Cleveland

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canadian border and approximately 60 mi (97 km) west of the Ohio–Pennsylvania state line. Cleveland is the most populous city on Lake Erie and second-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 372,624 at the 2020 census. The Cleveland metropolitan area, with an estimated 2.17 million residents, is the 34th-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Cleveland was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River as part of the Connecticut Western Reserve in modern-day Northeast Ohio by General Moses Cleaveland, after whom the city was named. The city's location on the river and the lake shore allowed it to grow into a major commercial and industrial metropolis by the late 19th century, attracting large numbers of immigrants and migrants. It was among the top 10 largest U.S. cities by population for much of the 20th century, a period that saw the development of the city's cultural institutions. By the 1960s, Cleveland's economy began to slow down as manufacturing declined and suburbanization occurred.

Cleveland is a port city, connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway. Its economy relies on diverse sectors that include higher education, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and biomedicals. The city serves as the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, as well as several major companies. The GDP for Greater Cleveland was US$138.3 billion in 2022. Combined with the Akron metropolitan area, the eight-county Cleveland–Akron metropolitan economy was $176 billion in 2022, the largest in Ohio.

Designated as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, Cleveland is home to several major cultural institutions, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Public Library, Playhouse Square, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as Case Western Reserve University. Known as "The Forest City" among many other nicknames, Cleveland serves as the center of the Cleveland Metroparks nature reserve system. The city's major league professional sports teams include the Cleveland Browns (football; NFL), the Cleveland Cavaliers (basketball; NBA), and the Cleveland Guardians (baseball; MLB).

Cleveland was established on July 22, 1796, by surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company when they laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve into townships and a capital city. They named the settlement "Cleaveland" after their leader, General Moses Cleaveland, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Cleaveland oversaw the New England–style design of the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning to Connecticut, never again to visit Ohio. The town's name was often shortened to "Cleveland", even by Cleaveland's original surveyors. A common myth emerged that the spelling was altered by The Cleveland Advertiser in order to fit the name on the newspaper's masthead.

The first permanent European settler in Cleveland was Lorenzo Carter, who arrived in May 1797 and built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. The emerging community served as an important supply post for the U.S. during the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. Locals adopted war hero Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry as a civic icon and erected a monument in his honor decades later. Largely through the efforts of the settlement's first lawyer, Alfred Kelley, the village of Cleveland was incorporated on December 23, 1814.

Despite the nearby swampy lowlands and harsh winters, the town's waterfront on Lake Erie proved advantageous, giving it access to Great Lakes trade. It grew rapidly after the 1832 completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal, which linked the Ohio River and the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean via the Erie Canal and Hudson River, and later via the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The town's growth continued with added railroad links. In 1836, Cleveland, then only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga, was officially incorporated as a city, and John W. Willey was elected its first mayor. That same year, it nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two communities. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854.

A center of abolitionist activity, Cleveland (code-named "Station Hope") was a major stop on the Underground Railroad for escaped African American slaves en route to Canada. The city also served as an important center for the Union during the American Civil War. The wartime contributions of those serving the Union from Cleveland and Cuyahoga County was honored with the July 1894 erection of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square.