![\"Detail](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Detail-Map-of-Louisville-and-Location-in-State-of-Kentucky-300x142.png\" "\\"\\"")
Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark<\/a>, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachian Mountains<\/a>. It is named after King Louis XVI of France<\/a>. Sited beside the Falls of the Ohio, the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River<\/a> and the Gulf of Mexico<\/a>, the settlement first grew as a portage site. It was the founding city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad<\/a>, which grew into a 6,000-mile system across 13 states. Today, the city is known as the home of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali<\/a>, the Kentucky Derby<\/a>, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)<\/a>, the University of Louisville<\/a> and its Louisville Cardinals<\/a> athletic teams, Louisville Slugger<\/a> baseball bats, and three of Kentucky’s six Fortune 500 companies. Its main airport is also the site of United Parcel Service’s<\/a> worldwide air hub.<\/p>\n The Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), sometimes also referred to as Kentuckiana, includes Louisville-Jefferson County and 12 surrounding counties, seven in Kentucky and five in Southern Indiana. As of 2017, the MSA had a population of 1,293,953 ranking 45th nationally.<\/p>\n The history of Louisville spans hundreds of years, and has been influenced by the area’s geography and location.<\/p>\n The rapids at the Falls of the Ohio created a barrier to river travel, and as a result, settlements grew up at this stopping point. The first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was on Corn Island in 1778 by Col. George Rogers Clark, credited as the founder of Louisville. Several landmarks in the community are named after him.<\/p>\n Two years later, in 1780, the Virginia General Assembly approved the town charter of Louisville. The city was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France, whose soldiers were then aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War. Early residents lived in forts to protect themselves from Indian raids, but moved out by the late 1780s. In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark<\/a> organized their expedition across America in the town of Clarksville, Indiana<\/a> at the present-day Falls of the Ohio opposite Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n The city’s early growth was influenced by the fact that river boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the falls. By 1828, the population had swelled to 7,000 and Louisville became an incorporated city. The city grew rapidly in its formative years.<\/p>\n During this point in the 1850s, the city was growing and vibrant, but that also came with negativity. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting, and transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in the Western Theater. By the year 1855, ethnic tension was arising. Nobody knew how far this would go, though. On August 6, 1855 “Bloody Monday<\/a>” happened. Then by 1861, the civil war broke out. During the Civil War, Louisville was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. By the end of the war, Louisville had not been attacked, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles of Perryville<\/a> and Corydon<\/a>, took place nearby. After Reconstruction<\/a>, returning Confederate veterans largely took political control of the city, leading to the jibe that Louisville joined the Confederacy after the war was over.<\/p>\n The first Kentucky Derby was held on May 17, 1875, at the Louisville Jockey Club<\/a> track (later renamed Churchill Downs). The Derby was originally shepherded by Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr<\/a>., the grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and grandnephew of the city’s founder George Rogers Clark. Horse racing had a strong tradition in Kentucky, whose Inner Bluegrass Region had been a center of breeding high-quality livestock throughout the 19th century. Ten thousand spectators watched the first Derby, which Aristides won.<\/p>\n On March 27, 1890, the city was devastated and its downtown nearly destroyed when an F4 tornado tore through as part of the middle Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak. An estimated 74 to 120 people were killed.<\/p>\n Throughout January 1937, 19.17 inches of rain fell in Louisville, and by January 27, the Ohio River crested at a record 57.15 feet, almost 30 feet above flood stage. These events triggered the “Great Flood of 1937<\/a>“, which lasted into early February. The flood submerged 60\u201370% of the city, caused complete loss of power for four days, and forced the evacuation of 175,000 or 230,000 residents, depending on sources. Ninety people died as a result of the flood. It led to dramatic changes in where residents lived. Today, the city is protected by numerous flood walls. After the flood, the areas of high elevation in the eastern part of the city had decades of residential growth.