Charlotte ( ) is the largest
city in the state of North Carolina
and the seat of Mecklenburg
County
. Charlotte's population was estimated to be
687,456 in 2008, making it the 18th largest city
in the United
States
. Residents of Charlotte are referred to as
"
Charlotteans".
Nicknamed the
Queen City, Charlotte (as well as the county
containing it) is named in honor of the German
Princess Charlotte of
Mecklenburg, who had become
queen
consort of
British King George III the year
before the city's founding. A second nickname derives from later in
the 18th century. During the
American Revolutionary War,
British commander
General
Cornwallis occupied the city but was driven out afterwards by
hostile residents, prompting him to write that Charlotte was "a
hornet's nest of rebellion," leading to
another city nickname:
The Hornet's Nest.
In 2007, the
Charlotte
metropolitan area had a population of 1,701,799. The Charlotte
metropolitan area is part of a wider thirteen-county labor market
region or
combined statistical
area that has an estimated population of 2,338,289.
Forbes named Charlotte as the third most undervalued
real estate markets in the U.S. in 2007. In 2008, Charlotte was
chosen the "Best Place to Live in America" by relocate-America.com
in its annual ranking, based on factors including employment
opportunities, crime rates, and housing affordability. It was also
named #8 of the 100 "Best Places to Live and Launch" by
CNNMoney.com - cities picked for their vibrant
lifestyles and opportunities for new businesses.
Lifestyle was also
noted when Prevention Magazine
rated the Queen City 4th in the nation and the best "Walking City"
in North Carolina in 2007 and Self Magazine named Charlotte one of
“Five Cities with Big Outdoor Appeal” for features like its Public
Art Walking Tour, accessible museums such as the Mint Museum of Craft + Design,
and nearby outdoor excursions like the U.S.
National Whitewater Center
.
History
The area that is now Charlotte was first settled in 1755 when
Thomas Polk (uncle of
United States President
James K. Polk), who was traveling with Thomas Spratt
and his family, stopped and built his house of residence at the
intersection of two
Native American
trading paths between the
Yadkin and
Catawba rivers.One of the paths ran
north-south and was part of the
Great
Wagon Road; the second path ran east-west along what is now
modern-day Trade Street.
In the early part of the 18th century, the
Great Wagon Road led settlers of Scots-Irish and German descent from Pennsylvania
into the Carolina foothills. Within
the first decades following Polk's settling, the area grew to
become the community of "Charlotte Town," which officially
incorporated as a town in 1768. The
crossroads, perched atop a long rise in the
Piedmont landscape, became the
heart of modern
Uptown
Charlotte.
In 1770, surveyors marked off the new town's streets in a
grid pattern for future development. The
east-west trading path became Trade Street, and the Great Wagon
Road became Tryon Street, in honor of
William Tryon, a royal governor of colonial
North Carolina.
The intersection of Trade and Tryon
is known as "Trade & Tryon" or simply "The
Square." It is more properly called Independence
Square.
Both the
town (now a city) and its county
(originally a part of Anson County) are named for
Charlotte of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the German-born wife of British King George III.
The town
name was chosen in hopes of winning favor with the crown, but
tensions between the United Kingdom
and Charlotte Town began to grow as King George
imposed unpopular laws on the citizens in response to the
townspeople's desire for independence. On May 20, 1775, the
townsmen allegedly signed a proclamation later known as the
Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence, a copy of which was sent, though
never officially presented, to the
Continental Congress a year later. The
date of the declaration appears on the
North Carolina state flag. Eleven
days later, the same townsmen met to create and endorse the
Mecklenburg Resolves, a set of
laws to govern the newly independent town.
Charlotte was a site of encampment for both American and British
armies during the
Revolutionary War and, during a
series of skirmishes between British troops and Charlotteans, the
village earned the lasting nickname "Hornet's Nest" from frustrated
Lord
General Charles
Cornwallis.
