Nashville
Nashville
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home to a large number of colleges and universities. It is most notably known as a center of the music industry, earning it the nickname "Music City".
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville has a consolidated city–county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The population of Nashville-Davidson County stood at 635,710 as of the 2009 census estimates, according to the United States Census Bureau. This makes it the second largest city in Tennessee, after Memphis. This also makes Nashville the fourth largest city in the Southeastern United States. The 2009 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,582,264,[3] making it the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the state. The 2009 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was estimated at 1,666,210.
Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, and a party of
Wataugans in 1779, and was originally called Fort Nashborough, after the
American Revolutionary War hero Francis Nash. Nashville quickly grew because of
its strategic location, accessibility as a river port, and its later status as a
major railroad center. In 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became
the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the
permanent capital of the state of Tennessee.
Nashville riverfront shortly after the Civil War
By 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the
South, antebellum Nashville was a very prosperous city. The city's significance
as a shipping port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important
river and railroad transportation routes. In February 1862, Nashville became the
first state capital to fall to Union troops. The Battle of Nashville (December
15–16, 1864) was a significant Union victory and perhaps the most decisive
tactical victory gained by either side in the war.
Occupy Nashville Protest
"We are the 99 percent"
solar panels used to charge cell phones
Within a few years after the Civil War the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and also developed a solid manufacturing base. The post-Civil War years of the late 19th century brought a newfound prosperity to Nashville. These healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area.
Since the 1970s, the city has experienced tremendous growth, particularly during
the economic boom of the 1990s under the leadership of then-Mayor and
later-Tennessee Governor, Phil Bredesen, who made urban renewal a priority, and
fostered the construction or renovation of several city landmarks, including the
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the downtown Nashville Public Library,
the Bridgestone Arena, and LP Field.
In 1997 Nashville was awarded an NHL expansion team which was subsequently named
the Nashville Predators. LP Field (formerly Adelphia Coliseum) was built after
the National Football League's (NFL) Houston Oilers agreed to move to the city
in 1995. The NFL team debuted in Nashville in 1998 at Vanderbilt Stadium, and LP
Field opened in the summer of 1999. The Oilers changed their name to the
Tennessee Titans and saw a season culminate in the Music City Miracle and a
close Super Bowl game that came down to the last play.
Today, the city along the Cumberland River is a crossroads of American culture,
and one of the fastest-growing areas of the Upland South.
Hard Rock Cafe
Nashville has a vibrant music and entertainment scene spanning a variety of genres. The Tennessee Performing Arts Center is the major performing arts center of the city. It is the home of the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, the Nashville Opera, the Music City Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Nashville Ballet. In September 2006, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened as the home of the Nashville Symphony.
As the city's name itself is a metonym for the country music industry, many
popular tourist sites involve country music, including the Country Music Hall of
Fame and Museum, Belcourt Theatre, and Ryman Auditorium. Ryman was home to the
Grand Ole Opry until 1974 when the show moved to the Grand Ole Opry House, 9
miles (14 km) east of downtown. The Opry plays there several times a week,
except for an annual winter run at the Ryman.
Numerous music clubs and honky-tonk bars can be found in downtown Nashville,
especially the area encompassing Lower Broadway, Second Avenue, and Printer's
Alley, which is often referred to as "the District".
Each year, the CMA Music Festival (formerly known as Fan Fair) brings thousands
of country fans to the city. The Tennessee State Fair is also held annually in
September.
Nashville was once home of television shows such as Hee Haw and Pop! Goes the
Country, and to the Opryland USA theme park, which operated from 1972 to 1997
before being closed by its owners Gaylord Entertainment, and soon after
demolished to make room for the Opry Mills mega-shopping mall.
The Christian pop and rock music industry is based along Nashville's Music Row,
with a great influence in neighboring Williamson County. The Christian record
companies include EMI Christian Music Group, Provident Label Group and Word
Records.
Although Nashville was never known as a jazz town, it did have many great jazz
bands, including The Nashville Jazz Machine led by Dave Converse and its current
version, the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, led by Jim Williamson, as well as The
Establishment, led by Billy Adair. The Francis Craig Orchestra entertained
Nashvillians from 1929 to 1945 from the Oak Bar and Grille Room in the Hermitage
Hotel. Craig's orchestra was also the first to broadcast over local radio
station WSM-AM and enjoyed phenomenal success with a 12-year show on the NBC
Radio Network. In the late 1930s, he introduced a newcomer, Dinah Shore, a local
graduate of Hume Fogg High School and Vanderbilt University.
Big River restaurant
restaurant brews
Radio station WMOT-FM in nearby Murfreesboro has aided significantly in the recent revival of the city's jazz scene, as has the non-profit Nashville Jazz Workshop, which holds concerts and classes in a renovated building in the north Nashville neighborhood of Germantown. Fisk University also maintains a jazz station.
Nashville has an active theatre scene, having several professional and community
theatre companies. Most notable of the professional companies are Nashville
Children's Theatre, Tennessee Repertory Theatre, the Nashville Shakespeare
Festival, the Dance Theatre of Tennessee and the Tennessee Women's Theater
Project. Of the community theatres, Circle Players has been in operation for
over 60 years.
Text from Wikipedia
tavern row
Tennessee State Capitol
Suburban Music Star Homes
