Minneapolis

HISTORY

Minneapolis, nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City", is the county seat of Hennepin County and the largest city in Minnesota.

Its name is attributed to the city's first schoolteacher, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, and polis, the Greek word for city.

Fort Snelling, built in 1819 by the United States Army, was largely responsible for the establishment of the city of Minneapolis. In an effort to be self-sufficient, the soldiers of the fort built roads, planted crops, and built a grist mill and a sawmill at Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River. The community of Saint Anthony sprung up around the east side of the falls and one of the employees, John H. Stevens, felt that land on the west side of the falls would make a good site for future mills. In 1850 he built the first house in Minneapolis on the site where the Minneapolis Post Office now sits.

Stevens' house, now located in Minnehaha Park. By McGhiever - Wikipedia Commons

The first bridge over the Mississippi River opened in what is now Minneapolis on January 23, 1855. The crossing is made today by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge .

The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present-day Minneapolis as a town on the Mississippi's west bank in 1856.

Minneapolis was incorporated as a city in 1867, the year rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago.

Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. The two cities are known as the Twin Cities, and comprise the USA's 16th-largest metropolitan area.

The cities enjoyed a rivalry during their early years, with Saint Paul being the capital city and Minneapolis becoming prominent through industry. The term "Twin Cities" was coined around 1872, after a newspaper editorial suggested that Minneapolis could absorb Saint Paul. Residents decided that the cities needed a separate identity, so people coined the phrase "Dual Cities", which later evolved into "Twin Cities."

FUN FACTS

 .
As of 2015, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota and 46th-largest in the United States with a population of 410,939.

The city of Minneapolis has the lowest high school graduation rate among the 50 largest U.S. cities with less than 50% of students graduating

McGraw Electric Company of Minneapolis sold the world's first pop-up toasters. The Toastmaster. sold in Minneapolis at the retail price of $13.50.

Minneapolis is abundantly rich in water, with over twenty lakes and wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks, and waterfalls, many of which are connected by parkways in the Chain of Lakes and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.

There are 13 lakes of at least five acres (0.020 km2) within the borders of Minneapolis,  which is known as the "City of Lakes".

Lake Harriet frozen and snow-covered in winter

Among cities of similar densities, Minneapolis has the most dedicated parkland.

The Minneapolis Skyway System is a system of footbridges that connects shops, restaurants, and residential buildings over an area of 80 full city blocks. It allows residents to live, work, and shop without ever leaving the Skyway system.

Minneapolis was once the world's flour milling capital and a hub for timber, and today is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing the fifth highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies.

The Minneapolis metropolitan area is the second largest economic center in the Midwest, behind Chicago.