When was birmingham al founded

Hillman to construct the Alice Furnaces, facilitating the large-scale production of pig iron. In June , Sloss began constructing the area's second set of blast furnaces, known then as the City Furnaces, in eastern Birmingham.

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad aided these flourishing enterprises by investing money and providing special freight rates. As a result of these events, Birmingham's production of pig iron increased more than tenfold between and Birmingham had become the region's leading industrial city, evolving from a rough and tumble "boom town" of muddy streets, saloons, fistfights, and shootouts to a civilized city with paved streets, gaslights, telephone service, and a public school system.

Continued industrial expansion in the s also spurred the rapid growth of unions, particularly among railroad workers, miners, and the building trades. Steel in , which brought financial resources to the city, and the completion of the lock-and-dam system on the Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers in , which provided Birmingham manufacturers with cheap water transportation for their goods all the way to Mobile.

Birmingham quickly became the transportation hub of the mid-South. Just as the city's economy was beginning to take off again, the stock market crashed in October , throwing thousands of residents out of work and prompting the Hoover administration to call Birmingham "the hardest hit city in the nation. Steel shut down its Birmingham mills and the city remained depressed for eight years.

Birmingham recovered from the Depression with the outbreak of World War II as the city's steel mills became an important part of the nation's arsenal. After the war, Birmingham diversified its economy with new industries that manufactured farm equipment, chemicals, byproducts used for road building, nails, wire, cement, cottonseed oil, and many other goods.

With these new industries, along with Hayes International Aircraft and the launch of a modern medical complex, Birmingham in the s had the potential to soar into the s. Instead, city officials and residents were faced with a civil rights struggle of epic proportions that left the city's national reputation in shambles and greatly hampered its ability to attract investors.

Sixteenth Street Church Bombing African Americans began moving into Birmingham to escape the white-owned farms where they had once toiled as slaves and later as sharecroppers. By African Americans comprised more than half of Birmingham's industrial workers.

Working and living conditions were bad enough, but black citizens' lives were made more miserable by Birmingham's deeply entrenched system of segregation. Nicknamed "Bombingham" for the many racially motivated bombings of black homes, the city became a focal point for the national civil rights struggle after the brutal treatment of the Freedom Riders in Fred Lee Shuttlesworth The city was then publicly shamed in the media by Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor 's use of fire hoses and police dogs to drive back thousands of youthful demonstrators in early May Following several weeks of demonstrations, civil rights and business leaders reached an agreement that ended some of the segregationist barriers.

This spirit of good will was soon shattered by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church , which claimed the lives of four young girls. That horrific event, more than anything else, prompted the passage of the Civil Rights Act of , which outlawed racial segregation in public accommodations in America. Also, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of , African Americans were increasingly able to participate in the city's civic and governmental affairs, culminating in the election of Richard Arrington Jr.

In addition to the continued presence of several of the nation's largest steelmakers, including U. Steel, McWane, and Nucor, Birmingham is now a center of bioscience and technology development and the home to some of the nation's top construction and engineering firms. The Birmingham metropolitan area is Alabama's largest commercial center and has become one of the nation's largest banking centers. Beginning in the mids, commercial construction in the downtown area gave the city an impressive modern skyline.

Between and , Larry Langford, who was then mayor of Birmingham, and six former members of the Jefferson County Commission were convicted of a variety of corruption charges, including bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud, and money-laundering. On January 17, , the U. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of Langford's conviction. Gaston to provide higher class service to black visitors.

Although the structure is severely damaged, Shuttlesworth emerges uninjured. The Freedom Ride, an integrated bus trip from Washington D.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Richmond Pearson and U. Arrington serves in that post for nearly 20 years, until his resignation in July He is also the first minority adjunct professor at The University of Alabama School of Law School, serving from to This triggers penalties and higher interest rates for Jefferson County sewer debt.

The county begins technical default. In the s and s, Birmingham's economy was transformed with investments in bio-technology and medical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and its adjacent hospital. The UAB Hospital is the only Level I trauma center in the entire 4-state area providing healthcare and conducting medical research. UAB is now the area's largest employer in the metropolitan area , and the largest in Alabama, with a workforce of about 23, Regions acquired local rival AmSouth Bancorporation in , creating a top bank nationally.

SouthTrust , which also had been headquartered in Birmingham, was acquired by Wachovia in and by Wells Fargo in The city is also a powerhouse of construction and engineering companies. A Study by Bizjournals. The purpose of their study was to determine which cities, based on combined personal income, would be financially able to support professional sport franchises.

Birmingham was one of 30 unserved markets deemed capable of supporting a National Football League team, one of 23 capable of supporting a National Hockey League team, and one of 19 capable of supporting a National Basketball Association team. According to the study, no unserved markets have the income needed to support a new Major League Baseball team. The city of Birmingham is served by the Birmingham City Schools system. It is run by the Birmingham Board of Education with a current active enrollment of just under 25, in 53 schools: 7 high schools, 11 middle schools, 25 elementary schools, 9 K-8 secondary schools, and Riggins Alternative School.

Before the first structure was built in Birmingham, the plan of the city was laid out over a total of 1, acres 4. The streets were numbered from west to east, leaving Twentieth Street to form the central spine of downtown, anchored on the north by Capitol Park and stretching into the slopes of Red Mountain to the south.

A " Railroad Reservation " was granted through the center of the city, running east to west and zoned solely for industrial uses. As the city grew, bridges and underpasses separated the streets from the railroad bed.

From the start, Birmingham's streets and avenues were unusually wide at 80 to feet, purportedly to help evacuate unhealthy smoke. In the early 20th century professional planners helped lay out many of the new industrial settlements and company towns in the Birmingham District , including Corey now Fairfield which was developed for the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company subsequently purchased by U.

The Jemison Company developed many residential neighborhoods to the south and west of Birmingham which are still renowned for their aesthetic quality. The fast-growing city spawned many independent suburbs during its early years. A landmark " Greater Birmingham " merger, passed by the Alabama State Legislature in , combined many of them into Birmingham proper. Later annexations have been infrequent, and the city is once again hemmed in by dozens of suburbs.

A City Center Master Plan , presented in by Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh advocates strongly for more residential development in the downtown area. The plan included a Railroad Park over several blocks of the central railroad reservation, which opened to wide acclaim in Birmingham is served by four Interstates, Interstate 20 , Interstate 22 , Interstate 65 , and Interstate 59 , and a southern beltway Interstate and the Elton B.

Stephens or Red Mountain Expressway U. Highway A "Northern Beltline", to be called Interstate , is in the planning stages. Birmingham is served by Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. The Amtrak Station is situated at Morris Avenue. The water services for Birmingham and the intermediate urbanized area is served by the Birmingham Water Works , a public authority that was established in , the BWWB serves all of Jefferson, northern Shelby, western St.

Clair counties. Jefferson County Environmental Services serves the Birmingham metro area with sanitary sewer service. Electric power is provided primarily by Southern Company-subsidiary Alabama Power.

Natural gas is provided by Alagasco. The local telecommunications are provided predominantly by BellSouth. As of the census, there were , people residing within the city limits. There were , housing units at an average density of The racial makeup of the city was In , there were 98, households, of which The average household size was 2. In the city, the population was spread out, with The median age was 34 years.

For every females there were