Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama (2010 population 212,237, a 12.6 percent drop since 2000); the Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area had a 2009 population of more than 1.2 million. Birmingham was founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War as an industrial center. It was a leader in iron and steel production (the city was named after the industrial city of Birmingham, England) through the 1960s as well as a railroad hub for the American south. Today, the economy of Birmingham is much more diversified and ...