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| Birmingham Apartment Locator Services : Birmingham Apartments |  | Contents | |
| History | | Birmingham
was founded with the first sale of lots on June 1, 1871 at the planned crossing
of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North railroads. The site was
strategically chosen in order to capitalize on the mineral resources of the Birmingham
District; most notably the uniquely close proximity of iron ore, coal, and limestone
- the raw materials for the production of steel. From the start the new city was
planned as a great center of industry. The founders borrowed the name of Birmingham,
England's principal industrial city, to advertise that point. After a slow start,
Birmingham was impeded by an outbreak of cholera and a Wall Street crash in 1873,
but so after began blossoming into an urban metropolis. | | In
the 1950s and '60s Birmingham received national and international attention as
a center of the civil rights struggle for African-Americans. A watershed in that
movement occurred in 1963 when four black girls were killed by a bomb planted
at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Violent racial conflicts have long since abated
and most residents of Birmingham are eager to put such distasteful history behind
them. The population of the core city of Birmingham has fallen from 340,887 in
1960 to 242,820 in 2000, a loss of about 45 percent. This can be partially attributed
to the increasing size of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the growth
of business-related land use in the downtown area. However, the simultaneous growth
of suburbs to the south of Birmingham in that same time period highlights other
reasons. | | In 1971 Birmingham celebrated its centennial with
a round of public works improvements, including the upgrading of Vulcan Park. |
| In 1979 Birmingham elected Dr. Richard Arrington as its first African-American
mayor. | | In 1996 Birmingham's Legion Field hosted early rounds
of Olympic soccer. | | Over the course of the 20th century, while
industry declined nationwide, the city's economy successfully diversified. Though
manufacturing is still a strong sector, Birmingham also is a major medical research
center and a regional banking and publishing power. |
 Panorama of Birmingham, Alabama c.1916 | |
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