An ideological hotbed of revolutionary
sentiment during the Revolutionary War and for some time
afterwards, the legacy endures today in the nomenclature of such
landmarks as Independence
Boulevard, Independence High School
, Independence Center, Freedom Park,
Freedom Drive, and the former NBA team Charlotte Hornets.
Churches, including Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists,
Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Catholics, began to form in the early
1800s, eventually giving Charlotte its nickname "The City of
Churches."
In 1792 the eastern half of Mecklenburg county made up of small
rural independent farmers tired of traveling all day by horse and
buggy to the county seat of Charlotte Town decided to go to Raleigh
and secede to form its own county in the state legislature where
they garnered a tie vote that was broken by an ex-naturalized
Frenchman, eastern NC legislator Stephen Cabarrus. Cabarrus was
thought to have been paid under the table by this new county and
was allegedly hanged for horse thievery years later. The new county
was named for Cabarrus and the town of Concord became its county
seat.
Oddly in 1799 or years before as many
believe, in Cabarrus allegedly a 12-year-old Conrad Reed
brought home a large gold rock he found in Little
Meadow Creek, weighing about 17 pounds, which the family used as a
bulky doorstop. Three years later, a jeweler determined that
it was near solid gold, and bought it for a paltry $3.50. The first
verified gold find in the fledgling United States, young Reed's
discovery became the genesis of the nation's first
gold rush. Many veins of gold were found in the
area throughout the 1800s and even into the early 1900s, thus the
founding of the
Charlotte Mint in
1837 for minting local gold. The state of North Carolina "led the
nation in gold production until the California Gold Rush of 1848,"
although the total volume of gold mined in the Charlotte area was
dwarfed by subsequent rushes. Charlotte's city population at the
1880 Census grew to
7,084.Some locally based groups still
pan
for gold occasionally in local (mostly rural) streams and
creeks.
The Reed Gold Mine
operated until 1912. The
Charlotte Mint was active until 1861, when
Confederate forces
seized the mint at the outbreak of the
Civil War.
The mint was not
reopened at the end of the war, but the building survives today,
albeit in a different location, now housing the Mint Museum
of Art
.
The city's first boom came after the Civil War, as a cotton
processing center and a railroad hub. Population leapt again during
World War I, when the U.S. government established Camp Greene north
of present-day Wilkinson Boulevard. Many soldiers and suppliers
stayed after the war, launching an ascent that eventually overtook
older and more established rivals along the
arc of the Carolina Piedmont.
The city's modern-day banking industry achieved prominence in the
1970s and 1980s, largely under the leadership of
financier Hugh McColl.
McColl transformed
North
Carolina National Bank (NCNB) into a formidable national player
that, through a series of aggressive acquisitions became known as
NationsBank and eventually merged with BankAmerica and was
rebranded as
Bank of America.
Another
bank, Wachovia, experienced similar growth,
and was acquired by San
Francisco
based Wells
Fargo. Measured by control of assets, Charlotte is the
second largest banking headquarters in the United States after New
York City.
On September 22, 1989, the city took a direct hit from
Hurricane Hugo. Passing through Charlotte as
a Category 1 hurricane with wind gusts over 100 mph
(160 km/h) in some locations, Hugo caused massive property
damage and knocked out electrical power to 98% of the population.
Many residents were without power for several weeks and cleanup
took months to complete. The city is just over 200 miles inland,
and many residents from coastal areas in both Carolinas often wait
out hurricanes in Charlotte. The city was caught unprepared, as
almost no one expected a storm to strike with hurricane force this
far inland. Over 80,000 trees were destroyed in Charlotte.In
December 2002, Charlotte (and much of central North Carolina) was
hit by an ice storm (which some dubbed, "Hugo on Ice") that knocked
out power to over 1.3 million
Duke
Energy customers. According to a Duke Energy representative:
"This ice storm surpasses the damage from Hurricane Hugo in 1989,
which had 696,000 outages." During an abnormally cold December,
many were without power for more than two weeks. Much of the damage
was caused by
Bradford pear trees
which, still having leaves on December 4, split apart under the
weight of the ice.
