|
Location Information:
Knoxville is the third-largest city
in the U.S. state of Tennessee,
behind Memphis and Nashville, and is
the county seat of Knox County. It
is also the largest city in East
Tennessee, and the second-largest
city (behind only Pittsburgh) within
the region of Appalachia. As of the
2000 United States Census, Knoxville
had a total population of 173,890,
the July 2007 estimated population
was 183,546. Knoxville is the
principal city of the Knoxville
Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Of
Tennessee's four major cities,
Knoxville is second oldest to
Nashville, which was founded seven
years earlier. After Tennessee's
admission into the Union in 1796,
Knoxville was the state's first
capital, in which capacity it served
until 1819, when the capital was
moved to Murfreesboro, prior to
Nashville receiving the designation.
The city was named in honor of the
first Secretary of War, Henry Knox.
Knoxville is the central city in the
Knoxville Metropolitan Area, an
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB)-designated metropolitan
statistical area (MSA) that covers
Knox, Anderson, Blount, Loudon, and
Union counties. MSAs consist of a
core urban center and the outlying
communities and rural areas with
which it maintains close economic
ties. They are not administrative
divisions, and should not be
confused with "metropolitan
government," or a consolidated
city-county government, which
Knoxville and Knox County lack.
The
Knoxville Metropolitan area includes
unincorporated communities such as
Halls, Powell, Karns, Corryton,
Concord, and Mascot, which are
located in Knox County outside of
Knoxville's city limits. Along with
Knoxville, major municipalities in
the Knoxville Metropolitan Area
include Alcoa, Maryville, Lenoir
City, Loudon, Farragut, Oak Ridge,
Clinton, and Maynardville. As of
2008, the population of the
Knoxville Metropolitan Area was
691,152. Knoxville's economy is
largely fueled by the regional
location of the main campus of the
University of Tennessee, the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory and other
Department of Energy facilities in
nearby Oak Ridge, the National
Transportation Research Center, and
the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Knoxville is home to a rich arts
community and has many festivals
throughout the year. Its
contributions to old-time, bluegrass
and country music are numerous, from
Flatt & Scruggs and Homer & Jethro
to the Everly Brothers. For the past
several years an award-winning
listener-funded radio station, WDVX,
has broadcast weekday lunchtime
concerts of bluegrass music,
old-time music and more from the
Knoxville Visitor's Center on Gay
Street, as well as streaming its
music programming to the world over
the Internet.
Knoxville New Year's Eve
celebrations
Local
Weather:
|
