton and James Winchester, founded Memphis in 1819 on the Chickasaw bluffs above the Mississippi; they named it for the ancient Egyptian capital on the Nile.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is built around which landmark, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated?

The Lorraine Motel was one of the Memphis lodgings that welcomed Black guests under Jim Crow, hosting visiting musicians such as Aretha Franklin; King was shot on its balcony on April 4, 1968.

At Pittsburgh's Point, the Allegheny and Monongahela join to form which river?

The Ohio River begins at that fork, which France and Britain fought to control: British troops drove the French from Fort Duquesne there in 1758 and renamed the spot for the statesman William Pitt.

Buffalo, New York lies at the head of which waterway on the Canada–US border?

The Niagara River drains Lake Erie at Buffalo and drops over Niagara Falls on its way to Lake Ontario; power sent from the falls made Buffalo an early electric city, nicknamed the City of Light.

Indianapolis was established in 1821 for what purpose?

Indiana's legislature picked the central site in 1820 as a planned seat of state government; Alexander Ralston platted Indianapolis in 1821 and the capital moved there from Corydon in 1825.

Which motorcycle maker's museum is among Milwaukee's cultural institutions?

The Harley-Davidson Museum opened in 2008 in Milwaukee, the city where William Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first motorcycle in a backyard shed in 1903.

Under what name was the Missouri city on the Kaw–Missouri confluence incorporated in 1850?

The Town of Kansas was chartered in 1850, before Kansas existed as either a territory or a state; it became the City of Kansas three years later and took the name Kansas City only in 1889.

Which city has been Nebraska's capital since statehood in 1867?

Lincoln, then the village of Lancaster, was chosen as capital when Nebraska became a state in 1867 and renamed for the assassinated president; Omaha had been the territorial capital.

Which state capital is the largest by area, ahead of Oklahoma City?

Juneau merged in 1970 with neighboring Douglas and the surrounding borough, so the city limits now take in more than 3,000 square miles of mountain, icefield and water, an area larger than Delaware.

Albuquerque was founded in 1706 and named for a duke who was viceroy of what?

New Spain's viceroy, the Duke of Alburquerque, was the man Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés chose to honor in 1706; the first 'r' later dropped out of the city's spelling, but the nickname Duke City stuck.

Which national laboratory and Air Force base give the federal government a strong presence in Albuquerque?

Sandia and Kirtland grew up together: Sandia began in 1945 as Z Division, the weapons engineering arm of Los Alamos, which was moved to an Army airfield at Albuquerque that is now part of Kirtland Air Force Base.

Settlers from which islands founded San Antonio's first civil government in 1731?

The Canary Islands families, 56 people in all, sailed to Veracruz and then marched overland to the presidio at San Antonio, arriving on March 9, 1731; they set up the first organized civil government in Texas.

Which Washington city is known as the birthplace of Father's Day?

Spokane's first Father's Day, on June 19, 1910, was the idea of Sonora Smart Dodd, who wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran who had raised six children alone after their mother died.

Which permanently docked ocean liner is a waterfront attraction in Long Beach, California?

The RMS Queen Mary, a Cunard liner launched in 1934, was painted grey and carried troops through World War II before returning to luxury service; she has been moored at Long Beach as a hotel since 1967.

Which Finnish-born architect designed the Gateway Arch?

Eero Saarinen won the design competition in the late 1940s but died in 1961, before construction began in 1963, so he never saw his arch rise; it was completed in 1965.

Which 1964 bridge overtook the Golden Gate as the world's longest suspension bridge?

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge beat the Golden Gate's main span by 60 feet and kept the record until 1981; its official name was misspelled with a single 'z' from 1960 until New York corrected it in 2018.

Chicago's Willis Tower was known by what name when it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building?

Sears Tower was built as headquarters for the retailer Sears, which moved out in the 1990s; the skyscraper kept the name until a 2009 lease handed the naming rights to the insurance broker Willis Group.

Which Seattle company opened its first store in 1971 near Pike Place Market?

Starbucks began as a single shop selling roasted coffee beans and equipment rather than cups of coffee; it turned into a cafe chain only after Howard Schultz joined in 1982 and later took the company over.

The Liberty Bell was cast in which European city before cracking on its first test ring in America?

London's Whitechapel foundry cast the bell in 1752; after it cracked at the first test stroke, local workmen John Pass and John Stow melted it down and recast it twice, and their names are on it still.

What did the Hollywood sign first spell out in 1923?

Hollywoodland was the housing development the sign was built to advertise; it was meant to last only a year and a half, but it stayed up and the last four letters were later taken down.

Most of the Las Vegas Strip lies outside the city limits, in which unincorporated town?

Paradise was created in 1950 after casino owners, facing annexation by a Las Vegas mayor who wanted their tax revenue, persuaded Clark County to make the Strip an unincorporated town of its own.