Geography and climate
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 242.9 square
miles (629 square kilometers). Out of that, 242.3 sq. mi.
(627.5 km²) of it is land and 0.6 sq. mi. (1.6 km²) of it
is water. The total area is 0.25% water.
Charlotte
constitutes most of Mecklenburg County
in the Carolina Piedmont. Uptown/downtown Charlotte sits atop a long
rise between two creeks and was built on the
gunnies of the St. Catherine's and Rudisill
gold mine. There is much
disagreement about the use of the interchangeable terms "Uptown"
and "Downtown" for the center city area. Prior to the late 1980s,
the term "Downtown" was always used as a reference for Charlotte's
center city area and many area residents still use the "Downtown"
term. On February 14, 1987, the Charlotte Observer began calling
the center city area "Uptown" in order to help promote a positive
image of the area.
Charlotte's elevation is 870 feet above sea level (at
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport).
A 2007
American Lung
Association report ranks Charlotte as having the 16th highest
levels of
smog among U.S. cities; however, the
region's air quality has improved significantly in recent years,
and is expected to continue to do so, even with increasing
travel.
Charlotte is located in
North
America's
humid
subtropical climate zone. The city has cool to cold winters and
warm, humid summers. In January, morning lows average around 32 °F
(0 °C) and afternoon highs average 51 °F (11 °C). In July, lows
average 71 °F (22 °C) and highs average 90 °F (32 °C). The highest
recorded temperature was 104 °F (40 °C) on September 6, 1954 and
during the
August 2007
Southeastern heat wave. The lowest recorded temperature was -6
°F (-21 °C) in January 1985. Charlotte's location puts it in the
direct path of subtropical moisture from the Gulf as it heads up
the eastern seaboard along the jet stream, thus the city receives
ample precipitation throughout the year but also a very large
number of clear, sunny, and pleasantly warm days. On average,
Charlotte receives about 43.52 in (1105.3 mm) of precipitation
annually, including 6 inches of
snow and
more frequent ice-storms.
Cityscape
Charlotte has 199 neighborhoods which span from
Uptown to
Ballantyne. Uptown has undergone a
massive construction phase with buildings from
Bank of America,
Wells Fargo and multiple condos. Elizabeth
Avenue has also had large residential buildings under construction.
On Kenilworth and Charlottetowne Avenues, near
Carolinas Medical Center, the
Metropolitan, a major mixed-use project, was recently
completed.
Image:QueenCharlotte.jpg|Public Art in Downtown Charlotte
Economy
Charlotte has become a major U.S. financial center, and the
nation's largest financial institution by assets,
Bank of America, calls the city home. The
city was also the former corporate home of
Wachovia until its purchase by
Wells Fargo in 2008; Wells Fargo is in the
process of integrating Wachovia, with the two banks expected to be
fully merged by the end of 2011. Bank of America's headquarters,
along with other regional banking and financial services companies,
are located primarily in the uptown financial district.
Thanks in
large part to the expansion of the city's banking industry, the
Charlotte skyline has mushroomed in the past
two decades and boasts the Bank of America Corporate Center, the
tallest skyscraper between Philadelphia
and Atlanta
. The 60-story postmodern gothic tower,
designed by renowned architect
Cesar
Pelli, stands 871 feet tall and was completed in 1992.
The following
Fortune 500 companies are
headquartered in the
Charlotte metropolitan area, in
order of their rank:
Bank of
America,
Lowe's in suburban Mooresville,
Nucor (steel producer),
Duke Energy,
Sonic
Automotive,
Family Dollar,
Goodrich Corporation, and SPX
Corporation (industrial technology).
