| Birmingham, Alabama Birdseye Map | |
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| Date: | 1885 |
| Author: | Henry Wellge |
| Dwnld: | Full Size (8.5mb) |
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| See our Prints Page for more details | |
Founded as an industrial center, and named after the similarly-industrial Birmingham, England, the town of Birmingham, [google map] Alabama was drawn by prolific birdseye mapmaker Henry Wellge in 1885.
At the time of this image's creation, Birmingham was less than 15 years old and already boasted around 20,000 people. After peaking with the 1960 census at 340,000, Birmingham began to sink into the demographic slump experienced by so many other U.S. cities. It's current population figures put it at around 210,000 [2010].
For more information about this period in Birmingham's history, visit the Birmingham Historical Society.
Unrelated: Randy Newman's song ”Birmingham” is one of the most fantastic songs ever written about an American city, and if you think different you're mislead. If the Birmingham Tourism Board isn't using the hell out of that song, then, well, I think they need to go a different direction.