Who opened Graceland to the public in 1982 to cover its upkeep?

Priscilla Presley, an executor for her young daughter Lisa Marie, faced upkeep of about $500,000 a year; the estate hired Jack Soden to turn the mansion into a museum, which opened on June 7, 1982.

Which city, home of rock DJ Alan Freed, was chosen in 1986 to host the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Cleveland won the museum after civic leaders pledged $65 million and pressed the city's claim as the place where Freed promoted early rock; record executive Ahmet Ertegun had set up the Hall's foundation in 1983.

Which Boston walking route follows a red line past 16 historic sites?

The Freedom Trail began with journalist William Schofield, who in a 1951 column proposed a marked footpath linking the city's scattered landmarks; Mayor John Hynes put the plan into action.

Which New Deal agency built San Antonio's River Walk from 1939?

The Works Progress Administration built the walkways, stairways and bridges of architect Robert Hugman's 1929 plan along a river bend that engineers had once proposed paving over as a flood channel.

The Empire State Building took the title of world's tallest building in 1931 from which other Manhattan skyscraper?

The Chrysler Building had held the title for under a year when the Empire State Building, designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built in about 13 months, opened on May 1, 1931.

Which landscape architect co-designed Central Park with Calvert Vaux after winning an 1858 competition?

Frederick Law Olmsted, already the park's superintendent, and Vaux called their winning entry the Greensward Plan; chosen from 33 designs, it sank the crosstown roads below ground level to keep traffic apart from the scenery.

The Boston Marathon starts in which town?

The Boston Marathon has started in Hopkinton since 1924, when the course was lengthened to the Olympic 26.2 miles; the 1897 original began in Ashland.

Which is the earliest-established of New Orleans's Mardi Gras krewes?

The Mistick Krewe of Comus, formed in 1856, is the oldest New Orleans krewe still in existence and is thought to have coined the word 'krewe' itself, as a mock-antique spelling of crew.

Silicon Valley corresponds roughly to the geographical valley named for which saint?

Santa Clara Valley, named for the Spanish mission, was called the Valley of Heart's Delight for its orchards until the chip makers arrived; journalist Don Hoefler popularized 'Silicon Valley' in a 1971 article.

Motown's first headquarters, a house Berry Gordy Jr. bought in 1959, is known by which nickname?

Hitsville U.S.A. was offices and studio in one: Gordy bought the house the year he launched his first label, Tamla Records, with $800 borrowed from his family, and it now operates as the Motown Museum.

Weeghman Park, opened in Chicago in 1914, is now known by what name?

Wrigley Field was built by Charles Weeghman for his Federal League team; when that league folded he took over the Cubs and moved them in for 1916, and the park later took the name of gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., who bought the club.

Which is the oldest active ballpark in Major League Baseball?

Fenway Park hosted its first major league game on April 20, 1912, but newspaper coverage of the opening was overshadowed by the Titanic, which had gone down five days earlier.

Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota was built on the former site of what?

A sports stadium: Metropolitan Stadium, home of the Twins and Vikings from 1961 to 1981, was demolished in 1985, and the mall that opened on its site in 1992 marks the old home plate inside.

Which frontier commander founded Louisville on Corn Island in 1778?

George Rogers Clark landed on Corn Island in May 1778 with militia and settlers on the way to his Illinois campaign; at his request the settlers crossed to the mainland beside the Falls of the Ohio a year later.

Louisville is named in honour of which French king, whose soldiers were aiding the American Revolution?

Louis XVI was honored when Virginia chartered the town in 1780, two years after his alliance with the American rebels; his own subjects sent him to the guillotine in 1793.

Which New York City borough, once an independent city and the nation's third largest, has the most residents?

Brooklyn has more than 2.7 million residents, more than the whole of Houston. Had it stayed independent, it would rank among the four largest cities in the country.

Which city among the 25 most populous in the US keeps a low skyline under a 1910 federal height law?

Washington has more residents than Wyoming or Vermont, yet almost no building may rise above 130 feet. If the district were a state, it would rank 49th in population.

Which of California's largest cities is also its own county, the state's only consolidated city-county?

San Francisco has been a combined city and county since 1856, squeezed into about 47 square miles at the tip of a peninsula. Only three California cities have more residents.

Which city is Ohio's most populous and the second largest in the whole Midwest?

Columbus counted 905,748 residents at the 2020 census, which makes it the third most populous state capital in the country. In the Midwest only one city is bigger.

Which Mississippi River city, the nation's fourth largest in 1900, has lost over 60% of its residents since 1950?

St. Louis hosted the 1904 Olympics, the first held outside Europe, when only three American cities were bigger. Its population peaked at 856,796 in 1950.

Which Central Valley city, with more than half a million residents, is California's most populous inland city?