Other major companies
headquartered in the Metro Charlotte include Time Warner Cable (formerly a business
unit of Fortune 500 company Time
Warner), Continental Tire North
America (formerly Continental/General Tire), Muzak, Belk, Harris Teeter, Meineke Car Care Centers, Lance, Inc, Bojangles',
Carlisle Companies, LendingTree, Compass
Group USA, Food Lion, Coca-Cola
Bottling Consolidated Company (the nation's second largest
Coca-Cola bottler), and the Carolina Beverage Corporation
(makers of Cheerwine, Sun Drop, and others) in suburban Salisbury,
North Carolina
. US Airways
regional carrier
CCAir was headquartered in
Charlotte.
Charlotte is home to several large shopping
malls, with Carolina
Place Mall
, SouthPark Mall and
North Lake Mall being the largest.

NASCAR Hall of Fame
Charlotte is also a major center in the US motorsports industry,
with
NASCAR having multiple offices in and
around Charlotte. Approximately 75% of the NASCAR industry's
employees and drivers are based within two hours of downtown
Charlotte. Charlotte is also the future home of the
NASCAR Hall of Fame, expected to be open
May 10, 2010, a week prior to the Sprint All-Star Race.
The
already large presence of the racing technology industry along with
the newly built NHRA premier dragstrip, zMAX
Dragway at Concord
, located just north of Charlotte, is influencing
some of the top professional drag racers
to move their shops from more expensive areas like California to
the Charlotte area as well. The recently announced small
racetrack at the former Metrolina Fairgrounds location which is at
Sunset and Statesville Roads is expected to bring more local racing
to the area along with a skate park, shoppes, restaurants and an
upscale hotel will offer recreation of many types. Located in the
western part of Mecklenburg County is the National Whitewater
Rafting Center, consisting of man-made rapids of various degrees
and is open to the public year round.
The center city/uptown area of Charlotte has seen remarkable growth
over the last decade. Numerous residential units continue to be
built uptown, including over 20 skyscrapers either under
construction, recently completed, or in the planning stage. Many
new restaurants, bars and clubs now operate in the
Uptown area. Several projects are
transforming the Midtown Charlotte/
Elizabeth area.
Law, government and politics
Charlotte has a
council-manager form
of government. The
Mayor and
city council are elected every two years, with
no
term limits. The mayor is
ex
officio chairman of the city council, and only votes in case
of a tie. Unlike other mayors in council-manager systems,
Charlotte's mayor has the power to
veto
ordinance passed by the council;
vetoes can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the council.
The council appoints a
city manager to
serve as chief administrative officer.
Unlike some other cities and towns in North Carolina, elections are
held on a partisan basis. The current
mayor of
Charlotte is
Anthony Foxx a member of
the
Democratic
Party.
Charlotte tends to lean
Democratic. However, voters
are friendly to moderates of both parties. Republican strength is
concentrated in the southeastern portion of the city, while
Democratic strength is concentrated in the south-central, eastern
and northern areas.
The city council comprises 11 members (7 from districts and 4
at-large). The
Democrats currently control
the council with an advantage of 8-to-3. Of the at-large seats,
Democrats won three out of four in the last election. While the
city council is responsible for passing ordinances, many policy
decisions must be approved by the
North Carolina General
Assembly as well, since North Carolina municipalities do not
have
home rule. Since the 1960s,
however, municipal powers have been broadly construed.
Charlotte is split between three
congressional districts on the
federal level—the 8th, represented by Democrat
Larry Kissell; the 9th, represented by
Republican
Sue Myrick; and the 12th,
represented by Democrat
Mel Watt.
The
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Police Department (CMPD) is a combined jurisdiction agency.
The CMPD
has law enforcement jurisdiction in both the City of Charlotte, the
town of Mint
Hill
and the few unincorporated areas left in
Mecklenburg County. The other small towns maintain their own
law enforcement agencies for their own jurisdictions. The
Department consists of approximately 1600 sworn, armed, law
enforcement officers, and several hundred civilian support
personnel. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department divides the
city into 13 geographic areas, which vary in size both
geographically and by the number of officers assigned to each
division.
