Nashville,
TN
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document:
I.
Introduction
II. People
III. City
Landscape
a.
Education
& Culture
b. Recreation
IV.
Economy
V. Government
VI. History
I.
Introduction
Nashville, city in north
central Tennessee and capital of the state.
Nashville shares the same boundaries with Davidson
County; the two merged in 1963. Nashville is known
as Music City, USA because it is the
home of the recording industry for
country-and-western music. Nashville is also the
Middle South's center of government, education,
banking, insurance, and health services. In the
city is the headquarters of the Southern Baptist
Convention, the nation's largest Protestant church
group, and Nashville has a printing industry
specialized in publishing Bibles.
The city lies in the
Nashville Basin, a gently rolling and low-lying
area surrounded by the western and eastern Highland
Rim. The Cumberland Mountains rise to the east.
Nashville is located on the Cumberland River, which
forms long loops as it flows through the basin. The
city's mean elevation is 134 m (440 ft).
Nashville's climate is moderate and the city enjoys
four distinct seasons. The average high temperature
in January is 8° C (46° F) and the
average low is -3° C (27° F); the average
high in July is 32° C (90° F) and the
average low is 21° C (69° F). The city
annually receives 1201 mm (47.3 in) in
precipitation, with more precipitation in early
winter and in the spring than in other times of the
year.
Nashville was founded in 1779
during the American Revolution (1775-1783) and
named in honor of Brigadier General Francis Nash,
mortally wounded two years earlier in the Battle of
Germantown.
II.
People
Nashville's population
increased from 455,651 in 1980 to 488,374 in 1990;
the growth continued into the 1990s, with the
population in 1998 estimate reaching 510,274.
According to the 1990 census, whites are 73.9
percent of the population, blacks 24.3 percent,
Asians and Pacific Islanders 1.3 percent, and
Native Americans 0.2 percent. The remainder are of
mixed heritage or did not report ethnicity.
Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 0.8 percent
of the people.
When Nashville and Davidson
County consolidated in the early 1960s, the result
was not only a greatly enlarged city but also a
significant change in the racial makeup of the
population. Black citizens went from more than
two-fifths of the population prior to consolidation
to about one-fifth after consolidation.
III. City
Landscape
Nashville and Davidson County
consolidated governments in 1963, creating one of
the nation's largest cities in territory; its land
area is 1225.6 sq km (473.2 sq mi). Nashville's
metropolitan area is much larger, covering, in
addition to Davidson, the counties of Rutherford,
Sumner, Williamson, Wilson, Robertson, Dickson, and
Cheatham. The metropolitan area has 10,549.3 sq km
(4073.1 sq mi). The important cities and towns in
the metropolitan region include Franklin, site of a
major battle of the American Civil War (1861-1865),
Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Lebanon, and Springfield.
Nashville's suburbs also have spread into adjacent
counties in recent years, particularly Williamson
County to the south.
Nashville's downtown is
located on high, limestone bluffs overlooking the
Cumberland River, with four bridges connecting the
east and west sides. Along the riverfront, historic
Second Avenue is a thriving street of restaurants,
dance halls, and nightclubs. The principal shopping
district extends along Church Street. Union Station
(1900), a former railroad station near downtown,
has been restored as a hotel and restaurant.
Surrounding the downtown are historic suburban
neighborhoods, including Rutledge Hill, Germantown,
and Edgefield. Music Row, the center of the
recording industry, and the Country Music Hall of
Fame and Museum lie 5 km (3 mi) from the city
center near the Vanderbilt University
campus.
A downtown architectural
landmark is the Tennessee State Capitol, a
neoclassical building designed by William
Strickland and completed in 1855. On the grounds of
the capitol is the tomb of James K. Polk, a United
States president from Tennessee. Fort Nashborough,
a replica of the city's original settlement, stands
on the bluffs of the Cumberland River. The Ryman
Auditorium, built in the 1880s and named in honor
of steamboat captain Tom Ryman, was home to the
Grand Ole Opry radio show until 1974. It has since
been restored for live entertainment and includes a
museum devoted to the building's
history.
Several historic sites are
away from the downtown along the former turnpikes
that radiate from the city center. To the east of
the city is the Hermitage, the former home of
Andrew Jackson, president of the United States from
1829 to 1837. Its features include a museum,
Jackson's mansion, and former slave cabins. Nearby
is Tulip Grove (1836), the home of Andrew Donelson,
Jackson's private secretary. In the south of the
city, Travellers Rest (1799), the home of Jackson's
law partner John Overton, is another of the many
historic homes in Nashville. To the west of
downtown stands the Parthenon (1897, rebuilt in the
1920s), a replica of the original in Greece and
built for the Tennessee Centennial. Fisk
University, founded after the Civil War to educate
former slaves, contains Jubilee Hall (1873). Belle
Meade (1853), known as the Queen of Tennessee
plantations, was a major horse breeding farm, which
in the 20th century became one of the South's most
luxurious suburbs.
A. Education and
Culture
Universities and colleges in
Nashville include Vanderbilt University (1873),
Tennessee State University (1912), Belmont
University (1951), David Lipscomb University
(1891), Trevecca Nazarene University (1901), Fisk
University (1867), Meharry Medical College (1876),
Free Will Baptist Bible College (1942), and
American Baptist College (1924). Several junior
colleges and technical schools are located in
Nashville.
