| Wheeling (2000 pop. 31,419) is the county seat of Ohio County. Located in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia along the Ohio River, Wheeling is approximately 60 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, PA and 25 miles south of Steubenville, OH. The city was founded in 1769 and incorporated in 1836. Because of its location along the Ohio River and the resultant trade, Wheeling became a popular frontier town by the early 1880's. Wheeling was capital of West Virginia during two separate occassions in the 1800's. Industries that have thrived in Wheeling include iron, steel, glass works and cigar factories. The manufacture of cut iron nails became a major element of Wheeling's economy in the last decades of the 19th century for which Wheeling earned the distinction of the "nail capital of the world". |