The residents of Charlotte are provided emergency medical service
by
MEDIC, the Mecklenburg EMS Agency. MEDIC responded to
over 90,000 patients in 2008, and transported nearly 18,000 of them
with life-threatening conditions. The Agency employs nearly 350
Paramedics, EMTs, and EMDs. At any given time, between 20 and 40
ambulances will be deployed to cover the county. In addition, MEDIC
will deploy tactical SWAT paramedics, bike teams, and vehicles
equipped to deal with mass casualty incidents should the needs
arise.
Crime
Charlotte has a crime rate above the national average. The total
crime index for Charlotte is 648.0 crimes committed per 100,000
residents as of 2007. The national average is 320.9 per 100,000
residents. The Charlotte-Gastonia Metropolitan Statistical Area
ranked as the 12th "Most Dangerous Metro Area", by Morgan Quitno
Press for the year of 2006.
According to the Congressional Quarterly Press; '2008 City Crime
Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America, Charlotte, North Carolina
ranks as the 62nd most dangerous city larger than 75,000
inhabitants. However, the entire Charlotte-Gastonia Metropolitan
Statistical Area ranked as 27th most dangerous out of 338 metro
areas.
Education and libraries
School system
The city's public school system,
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,
is the second largest in North Carolina and 20th largest in the
nation. About 132,000 students are taught in 161 separate
elementary, middle and high schools.
- For many years, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) has sought
to become the premier urban, integrated system in the nation. At
its inception, that vision was audacious, viewed by many as
completely unattainable. Years later, significant work remains. But
it is also true that a focus on equity and student success, coupled
with unwavering commitment and hard work by many people and
agencies, has brought us to excellence in many ways. The goal of
being the premier urban system no longer seems audacious. Instead,
over the past decade, many national experts and observers have
singled out CMS as one of the best school districts in America.
Some examples:
- In 2002, CMS was one of four school districts across the
country recognized by the Council of the Great City Schools for
improving academic achievement and narrowing the achievement gap.
CMS has also been recognized by the council as a school district
“Beating the Odds” by improving academic achievement for all
students despite high levels of poverty and other risk
factors.
- In 2004, CMS was a finalist for the national Broad Prize, which
recognizes the top urban school districts for improving academic
achievement and narrowing the achievement gap.
- In 2005, CMS became the first large school district in the
nation to receive a district-wide accreditation quality achievement
award from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
CMS was also honored by SACS as a high-quality school
district.
- In 2005, four CMS high schools were ranked among the nation’s
top 100 by Newsweek magazine, and 14 were ranked among the top 900
for providing students access to the most challenging academic
courses. CMS has more students enrolled in Advanced Placement
courses than do many states, and was the first district in North
Carolina to offer the prestigious International Baccalaureate
Diploma.Secular and religious private
schools are prominent, from well-established schools with large
campuses to others that are small and new. The relatively recent
phenomenon of charter schools,
independently operated public schools, are another education
option.
Colleges and universities

The west side of UNC Charlotte's main
campus
Charlotte
is home to a number of notable universities and colleges such as
Johnson & Wales
University, Queens
University of Charlotte, Johnson C.
Smith University
, Charlotte
School of Law, and University of North Carolina at
Charlotte
. Located in the nearby suburb of Davidson
is Davidson
College, ranked in the top 10 nationally among liberal arts
colleges according to U.S. News & World Report. UNC
Charlotte is the city's largest higher education institution. It is
located in
University City,
the northeastern portion of Charlotte, which is also home to
University Research Park, a 3,200 acre (13 km²) research and
corporate park. At 24,000 students and counting, UNC Charlotte is
the fastest-growing university in the state system and the fourth
largest.
Central
Piedmont Community College
is the city's junior college system and the largest
community college in North
Carolina and South Carolina. There are multiple campuses,
all in the Charlotte metro area.
Pfeiffer University has a
satellite campus in Charlotte and Wake Forest University
, with its main campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
, also operates a satellite campus of its Babock
Graduate School of Management in the SouthPark neighborhood.
Wake Forest is currently looking to move the campus to Uptown
Charlotte.