Many of Nashville's museums
and attractions are related to the country music
industry, including several museums devoted
exclusively to a single artist. But the city
abounds in other cultural sites. Cheekwood, a
former private residence, is now the home of the
Tennessee Botanical Gardens and the Museum of Art,
with an extensive collection of porcelain and
American paintings. The Cumberland Science Museum
offers daily science programs, and the Tennessee
State Museum features exhibits on the state's
history. The Parthenon houses an art gallery and a
full-scale replica of the statue of Athena, the
Greek goddess of wisdom, that once stood in the
Athens original. Fisk University features the Carl
Van Vechten Gallery, which displays a collection of
photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, and the Aaron
Douglas Gallery of African American painting.
Vanderbilt University includes a Fine Arts Gallery.
The Tennessee Performing Arts Center hosts in its
three theaters live performances of music and drama
by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Tennessee
Repertory Theater, Nashville Ballet, Nashville
Opera, and many visiting performers.
B.
Recreation
Stock-car racing at the
Nashville Speedway draws thousands of spectators,
and college-level sports have many fans. The
Tennessee Titans (formerly the Houston Oilers)
professional football team began playing in
Nashville's Adelphia Coliseum in 1999. The
Nashville Predators, which joined the National
Hockey League in 1998, play at the Gaylord
Entertainment Center.
A tradition in Nashville is
the Iroquois Steeplechase, horse racing over a
prescribed course that involves jumping over
obstacles such as hedges, ditches, and walls. The
May event has grown into a major festival. In
September the city hosts the Tennessee State
Fair.
Nashville's principal
attraction is Opryland USA, a complex of
entertainment and broadcasting facilities that
offers live music shows, an amusement park, and a
hotel. Since 1974 it has been home to the Grand Ole
Opry radio show, a country-music production that
hasn't missed a broadcast since 1925.
Percy Park and Edwin Warner
Park provide open space, trails, playing fields,
and a golf course. Percy Priest Lake and Old
Hickory Lake offer fishing, boating, picnicking,
and camping.
IV.
Economy
Besides being the seat of
state government, Nashville is a commercial,
manufacturing, education, and tourist hub and a
noted center for performing and recording music,
particularly country, gospel, and pop. Financial,
insurance, health, and transportation services are
also important. Manufactured products include
automobile glass, printed materials, processed
food, clothing, and footwear. In recent years the
Nashville area has become home to major automobile
manufacturing plants, including the Nissan Motor
Company plant in Smyrna and the General Motors
Saturn plant in Spring Hill.
Nashville is an important
transportation crossroads for the state of
Tennessee, and three interstate highways converge
in the city. Interstate 40 crosses the state and
links Nashville with Knoxville in the east and
Memphis in the west. Interstate 24 connects the
city to Chattanooga in the south. Interstate 65
links Tennessee with Kentucky to the north.
Nashville International Airport serves the
city.
V.
Government
In 1963 Nashville and
Davidson County were consolidated to form a single
government, one of the first of several such
experiments in metropolitan government in the
nation. Nashville is governed by an elected mayor
and a 40-member city council. Voters elect 35
council members from districts and 5 from the city
at large. All elected officials serve four-year
terms.
VI.
History
The Nashville area was used
as a hunting ground by Cherokee, Chickasaw, and
Shawnee peoples prior to the arrival of Europeans.
In about 1710 French fur traders founded a trading
post that became known as French Lick. In 1779
settlers from North Carolina arrived at the site
and established Fort Nashborough, named for Francis
Nash, a brigadier general in the American
Revolution. They drew up the Cumberland Compact,
which outlined self-government for the area and
established the first civilian rule in the region.
In 1784 the community was renamed Nashville, which
was regarded as sounding less British than
Nashborough.
Situated at the northern
terminus of the Natchez Trace, a military and
commercial road that penetrated the interior of the
Old Southwest, Nashville served as an important
outpost for the expansion of American settlement
through the region. The city became a bustling
river port following the initiation of steamboat
travel on the Cumberland River. In 1843 the city
became the permanent state capital. Railroads
entered Nashville in the 1850s and it soon became
center of southern rail transportation.
Though sentiment over
secession divided residents of Middle Tennessee,
Nashville became an important Confederate
stronghold at the outset of the American Civil War.
However, in February 1862, the city became the
first major Confederate city to fall to Union
troops. Thereafter, Nashville supported the Union
Army with supplies, weapons, ammunition, and
medical care. The population of the city bulged
with soldiers, runaway slaves, and wartime
entrepreneurs. The Confederate Army unsuccessfully
attempted to take the city from the Union Army in
the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, the last
significant offensive action taken by the
South.
After the Civil War,
Nashville grew rapidly, due to the connection the
Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad
provided with other states and regions. In 1897
Nashville and the L & N sponsored the Tennessee
Centennial Exposition, one of the grandest of
several such exhibitions that displayed the New
South's spirit of enterprise and progress. In the
early 20th century Nashville expanded its role as a
financial and insurance center, and during World
War I (1914-1918) the Old Hickory Powder Plant gave
new strength to the city's industrial base.
Beginning in the 1930s the city's economic
development was spurred by the availability of
cheap electric power produced by the Tennessee
Valley Authority.
In the 1920s Nashville's
insurance companies began using radio to reach new
markets. An outgrowth was the Grand Ole Opry,
sponsored by WSM Radio, which began in 1925 and
became the fount of Nashville's country-music
industry. During World War II (1939-1945) southern
country music became popular in the United States,
introduced to the rest of the nation by southern
soldiers. After the war, Nashville's Music Row
became the home of many recording studios, and
musicians found Nashville a convenient place to
record. Songwriters and music publishers relocated
to Nashville from New York and other cities. By the
1960s Music Row had become a center for country,
gospel, pop, and rock music.
During the 1960s Nashville
was also an important center for the Civil Rights
Movement in the United States, especially among
students in local universities who led in the
organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee.
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