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Cincinnati)
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County.GR6 The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border.
With a 2006 population of 332,252, Cincinnati is Ohio's third largest city, behind Columbus and Cleveland, and the 56th largest city in the United States. The much larger metropolitan area, commonly called "Greater Cincinnati," stands as the second largest metropolitan region in Ohio, just behind Cleveland, and includes parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. As of 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington Combined Statistical Area has a population of 2,147,617[2] (making it the 20th largest in the country) and is growing at a rate of about one percent annually.
Cincinnati is home to major-league sports, including the Cincinnati Reds (America's first professional baseball team), the Cincinnati Bengals (a National Football League team), the Cincinnati Masters (the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city),[3] as well as several minor league teams, including the Cincinnati Kings (a professional soccer team), the Cincinnati Cyclones (a professional hockey team), and the Cincinnati Jungle Kats (an arena football team). Cincinnati has also had several professional basketball teams throughout the years most notably the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) of the NBA. The city is currently without an NBA team.
It is considered to have been the first major American "boomtown," rapidly expanding in the heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city, lacking the heavy European influence that was present on the east coast. However, by the end of the century, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably, and the city was surpassed in population by many other inland cities.
Cincinnati is also known for having one of the largest collections of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the U.S. [4], primarily concentrated just north of Downtown in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, one of the largest historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
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"With one hand he returns the fasces, symbol of power as appointed dictator of Rome. His other hand holds the plow, as he resumes the life of a citizen and farmer."--A statue of
Cincinnatus in downtown Cincinnati.
Cincinnati was founded in 1788 by John Cleves Symmes and Colonel Robert Patterson. [5] Surveyor John Filson (also the author of The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone) named it "Losantiville" from four terms, each of a different language, meaning "the city opposite the mouth of the Licking River." "Ville" is French for "city," "anti" is Greek for "opposite," "os" is Latin for "mouth," and "L" was all that was included of "Licking River."
In 1790, Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name of the settlement to "Cincinnati" in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member.[5] The society honored General George Washington, who was considered a latter day Cincinnatus -- the Roman general who saved his city, then retired from power to his farm. To this day, Cincinnati in particular, and Ohio in general, are home to a disproportionately large number of descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers who were granted lands in the state.
In 1802, Cincinnati was chartered as a village and David Ziegler (1748-1811), a Revolutionary War veteran from Heidelberg, Germany, became the first mayor. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819. The introduction of steam navigation on the Ohio River in 1811 and the completion of the Miami and Erie Canal helped the city grow to 115,000 citizens by 1850.[5]
Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21, 1825, when it was called the Miami Canal, a reference to the Little Miami River, which was its origin, and water was diverted into the canal bed in 1827.[6] The canal began by connecting Cincinnati to nearby Middletown in 1827 and, by 1840, the canal had reached Toledo, changing the Miami Canal to the Miami and Erie Canal and signifying the connection between the Little Miami River and Lake Erie.