Libraries
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

Facade of the Main Library in
Charlotte
The
Public Library of Charlotte and
Mecklenburg County
serves the Charlotte area with a large collection
(over 1.5 million) of books, CDs and DVDs at 19 locations in the
city of Charlotte. There are also branches in the surrounding
townships of Matthews
, Mint Hill
, Huntersville
, Cornelius
and Davidson
. All locations provide free access to
Internet-enabled computers and WiFi and a library card from one
location is accepted at all 24 locations.
Although the Library's roots go back to the
Charlotte Literary
and Library Association, founded on January 16 1891, the
state-chartered
Carnegie Library
which opened on the current North Tryon site of the Main Library
was the first non-subscription library opened to members of the
public in the city of Charlotte. The philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie donated $25,000 dollars for
a library building on the condition that the city of Charlotte
donate a site, and $2500 per year for books and salaries, and that
the state grant a charter for the library. All conditions were met,
and the Charlotte Carnegie Library opened in a imposing classical
building on July 2, 1903.
The 1903 state charter also required that a library be opened for
the disenfranchised African-American population of Charlotte. This
was completed in 1905, with opening of the
Brevard Street
Library for Negroes, an independent libraryin Brooklyn, a
historically black area of the city of Charlotte, on the corner of
Brevard and East Second Street (now Martin Luther King Blvd.) The
Brevard Street Library was the first library for free blacks in the
state of North Carolina,some sources say in the southeast.This
library was closed in 1961 when the Brooklyn neighborhood in Second
Ward was redeveloped, but its role as a cultural center for
African-Americans in Charlotte is continued by the Beatties Ford
branch, the West branch and the Belmont Center branch of the
current library system, as well as by Charlotte's African-American
Cultural Center.
People and culture
Demographics
As of 2008,
census estimates show there are
687,456 people living within Charlotte's city limits, and 935,304
in Mecklenburg County. The
Combined Statistical Area of
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC had a population of 2,338,289.
Figures from the more comprehensive 2000 census show Charlotte's
population density to be
861.9/km² (2,232.4/sq mi). There are 230,434 housing units at
an average density of 951.2/sq mi (367.2/km²).
As of the 2005-2007
American
Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau,
White Americans made up 56.0% of Charlotte's
population; of which 50.3% were non-Hispanic
whites.
Blacks or
African Americans made up 33.7% of
Charlotte's population; of which 33.2% were non-Hispanic blacks.
Hispanics and Latinos
made up 10.6% of Charlotte's population.
American Indian made up
0.4% of the city's population; of which 0.3% were non-Hispanic.
Asian Americans made up 4.0% of the
city's population.
Pacific
Islander Americans made up 0.1% of the city's population.
Individuals from some other race made up 4.0% of the city's
population; of which 0.2% were non-Hispanic. Individuals from
two or more races made up 1.8%
of the city's population; of which 1.3% were non-Hispanic.
The median income for a household in the city is $48,670, and the
median income for a family is $59,452. Males have a median income
of $38,767 versus $29,218 for females. The
per capita income for the city is $29,825.
10.6% of the population and 7.8% of families are below the
poverty line. Out of the total population,
13.8% of those under the age of 18 and 9.7% of those 65 and older
are living below the poverty line.
Religion
The birthplace of
Billy
Graham, Charlotte is locally known as the "The City of
Churches."(Charlotte is the historic seat of
Southern
Presbyterianism), but the changing demographics of the city's
increasing population have brought scores of new denominations and
faiths to the city. The
Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association,
Wycliffe
Bible Translators'
JAARS Center, and
SIM Missions Organization make their homes in
Charlotte. In total, Charlotte proper has 700 places of worship.

The Billy Graham Library and Birth
Place in Charlotte, NC
The
Baptist Peace
Fellowship of North America is headquartered in Charlotte, and
both Reformed Theological
Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary
have campuses there; more recently, the Religious Studies academic departments of
Charlotte's local colleges and universities have also grown
considerably.
