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We recommend you visit the best tourist attractions such as Edmondston-Alston House, Fort Sumter, H.L. Hunley, Historic Downtown Charleston, Magnolia Plantation and it's Gardens, Middleton Place, and Drayton Hall. Charleston is a city in the counties of Berkeley and Charleston in the U.S. state of ... more »
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Aiken-Rhett House American Military Museum Boone Hall Plantation Charleston Museum Citadel Mall Cypress Gardens Drayton Hall Edmondston-Alston House Folly Beach Fort Moultrie Fort Sumter Gibbes Museum of Art H.L. Hunley Heyward-Washington House Isle of Palms Joseph Manigault House Magnolia Plantation and it's Gardens Middleton Place Nathaniel Russell House Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum South Carolina Aquarium Splash Zone The Citadel
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Charleston is a city in the counties of Berkeley and Charleston in the U.S. state of South Carolina; the city serves as the county seat of Charleston County. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location in 1680. Up until 1800, Charleston was the fifth largest city in North America, behind Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and Quebec City. It adopted its present name in 1783. Also known as The Holy City (due to the numerous steeples which dot the city's skyline), Charleston brims with the culturally unique, such as the joggling board.
As of 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of the city proper as 106,712; making it the 2nd most populous city in South Carolina behind Columbia. Current trends put Charleston as the fastest growing central city in South Carolina. The metropolitan area population of Charleston and North Charleston was estimated to be 594,899 in 2005 (includes entire populations of Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties). This ranks Charleston-North Charleston as the 2nd largest individual metro in the state (behind Columbia), falling to 3rd when compared to the significantly larger consolidated metropolitan areas of Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson and Columbia-Newberry. Nearly 80% of the Charleston metro population lives inside the city and its surrounding urbanized area (2000 pop.: 423,410).
The city of Charleston is located roughly at the mid-point of South Carolina's coastline, at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Charleston's name is derived from Charles Town, named after King Charles II of England.
America's most-published etiquette expert, Marjabelle Young Stewart, has recognized the city since 1995 as the "best-mannered" city in the U.S, a claim that lent credence by the fact that it has the only Livability Court in the country.
The old city is located on a peninsula at the point where, as Charlestonians say, "The Ashley and the Cooper Rivers come together to form the Atlantic Ocean." The entire peninsula is very low, some of it is landfill material, and as such, it frequently floods during heavy rains or unusually high tides. The city limits have expanded across the Ashley River from the peninsula and the Cooper River encompassing Daniel Island and the Cainhoy area. North Charleston blocks any expansion up the peninsula, and Mount Pleasant occupies the land directly east of the Cooper River.
The tidal rivers (Wando, Cooper, Stono, and Ashley) are evidence of a submergent or drowned coastline. In other words, the original rivers had a lower base line, but as the ocean rose or the land sank, the landform was changed. There is a submerged river delta off the mouth of the harbor, and the rivers are deep, affording a good location for a port. The rising of the ocean may be due to melting of glacial ice and the end of the ice age.
In recent decades, the urban area of the city as become elongated along I-26, while being fairly short from east to west. Today areas with a population density of over 1,000 people per square mile extends continuously from the tip of the peninsula out to the Summerville area.
Charleston is a notable tourist destination, with streets lined with grand live oaks draped with Spanish moss. Along the waterfront are many beautiful and historic pastel-colored homes. The city is also an important port, boasting the second largest container seaport on the East Coast and the fourth largest container seaport in North America. It is also the second most productive port in the World behind Hong Kong. Charleston is becoming a prime location for technology jobs and corporations. In the city's downtown area, the medical district is experiencing rapid growth of biotechnology and medical research coupled with substantial expansions of hospital facilities at the Medical University of South Carolina and Roper Hospital. It is also home to the very prestigious all-girls school named Ashley Hall, which was founded in 1909.