<\/p>\n Louisville was a center for factory war production during World War II. In May 1942, the U.S. government assigned the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Company<\/a>, a war plant located at Louisville’s air field, for wartime aircraft production. The factory produced the C-46 Commando cargo plane<\/a>, among other aircraft. In 1946, the factory was sold to International Harvester<\/a>, which began large-scale production of tractors and agricultural equipment.<\/p>\n Similar to many other older American cities, Louisville began to experience a movement of people and businesses to the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s. Middle class residents used newly built freeways and interstate highways to commute to work, moving into more distant but newer housing. Because of tax laws, businesses found it cheaper to build new rather than renovate older buildings. Economic changes included a decline in local manufacturing. The West End and older areas of the South End, in particular, began to decline economically as many local factories closed.<\/p>\n In 1974, a major (F4) tornado hit Louisville as part of the 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes<\/a> that struck 13 states. It covered 21 miles and destroyed several hundred homes in the Louisville area, causing two deaths.<\/p>\n Since the 1980s, many of the city’s urban neighborhoods have been revitalized into areas popular with young professionals and college students. The greatest change has occurred along the Bardstown Road\/Baxter Avenue and Frankfort Avenue corridors as well as the Old Louisville neighborhood. In recent years, such change has also occurred in the East Market District (NuLu).<\/p>\n Since the late 1990s, Downtown has experienced significant residential, tourist and retail growth, including the addition of major sports complexes KFC Yum! Center and Louisville Slugger Field, conversion of waterfront industrial sites into Waterfront Park, openings of varied museums, and the refurbishing of the former Galleria into the bustling entertainment complex Fourth Street Live!, which opened in 2004.<\/p>\n Louisville and Jefferson County have a combined area of 397.68 square miles, of which 380.46 square miles is land and 17.23 square miles is covered by water.<\/p>\n Louisville is southeasterly situated along the border between Kentucky and Indiana, the Ohio River, in north-central Kentucky at the Falls of the Ohio. Although situated in a Southern state, Louisville is influenced by both Southern and Midwestern culture. It is sometimes referred to as either one of the northernmost Southern cities or as one of the southernmost Northern cities in the United States.<\/p>\n Louisville is located in Kentucky’s outer Bluegrass region<\/a>. Its development has been influenced by its location on the Ohio River, which spurred Louisville’s growth from an isolated camp site into a major shipping port. Much of the city is located on a very wide and flat floodplain surrounded by hill country on all sides. Much of the area was swampland that had to be drained as the city grew. In the 1840s, most creeks were rerouted or placed in canals to prevent flooding and disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n Areas generally east of I-65<\/a> are above the flood plain, and are composed of gently rolling hills. The southernmost parts of Jefferson County are in the scenic and largely undeveloped Knobs region, which is home to Jefferson Memorial Forest.<\/p>\n Louisville today is home to dozens of companies and organizations across several industrial classifications. However, the underpinning of the city’s economy since its earliest days has been the shipping and cargo industries. Its strategic location at the Falls of the Ohio, as well as its unique position in the central United States (within one day’s road travel to 60% of the cities in the continental U.S.) make it a practical location for the transfer of cargo along its route to other destinations. The Louisville and Portland Canal<\/a> and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad were important links in water and rail transportation.<\/p>\n Louisville’s importance to the shipping industry continues today with the presence of the Worldport global air-freight hub for UPS<\/a> at Louisville International Airport<\/a>. Louisville’s location at the crossroads of three major interstate highways (I-64<\/a>, I-65, and I-71<\/a>) also contributes to its modern-day strategic importance to the shipping and cargo industry. In addition, the Port of Louisville<\/a> continues Louisville’s river shipping presence at Jefferson Riverport International<\/a>. As of 2003, Louisville ranks as the seventh-largest inland port in the United States.<\/p>\n Louisville is a significant center of manufacturing, with two major Ford<\/a> plants, and the headquarters and major home appliance factory of GE Appliances<\/a>. The city is also a major center of the American whiskey industry, with about one-third of all bourbon<\/a> coming from Louisville.<\/p>\n Not typically known for high tech outside of the previously identified industries, the city in the 2010s has been at or near the forefront of some high-tech-related developments. In April 2017, Google Fiber<\/a> confirmed that Louisville will be wired for its ultrafast network. Meanwhile, since October 2016, AT&T Fiber<\/a> has been building out its similar service in the city as well as neighboring counties in Indiana.