Charlotte's
Cathedral of Saint
Patrick is the seat of the bishop of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of
Charlotte. The largest Christian congregation within Charlotte
is that of St. Matthew Catholic Church.
The Traditional Latin Mass is offered by
the Society of St. Pius X at
St. Anthony Catholic Church in nearby Mount
Holly
. The Traditional Latin Mass is also offered
at St. Ann, Charlotte, a church under the jurisdiction of the Roman
Catholic Bishop of Charlotte.
The
African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) is headquartered in
Charlotte.
There are other religious institutions in the Charlotte area,
including two
Unitarian
Universalist Churches and the Eidolon Foundation.
The Salvation Army's headquarters for the North and South Carolina
Division is located in Charlotte, as well as many local corps
community centers and Boy's and Girl's Clubs.
Charlotte has the largest Jewish population in the Carolinas.
Shalom Park, in South Charlotte is the hub of the Jewish community,
featuring two synagogues
Temple Israel and
Beth El and a community
center.
Museums
Media
Sports
Transportation
Mass transit

LYNX Light Rail opened in November
2007
The
Charlotte Area Transit
System (CATS) is the agency responsible for operating mass
transit in Charlotte, and Mecklenburg County.CATS operates light
rail transit, historical trolleys, express shuttles, and bus
service serving Charlotte and its immediate suburbs. The LYNX light
rail system comprises a 9.6-mile line north-south line known as the
Blue Line. Bus ridership continues to grow (66% since 1998), but
more slowly than operations increases which have risen 170% in that
same time when adjusted for inflation. The 2030 Transit Corridor
System Plan looks to supplement established bus service with
light rail &
commuter rail lines as a part of a system
dubbed
LYNX.
Roads and highways
Charlotte's central location between the population centers of the
northeast and southeast has made it a transportation focal point
and primary distribution center, with two major interstate
highways,
I-85 and
I-77, intersecting near the city's center.
Charlotte's
beltway, designated
I-485 and simply called "485" by locals, is
partially completed but stalled for funding. The new projection has
it slated for completion by 2013. Upon completion, 485 will have a
total circumference of approximately 67 miles (108 km). Within
the city, the
I-277
loop freeway encircles Charlotte's downtown (usually referred to by
its two separate sections, the John Belk Freeway and the Brookshire
Freeway) while
Charlotte Route 4
links major roads in a loop between
I-277 and
I-485.
Independence Freeway, which carries
US 74 and links downtown with the Matthews
area is undergoing an expansion and widening in the eastern part of
the city.
Air
Charlotte/Douglas International
Airport
is the 9th busiest airport in the world, as
measured by traffic. It is served by many domestic airlines, as
well as international airlines Air Canada
and Lufthansa
, and is the largest hub of US
Airways. Nonstop flights are available to many
destinations across the United States, as well as flights to
Canada
, Central America, the Caribbean
, Europe, and Mexico
.
Intercity rail
Charlotte is served daily by three
Amtrak
routes.
- The
Crescent train connects Charlotte
with New
York
, Philadelphia
, Baltimore
, Washington
, Charlottesville
, and Greensboro
to the north, and Greenville
, Atlanta
, Birmingham
and New Orleans
to the south.
- The
Carolinian train connects
Charlotte with New
York
; Philadelphia
; Baltimore
; Washington, D.C.
; Richmond
; Raleigh
; Durham
; and Greensboro
.
- The
Piedmont train connects
Charlotte with Raleigh
, Durham
and Greensboro
.
The city
is currently planning a new centralized multimodial train station
called the Gateway Station
. It is expected to house the future LYNX
Purple Line, the new Greyhound bus station, and the Crescent line
that passes through Uptown Charlotte.