Fresno is the fifth most populous city in California and the nearest major city to Yosemite National Park, about 60 miles to the north.

Seven of the ten most populous US cities, from Los Angeles to Houston, lie in which broad southern region?

The Sun Belt covers roughly the southern third of the country, and analyst Kevin Phillips coined its name in 1969. Air conditioning helped make its long summers bearable for newcomers.

Which upstate city is the second most populous in New York State, far behind New York City itself?

Buffalo has about 278,000 residents, a sliver of New York City's eight million. In 1900 it was the eighth-largest city in the United States.

Which former steel capital is Pennsylvania's second most populous city, with about 300,000 residents?

Pittsburgh was home to about 680,000 people in 1950, more than twice as many as now. Its mills closed in the 1970s and 1980s, and today only Philadelphia is bigger in the state.

Which port is the second most populous city in Los Angeles County and California's largest that is not a county seat?

Long Beach has roughly 450,000 residents and one of the busiest container ports in the United States. Only six California cities are bigger.

Which Midwestern state capital leapt up the population rankings in 1970 by merging with surrounding Marion County?

Indianapolis absorbed more than 300 square miles and some 250,000 people overnight under a plan called Unigov. It is Indiana's most populous city by a wide margin.

Which city at the foot of Pikes Peak, standing more than 6,000 feet up, is the second most populous in its state?

Colorado Springs covers more ground than any other city in its state and stands at 6,035 feet. The US Air Force Academy was built on land the city donated.

Which city, named for the sponsor of the lost Roanoke colony, is North Carolina's second most populous?

Raleigh was established in 1792 specifically to serve as the state capital. Its oak-lined streets earned it the nickname City of Oaks.

Houston is the seat of which county, the third most populous in the United States?

Harris County has roughly five million residents and is the most populous county in Texas. It is named for John Richardson Harris, who founded an early settlement there in 1826.

Which valley north of the Los Angeles Basin holds about 1.8 million people, including a large share of Los Angeles?

The San Fernando Valley, known locally as simply the Valley, also takes in Burbank and Glendale. Its farmland joined Los Angeles in 1915 to tap the city's water supply.

Which Lake Michigan port, whose population peaked at about 740,000 in 1960, is the most populous city in Wisconsin?

Milwaukee is the fifth most populous city in the Midwest. It counted about 577,000 residents in 2020, roughly twice as many as Madison, the state capital.

Which city, billed as the Horse Capital of the World, is the second most populous in Kentucky?

Lexington sits in the Bluegrass region, ringed by hundreds of horse farms and the Keeneland race course. Only Louisville has more residents in the state.

Which East Bay port, the seat of Alameda County, is the third most populous city in the Bay Area?

Oakland runs the busiest port in Northern California and one of the busiest in the country. About 440,000 people live there.

Which Mississippi River port is Louisiana's second most populous city, behind only New Orleans?

Baton Rouge has about 227,000 residents and is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish. Legislators picked it as the capital in 1846.

Which Arizona suburb has grown to about half a million residents, more than the whole city of Minneapolis?

Mesa is the third most populous city in Arizona and the largest American city that is not the seat of its county. As late as 1960, half its residents made a living from farming.

Which city, nicknamed Rocket City for its ties to US space missions, is the most populous in Alabama?

Huntsville is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, which developed the Saturn boosters that sent Apollo crews to the Moon. Its metro area, though, is only the state's second largest.

Which Long Island Sound port, once home to showman P. T. Barnum, is the most populous city in Connecticut?

Bridgeport elected P. T. Barnum as its mayor, and his circus spent its winters in town. It lies about 60 miles from Manhattan.

Which Lake Champlain college town of under 50,000 people is the smallest city to be its state's most populous?

Burlington counted just 44,743 residents in 2020, yet nowhere in Vermont is bigger. Ben & Jerry's started there in 1978, in a renovated gas station.

Which city has more residents than Norfolk or Richmond, making it the most populous in its state?

Virginia Beach is listed by Guinness World Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world. About 460,000 people live there.

Sioux Falls, a city that has more than doubled in size since 1980, is the most populous in which state?

South Dakota's biggest city grew from 81,182 people in 1980 to 192,517 in 2020. Its history revolves around the cascades of the Big Sioux River.

Which city on the Yellowstone River, nicknamed the Magic City for its rapid growth, is the most populous in Montana?

Billings was founded as a railroad town in March 1882 and boomed almost at once. Its downtown sits in a canyon carved by the Yellowstone River.

Which city is home to nearly four in ten Alaskans, making it by far the state's most populous?

Anchorage had 291,247 residents at the 2020 census, spread across a municipality of nearly 2,000 square miles.

Which city, the seat of Essex County, is the most populous in New Jersey?

Newark had 311,549 residents at the 2020 census, ahead of Jersey City, and is a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. Its airport is one of the busiest in the country.