After Charles II of England was restored to the English throne, he granted the chartered Carolina territory to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietor, in 1663. It took seven years before the Lords could arrange for settlement, the first being that of Charles Town. The community was established by English settlers in 1670 across the Ashley River from the city's current location. It was soon chosen by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, one of the Lords Proprietor, to become a "great port towne", a destiny which the city fulfilled. By 1680, the settlement had grown, joined by others from England, Barbados, and Virginia, and relocated to its current peninsular location. The capital of the Carolina colony, Charleston was the center for further expansion and the southernmost point of English settlement during the late 1600s.
Revolution
As the relationship between the colonists and England deteriorated, Charleston became a focal point in the ensuing Revolution. In protest of the Tea Act of 1773, which embodied the concept of taxation without representation, Charlestonians confiscated tea and stored it in the Exchange and Custom House. Representatives from all over the colony came to the Exchange in 1774 to elect delegates to the Continental Congress, the group responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence; and South Carolina declared its independence from the crown on the steps of the Exchange.
Paint it Black, So They Won't Attack
Soon, the church steeples of Charleston, especially St. Michael's, became targets for British war ships causing rebel forces to paint the steeples black to blend with the night sky. A siege on the city in 1776 was successfully defended by William Moultrie from Sullivan's Island, but by 1780 Charleston came under British control for two and a half years. After the British retreated in December 1782, the city's name was officially changed to Charleston. By 1788, Carolinians were meeting at the Capitol building for the Constitutional Ratification Convention, and while there was support for the Federal Government, division arose over the location of the new State Capital.
Firestarter
A suspicious fire broke out in the Capitol building during the Convention, after which the delegates removed to the Exchange and decreed Columbia the new State Capital. By 1792, the Capitol had been rebuilt and became the Charleston County Courthouse. Upon its completion, the city possessed all the public buildings necessary to be transformed from a colonial capital to the center of the antebellum South. But the grandeur and number of buildings erected in the following century reflect the optimism, pride, and civic destiny that many Charlestonians felt for their community.
Slavery
On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina General Assembly made the state the first to ever secede from the Union. They asserted that one of the causes was the election to the presidency of a man "whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery".
The Charleston area is served by Charleston International Airport (IATA: CHS, ICAO: KCHS), which is the busiest passenger airport in the state of South Carolina.
Highways
Interstate 26 enters the city from the north-northwest, and connects the city to its airport, Interstate 95, and Columbia, South Carolina. It ends at the Septima Clark Expressway (U.S. Highway 17) downtown, which travels east-west. Interstate 526, or the Mark Clark Expressway, forms a half-circle around the city. U.S. Highway 52 is Meeting Street and its spur is East Bay Street, which becomes Morrison Drive after leaving the Eastside. This highway merges with King Street in the city's Neck area to form Rivers Avenue. U.S. Highway 78 is King Street in the downtown area, eventually merging with Meeting Street to form Rivers Avenue.
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Bridge
The Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge across the Cooper River opened on July 16, 2005, and is the largest cable-stayed bridge in the Americas. The bridge links Mount Pleasant with downtown Charleston, and has eight lanes and a 12-foot pedestrian walkway and a bike lane. It replaced the Silas N. Pearman Bridge (built in 1966) and the Grace Memorial Bridge (built in 1929). These were the largest continuous-truss type bridges in the world, and are scheduled to be demolished by the summer of 2006.
Buses
The city is also served by a bus system, operated by the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA).
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* The climate of Charleston is classified as temperate to subtropical, with four mild yet distinct seasons. Spring sees conditions warm up rapidly between March and May, with spring flowers blooming profusely. Summer is pleasantly warm, as the area's coastal situation helps to keep things cooler than inland. It is also the wettest season with almost half of the annual rainfall occurring during the summer months. Fall remains relatively warm through November. Winter is short and mild, and is characterized by rain and occasional snow flurries between December and February. The highest temperature recorded was 104.0°F (40.0°C), on June 2, 1985, and the lowest temperature recorded was 10.0°F (-12.2°C) on January 21, 1985.
Temperature - Yearly Average
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* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
