Cleveland

Situated approximately midway between Chicago and New York, within easy reach of raw materials and markets, Cleveland extends 23 km (14 mi) along the shore of Lake Erie, and is a major trading, manufacturing, and cultural centre of the industrial Midwest. It is the centre of the largest metropolitan area in Ohio and a leading Great Lakes-St Lawrence Seaway port. The manufacture of steel and steel products is basic to Cleveland's heavy industry, and the city's factories lead nationally in the manufacture of machine tools, car and aircraft parts, hardware, trucks, electronic equipment, and appliances. It is also a major centre of printing, publishing, and the legal profession. Iron ore, coal, grain, and livestock are the chief cargoes handled at Cleveland's harbour; manufactured goods are exported.

The Public Square in Cleveland is an area of civic monuments surrounded by the city's tallest buildings, including the 228-m (948-ft) Society Center. Professional sports teams include the Indians baseball team and the Cleveland Browns American football team. Among the city's numerous institutions of higher education are Case Western Reserve University (1826), John Carroll University (1886), Notre Dame College (1922), Cleveland Institute of Art (1882), Cleveland State University (1964), and the Cleveland Institute of Music (1920).

In the 18th century, trading posts were established in the lower Cuyahoga valley by Native Americans and the French. In 1796 the site was surveyed for the Connecticut Land Company by Moses Cleaveland, after whom the resulting settlement was named (the a was dropped in 1832 to fit a newspaper masthead). With the completion of the Ohio Canal in 1832, linking Cleveland with the Ohio River, the community became a key link in trade between the Ohio Valley and eastern markets served by the Erie Canal.

The foundation for industrial development was laid in the 1850s, with improved access to iron ore and coal—the former shipped via canal from the Lake Superior region, the latter brought by rail from Kentucky and West Virginia. During the American Civil War, a number of industries were established in the city, contributing considerably to its growth; among these were oil refining (begun in 1862 by John D. Rockefeller, Sr.) and the manufacture of iron and clothing. Dramatic growth accompanied its continued industrialization, with the city's population soaring from 17,034 to 560,663 between 1850 and 1910.

Beginning during World War I and especially World War II, the city's black population grew dramatically; blacks made up 46.6 per cent of the city's total population in 1990. Bleak economic opportunities, racial discrimination, and ghetto conditions led to neighbourhood violence and rioting, mainly in the Hough area in 1966. The following year Carl B. Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, the first black to hold that office in a city of comparable size. Population (1980) 573,822; (1990) 505,616.