History of Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in southwestern Ohio, in the United States of America, that lies on the Ohio River. It is the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio|Hamilton County.{{GR|6}} Cincinnati is Ohio's third largest city, behind Columbus, Ohio|Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland. However, Greater Cincinnati stands as the second largest metro region in Ohio, just behind Cleveland. According to official census estimates, the Greater Cincinnati region's population has grown 4.7 percent since 2000 and is on pace to surpass the Cleveland Metropolitan area in population sometime in 2007.[http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20070405/NEWS01/704050397/]
As of 2007, Cincinnati's population was 368,868, making it the third largest city in Ohio and the 56th largest in the United States. It has a much larger metropolitan area, commonly called "Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area|Greater Cincinnati", which covers parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. As of July 1, 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio|Middletown-Wilmington, Ohio|Wilmington Combined Statistical Area has a population of 2,113,011 (making it the 20th largest in the country) and is growing at a rate of about one percent annually. Cincinnati is also home to major-league sports, including the Cincinnati Reds (America's first professional baseball team), the Cincinnati Bengals (a National Football League team), the Cincinnati Masters (the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city), as well as several minor league teams, including the Cincinnati Kings (a professional soccer team), the Cincinnati Cyclones (a professional hockey team), and the Cincinnati Jungle Kats (an arena football team).
It is considered to have been the first major American "boomtown", rapidly expanding in the heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the coastal metropolis in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city, lacking the heavy European influence that was present on the east coast. However, by the end of the century, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably, and the city was surpassed in population by many other inland cities.
Cincinnati is also known for the distinction of having the largest collection of nineteenth-century Italianate architecture in the country [http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=cincinnati@50&cur_section=fea&feature=30005], primarily concentrated in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, just north of downtown. Over-the-Rhine is the largest National Historic District in the United States.
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