Raleigh

Links of Interest

• Population: 347,729
• Major Highways: I-40
• Major Governing Body: Town Council
• Chamber Info: (919) 664-7000

Following the American Revolution, part of the former English colony of Carolina became the state of North Carolina, and a permanent capital city was necessary. In 1792, the city of Raleigh was established and named in honor of navigator and historian Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh, North Carolina has the distinction of being the only state capital to have been established on land specifically purchased by the state for its government seat. The city's founding fathers called Raleigh the “City of Oaks,” and dedicated themselves to maintaining the area's wooded tracts and grassy parks.

The seventeenth president of the United States -- Andrew Johnson -- was born in Raleigh in 1808. Some 60,000 Union troops were quartered in Raleigh when word came of President Lincoln's assassination in April 1865. Torch-carrying troops, bent on revenge, headed downtown. General John Alexander Logan stopped the troops at gunpoint, thus saving Raleigh's downtown. Raleigh remained a rather sleepy state capital until 1959 when an initiative by the State of North Carolina carved out the now world-renowned Research Triangle Park just west of the city. This nucleus of research has transformed the Raleigh, North Carolina area into one of the fastest growing and most desirable cities to call home in America

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