Birmingham

Alabama's largest city is also one of its youngest. In little more than 100 years Birmingham has transformed itself from empty farmland to steel boomtown to major commercial and service center.

The Jones Valley's rare abundance of the essential ingredients for steel production - iron ore, coal and limestone - was known as early as the 1850s, contributing to the settlement's early growth. Small furnaces were erected during the Civil War to produce munitions for the Confederate Army.

However, the lack of rail lines to move iron and steel products thwarted any major industrial effort. In 1871, when two railroad lines converged, the plans for Birmingham were drawn, and capitalists from around the state poured in to exploit the new city's resources. Within decades, Birmingham was established as a major manufacturing center.

This initial vigor paled after World War II. Cheaper and higher quality iron ore imported from abroad, combined with diminished steel orders to close several factories, resulting in widespread unemployment.

In the 1960s racial unrest plagued the city. Senseless acts of violence shocked and saddened both blacks and whites. Birmingham residents soon rallied around the common goal of peaceful resolution and revitalization began.

Vulcan Statue, on US 31 at the summit of Red Mountain, is one of the world's largest iron figures. It was created for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. "Vulcan," named for the Roman god of fire and the inventor of metalwork, was cast in Birmingham as a tribute to the iron industry.