Which city at the meeting of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek is the most populous in Delaware?

Wilmington stands on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America, founded in 1638. It is named after an English earl.

Which former mill city on the Merrimack River is the most populous in New Hampshire, ahead of Nashua and Concord?

Manchester was named after the English industrial city, and its Amoskeag mills once formed the largest cotton textile plant in the world.

Which city, home to the University of Arizona, is the state's second most populous, with about 540,000 residents?

Tucson, sometimes called the Old Pueblo, lies only about 60 miles north of the Mexican border. Its university was founded in 1885, while Arizona was a territory.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 at Lowell Observatory in which Arizona mountain city, a gateway to the Grand Canyon?

Flagstaff sits at around 7,000 feet, just south of the highest mountains in Arizona. Humphreys Peak, the state's highest point, rises about 10 miles to the north.

Which New Mexico city gave its name to a 1947 incident involving an alleged crashed flying saucer?

Roswell lent its name even though the alleged crash site lay some 75 miles to the north, closer to the town of Corona. The city now holds a UFO festival every summer.

Which Arizona silver-mining town was the scene of the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral?

Tombstone was the most productive silver-mining district in Arizona until its mines hit the water table and flooded. It now draws most of its revenue from tourism.

Which Arizona city on the Colorado River is the sunniest and driest populated place in the contiguous United States?

Yuma is listed by Guinness World Records as the sunniest city on Earth. Tens of thousands of out-of-state visitors spend each winter there.

Which city in the Mesilla Valley, home to New Mexico State University, is the state's second most populous?

Las Cruces has about 111,000 residents and sits on the floodplain of the Rio Grande. Its university opened in 1888 as Las Cruces College and became the territory's land-grant college a year later.

Frank Lloyd Wright built his winter home, Taliesin West, in which Arizona resort city in 1937?

Scottsdale lives on its visitors: tourism employs about four in ten of the city's workers. Wright's desert studio lies at the foot of the McDowell Mountains.

Which northern New Mexico town, a magnet for artists, neighbours an adobe pueblo that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Taos takes its name from the neighbouring pueblo, where people have lived for roughly a millennium. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe was among the artists drawn to the town.

Which New Mexico town grew from a secret World War II laboratory that designed the first atomic bombs?

Los Alamos replaced a remote ranch school that the War Department took over in 1943 for the Manhattan Project. The site was chosen because it was so isolated.

Which West Texas city of nearly 700,000 people keeps Mountain Time while most of the state uses Central?

El Paso is the only major Texas city in the Mountain Time Zone. It is the sixth most populous city in the state and the largest in West Texas.

Which metropolitan area is the most populous in the Southern United States and the fourth largest in the country?

Dallas–Fort Worth spreads across 11 counties and is known locally as the Metroplex. The word, a blend of metropolis and complex, came from an advertising campaign in the 1970s.

Riverside and San Bernardino anchor which Southern California region, a metro area of about 4.6 million people?

The Inland Empire is unusual among big metro areas in having two main focus cities and no single centre. It covers more than 27,000 square miles east of Los Angeles.

St. Petersburg and Clearwater share which Florida metropolitan area of more than three million people?

Tampa Bay counted 3,175,275 residents at the 2020 census. Its biggest city, Tampa, sits across the bay from St. Petersburg.

Which Caribbean city anchors the most populous metropolitan area in Puerto Rico, home to about two million people?

San Juan's metro area takes in neighbouring Bayamón, Caguas and Carolina on the island's north-eastern coastal plain. It ranks as the fourth largest in the island Caribbean.

Which city anchors the largest metropolitan area in the Carolinas, a two-state region nicknamed Metrolina?

Charlotte's metro area is the fourth largest in the Southeastern United States and lies in the rolling Piedmont region. Its suburbs cross the state line into South Carolina.

Which California county south of Los Angeles, home to Irvine and Santa Ana, has over three million residents?

Orange County had 3,186,989 residents at the 2020 census, more than 19 states. It is the third most populous county in California.

Which California city anchors a metropolitan area stretching from the Central Valley to the shores of Lake Tahoe?

Sacramento, the state capital, sits where the American River meets the river that shares its name. About 526,000 people live in the city itself.

Norfolk, Newport News and Chesapeake share which metro region, named for one of the world's largest natural harbours?

Hampton Roads is named for its roadstead, a sheltered stretch of water where ships can anchor. The region is known for its ice-free harbour, shipyards and large military presence.

Which New England state capital anchors a metro area covering its entire state plus part of Massachusetts?

Providence anchors a metro area of about 1.7 million people, roughly half as many again as Rhode Island itself, because it also takes in Bristol County, Massachusetts.

The Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metro area, home to four million people, lies in the lowlands around which inlet?

Puget Sound gives its name to the wider region around Seattle. The metro area's highest point is Mount Rainier, at 14,411 feet.