Sister cities
Charlotte's
sister cities are:
See also
References
- [1]
- Charlotte-Named-Best-Place-to-Live: Personal
Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
- [2]
- ____/fitness/walking/walking.goals/walking.and.your.health/0/1
- Mecklenburg County, North Carolina USGenWeb
Project
- The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Story: History Timeline:
Mecklenburg Declaration
- Blanchard Online: American Rarities (Retrieved
on 05-22-07)
- This entire scenario has been questioned over the ages since it
seemed to be a very odd timely coincidence that large gold
quantities and deposits were discovered at roughly the same time
these eastern Mecklenburg farmers wanted to split away and form
their own county leading many to believe it was a rigged and in the
end we know Mecklenburg lost half its county size including all the
gold and in the end only got to be a federal mint for this first
discovery in America of this extremely valuable ore as hundreds of
mines sprang up all the new county mining many mega millions that
in today's prorated values would total in the tens of billions of
more. Most of the poor farmers thus became very wealthy selling or
renting their farmland to the gold mine companies. This massive
gold rush lasted 50 years or until the 1849 discovery of gold in
northern California hills of San and Sacramento that created the
second great American gold rush boom town. In retrospect it seems
fairly obvious as many knew in those olden days that Mecklenburg
county as a whole was quite literally tricked and robbed of half
its land size and all of its gold plus the historical significance
of being the original place of gold discovery by a mere band of
uneducated farmers. Much of this version of events has been covered
up or lost in time. In those early days not long after the
Revolutionary War of 1776 it was not uncommon for secessionism to
prevail, but in hindsight the massive scheming trickery of these
rural farmers to prevail in Raleigh, literally stealing 50% of the
county away and all of the gold, is quite stunning and
breathtaking; but it has been forgotten over the more than 200
years. This highly engineered secessionist success could go down as
one of the greatest masterminded plots in US history and much
bigger than even today's Ponzi schemes. Also using the small boy
with the doorstop myth may go down as one of the all time greatest
ploys. The Charlotte Branch Mint
- American Lung Association,
Annual Air Quality Report Card (2007)
- Weather History
- "World Airline Directory." Flight International. March
22-28, 1995. 82. Retrieved on July 25, 2009.
- "World Airline Directory." Flight International. March
23, 1999. 68. Retrieved on September 30, 2009.
-
http://www.wfae.org/wfae/1_87_316.cfm?action=display&id=5577
-
http://www.city-data.com/city/Charlotte-North-Carolina.html
- http://www.statestats.com/cit07pop.htm
- http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime2008/citycrime2008.htm
-
http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/MetroCrime2008_Rank_Rev.pdf
- http://media.newsobserver.com/content/news/education/wake/story_graphics/20071012_wschools.jpg
Media.newsobserver.com
- CHLT - Colleges
-
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=ChangeGeoContext&geo_id=16000US3712000&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=Charlotte&_cityTown=Charlotte&_state=&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=
-
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=16000US3712000&-qr_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_DP3YR5&-ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-_sse=on
- Eidolon Foundation - Home
-
http://www.nwacharlotte.com/NWACharlotteColiseumSeatingChart.pdf
NWA Charlotte Coliseum
- http://www.charlotte.com/transit/story/242097.html
- News 14 | 24 Hour Local News | TOP STORIES
-
http://www.aci.aero/cda/aci/display/main/aci_content.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-54-57_9_2__
- Charlotte's Sister Cities
Further reading
- Hanchett, Thomas W. Sorting Out the New South City:
Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte,
1875-1975. 380 pages. University of North Carolina Press.
August 1, 1998. ISBN 0-8078-2376-7.
- Kratt, Mary Norton. Charlotte: Spirit of the New
South. 293 pages. John F. Blair, Publisher. September 1,
1992. ISBN 0-89587-095-9.
- Kratt, Mary Norton and Mary Manning Boyer. Remembering
Charlotte: Postcards from a New South City, 1905-1950. 176
pages. University of North Carolina Press. October 1, 2000. ISBN
0-8078-4871-9.
- Kratt, Mary Norton. New South Women: Twentieth Century
Women of Charlotte, North Carolina. Public Library of
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in Association with John F. Blair,
Publisher. August 1, 2001. ISBN 0-89587-250-1.
External links