<\/p>\n Louisville for a long time was also home to the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company<\/a>, at its peak one of the largest manufacturers and wholesale distributors of hardware in the United States, as well as Brown & Williamson<\/a>, the third-largest company in the tobacco industry before merging with R. J. Reynolds<\/a> in 2004 to form the Reynolds American Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n Louisville prides itself in its large assortment of small, independent businesses and restaurants, some of which have become known for their ingenuity and creativity. In 1926, the Brown Hotel<\/a> became the home of the Hot Brown “sandwich”<\/a>. A few blocks away, the Seelbach Hotel<\/a>, which F. Scott Fitzgerald<\/a> references in The Great Gatsby<\/a>, is also famous for a secret back room where Al Capone<\/a> would regularly meet with associates during the Prohibition<\/a> era. The drink the Old Fashioned<\/a> was invented in Louisville’s Pendennis Club<\/a>.<\/p>\n As with most American cities, transportation in Louisville is based primarily on automobiles. However, the city traces its foundation to the era where the river was the primary means of transportation, and railroads have been an important part of local industry for over a century. In more recent times, Louisville has become an international hub for air cargo.<\/p>\n Louisville has inner and outer interstate beltways, I-264<\/a> and I-265<\/a> respectively. Interstates I-64 and I-65 pass through Louisville, and I-71 has its southern terminus in Louisville. Since all three of these highways intersect at virtually the same location on the east side of downtown, this spot has become known as “Spaghetti Junction<\/a>“.<\/p>\n Two bridges carry I-64 and I-65 over the Ohio River, and a third automobile bridge carries non-interstate traffic, including bicyclists and pedestrians. Immediately east of downtown is the Big Four Bridge<\/a>, a former railroad bridge now renovated as a pedestrian bridge.<\/p>\n The Ohio River Bridges Project<\/a>, a plan under consideration for decades to construct two new interstate bridges over the Ohio River to connect Louisville to Indiana, including a reconfiguration of Spaghetti Junction, began construction in 2012. One bridge, the Abraham Lincoln Bridge<\/a>, is located downtown beside the existing Kennedy Bridge<\/a> for relief of I-65 traffic. The other, named the Lewis and Clark Bridge<\/a>, connects I-265 between the portions located in southeast Clark County, Indiana and northeast Jefferson County, Kentucky (Louisville Metro). Both bridges and corresponding construction were finished in 2016.<\/p>\n Louisville’s main airport is the centrally located Louisville International Airport, whose IATA Airport Code (SDF) reflects its former name of Standiford Field. The airport is also home to UPS’s Worldport global air hub. UPS operates its largest package-handling hub at Louisville International Airport and bases its UPS Airlines division there. Over 3.2 million passengers and over 4.7 billion pounds of cargo pass through the airport each year. It is also the third busiest airport in the United States in terms of cargo traffic, and seventh busiest for such in the world. Furthermore, since Louisville is located only around 35 minutes from Fort Knox<\/a>, the airport is a major hub for armed services personnel traveling to and from the military installation. The historic but smaller Bowman Field<\/a> is used mainly for general aviation while nearby Clark Regional Airport<\/a> is used mostly by private jets.<\/p>\nHistory:<\/h2>\n
Early History and Founding:<\/h3>\n
![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/George-Rogers-Clark-239x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
19th Century:<\/h3>\n
![\"Louisville](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Louisville-1846-300x178.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Churchill](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Churchill-Downs-1901-300x129.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
20th and 21st Centuries:<\/h3>\n
![\"Fourth](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Fourth-Street-Live-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Geography:<\/h2>\n
Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"19th](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/19th-Century-Bourbon-Bottle-155x300.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
Transportation:<\/h2>\n
Roadways:<\/h3>\n
![\"Kentucky](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Kentucky-Interchange-300x109.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Bridges](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Bridges-Over-the-Ohio-300x32.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Louisville International Airport:<\/h3>\n
![\"Louisville](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Louisville-International-Airport.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Public Transportation:<\/h3>\n
![\"Louisville](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/02\/Louisville-Flag-300x187.png\" "\\"\\"")
![\"Pre-Merger](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2019\/04\/Pre-Merger-Flag-of-Louisville-300x180.png\" "\\"\\"")