Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. Nashville is a major hub for the health care, music, publishing, banking and transportation industries.

Nashville has a consolidated city-county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The population of Nashville-Davidson County stood at 619,626 as of 2007, according to United States Census Bureau estimates. The 2007 population of the entire 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,521,437, making it the largest metropolitan area in the state.

History

Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, and a party of Wataugans in 1779, and was originally called Fort Nashborough, after the American Revolutionary War hero Francis Nash. Nashville quickly grew because of its prime location, accessibility as a river port, and its later status as a major railroad center. In 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee.
Nashville riverfront shortly after the Civil War

By 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a very prosperous city. The city's significance as a shipping port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river and railroad transportation routes. In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops.

Though the Civil War left Nashville in dire economic straits, the city quickly rebounded.Within a few years, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and also developed a solid manufacturing base. The post-Civil War years of the late 19th century brought a newfound prosperity to Nashville. These healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area.

It was the advent of the Grand Ole Opry in 1925, combined with an already thriving publishing industry, that positioned it to become "Music City USA".[citation needed] In 1963, Nashville consolidated its government with Davidson County and thus became the first major city in the United States to form a metropolitan government.[citation needed] Since the 1970s, the city has experienced tremendous growth, particularly during the economic boom of the 1990s under the leadership of Mayor (now-Tennessee Governor) Phil Bredesen, who made urban renewal a priority, and fostered the construction or renovation of several city landmarks, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Public Library downtown, the Sommet Center, and LP Field.

The Sommet Center (formerly Nashville Arena and Gaylord Entertainment Center) was built as both a large concert facility and as an enticement to lure either a National Basketball Association or National Hockey League (NHL) sports franchise. This was accomplished in 1997 when Nashville was awarded an NHL expansion team which was subsequently named the Nashville Predators. LP Field (formerly Adelphia Coliseum) was built after the National Football League's (NFL) Houston Oilers agreed to move to the city in 1995. The NFL debuted in Nashville in 1998 at Vanderbilt Stadium, and LP Field opened in the summer of 1999. The Oilers changed their name to the Tennessee Titans and saw a season culminate in the Music City Miracle and a close Super Bowl game.

Today the city along the Cumberland River is a crossroads of American culture, and one of the fastest-growing areas of the Upper South.

Geography and climate


Nashville lies on the Cumberland River in the northwestern portion of the Nashville Basin. Nashville's topography ranges from 385 ft (117 m) above sea level at the Cumberland River to 1,160 feet (354 m) above sea level at its highest point.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 526.1 square miles (1,362.6 km²), of which, 502.3 square miles (1,300.8 km²) of it is land and 23.9 square miles (61.8 km²) of it (4.53%) is water.

Nashville has a humid subtropical climate with hot, humid summers and chilly winters. Average annual rainfall is 48.1 inches (1222 mm), typically with winter and spring being the wettest and autumn being the driest. In the winter months, snowfall is not uncommon in Nashville but is usually not heavy. Average annual snowfall is about 9 inches (229 mm), falling mostly in January and February and occasionally March and December.Spring and fall are generally pleasantly warm but prone to severe thunderstorms, which occasionally bring tornadoes — with recent major events on April 16, 1998, April 7, 2006, and February 5, 2008. Relative humidity in Nashville averages 83% in the mornings and 60% in the afternoons, which is considered moderate for the Southeastern United States.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Nashville was −17 °F (−27 °C), on January 21, 1985, and the highest was 107 °F (42 °C), on July 28, 1952. The largest one-day snow total was 17 inches (432 mm) on March 17, 1892. The largest snow event in the recent memory was the storm on January 16, 2003, on which date Nashville received 7 inches (178 mm).

Nashville's long springs and autumns combined with a diverse array of trees and grasses can often make it uncomfortable for allergy sufferers. In 2008, Nashville was ranked as the 18th-worst spring allergy city in the U.S. by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Country music

Many popular tourist sites involve country music, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ryman Auditorium, which was for many years the site of the Grand Ole Opry, and Belcourt Theater. Each year, the CMA Music Festival (formerly known as Fan Fair) brings thousands of country fans to the city. Nashville was once home of television shows like Hee Haw, and Pop! Goes the Country.

Nashville was once home to the Opryland USA theme park, which operated from 1972 to 1997 before being closed by its owners Gaylord Entertainment, and soon after demolished to make room for the Opry Mills mega-shopping mall.

Lower Broadway and Printer's Alley are home to many honky tonk bars and clubs.

Christian pop music

The Christian pop and rock music industry is based along Nashville's Music Row, with a great influence in neighboring Williamson County. The Christian record companies include EMI (formally Sparrow Records), Rocketown Records, Beach Street and Reunion Records with many of the genre's most popular acts such as Rebecca St. James, tobyMac, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, Mandisa, Avalon, DJ Maj and Newsboys based there.

Civil War

Civil War history is important to the city's tourism industry. Sites pertaining to the Battle of Nashville and the nearby Battle of Franklin and Battle of Stones River can be seen, along with several well-preserved antebellum plantation houses such as Belle Meade Plantation and Belmont Mansion.