Railroads were the next major form of transportation to come to Cincinnati. In 1836, the Little Miami Railroad was chartered.[7] Construction began soon after, with the purpose of connecting Cincinnati with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, and thus the ports of the Sandusky Bay.[6]
On April 1, 1853, Cincinnati's Fire Department became a paid department, the first full-time paid fire department in the United States, and the first in the world to use steam fire engines.[8]
Six years later, in 1859, Cincinnati laid out six streetcar lines, making it easier for people to get around the city.[7] By 1872, Cincinnatians could travel on the streetcar line within the city and then be transported by rail car to the hill communities. The Cincinnati Inclined Plane Company began transporting people to the top of Mount Auburn in that year.[6]
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, eventually known as the Cincinnati Reds, began their career in the 1800s as well. In 1868, meetings were held at the law offices of Tilden, Sherman, and Moulton to make Cincinnati’s baseball team a professional one; it became the first regular professional team in the country, being organized formally in 1869.[7]
During the American Civil War, Cincinnati played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army. It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio, which was charged with the defense of the region, as well as directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee. Due to Cincinnati's proximity to and commerce with slave states across the Ohio River, there was significant "Southern sympathy" in the Cincinnati area. This is evidenced by the history of the Copperhead movement in Ohio.[9]
In 1879, Procter & Gamble, one of Cincinnati's major soap manufacturers, began marketing Ivory Soap. It got its appeal because of its ability to float. After a fire at their first factory, Procter & Gamble moved to a new factory on the Mill Creek and began soap production again, which eventually lead to the area being known as Ivorydale.[10]
Cincinnati weathered the Great Depression better than most American cities of its size, largely because of a resurgence of inexpensive river trade. The rejuvenation of downtown began in the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction of Union Terminal, the post office, and a large Bell Telephone building. The flood of 1937 was one of the worst in the nation's history, resulting in the building of protective flood walls. After World War II, Cincinnati unveiled a master plan for urban renewal that resulted in modernization of the inner city. Riverfront Stadium and Riverfront Coliseum were completed in the 1970s, as the Cincinnati Reds baseball team emerged as one of the dominant teams of the decade. Tragedy struck the Coliseum in December 1979 when eleven people were killed in a mass panic prior to a rock-and-roll concert by the band The Who. In 1989, the 200th anniversary of the city's founding, much attention was focused on the city's Year 2000 plan, which involved further revitalization.
The completion of several major new development projects enhance the city as it enters the early years of the new millennium. Cincinnati's beloved Bengals and Reds teams both have new, state-of-the-art homes: Paul Brown Stadium, opened in 2000; and the Great American Ball Park, opened in 2003, respectively. Two new museums have opened: the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in 2003, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in 2004. With many delays and political setbacks, the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County are currently planning The Banks--a 24-hour urban neighborhood of restaurants, clubs, offices, and homes with sweeping skyline views, along the city's riverfront. Cincinnati has received such accolades as "Most Liveable City" (1993), Partners for Livable Communities, April 2004; number five U.S. arts destination, American Style Magazine, Summer 2004; was the highest rated city in Ohio for "Best Cities For Young Professionals" and 18th overall, Forbes Magazine, June 2007[1]; and inclusion in the top ten "Cities that Rock," Esquire Magazine, April 2004.[11]
Forbes later reversed itself by naming Cincinnati the second worst city in America for singles in its August 2007 edition.
Kiplinger'smagazine did not include Cincinnati in the 2007 twenty-five Best Cities in the United States, which was edited by Richard Florida, author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," a book that focuses on young professionals. The Cincinnati Enquirer said the number of young professionals moving away was alarming.
Nicknames
Cincinnati skyline at night, from the
Kentucky shore.
Cincinnati has a number of nicknames, including the "The Queen City," "The Queen of the West,"[12] "The Blue Chip City,"[13] "The City of Seven Hills,"[14], and "Porkopolis."[15] These are more typically associated with professional, academic, and public relations references to the city and are not commonly used by locals in casual conversation.
Newer nicknames such as "The 'Nati" are emerging and are used in different cultural contexts such as the hip-hop scene and more casual settings. Don’t Trash the ‘Nati.
Some, particularly those of older generations, still use a regional pronunciation of the city's name where the final vowel ("I") is short as opposed to long. Phonetically, this variation would be spelled [sin-suh-nat-uh] instead of the generally accepted [sin-sin-nat-ee]. This has seen less usage in recent years.
The nickname, "The City of Seven Hills," is not now a literal description of the city, as there are many more than seven hills in modern Cincinnati. When the city was younger and smaller, the June 1853 edition of the West American Review, "Article III--Cincinnati: Its Relations to the West and South" described and named seven specific hills. The hills form a crescent around the city: Mount Adams, Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, Vine Street Hill, College Hill, Fairmont (now rendered Fairmount), and Mount Harrison (now known as Price Hill).
A common abbreviation for Cincinnati is "Cincy," used in casual conversation and informal usage, and once was common in postal addresses. "Cinti" also is used, with somewhat less frequency, but can be seen on some road signs.
Geography
Classical
from 
