Birmingham
The Magic City
General Information
Other Name: Pittsburgh of the South, District: Alabama, State: South, United States of America
Area: 151.9 square miles
Languages Spoken: English
Long Distance Code: -
Importance: -
Best Time to Visit: - to - and -
International Access: -Description
Birmingham is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alabama and is the county seat of Jefferson County. It also includes part of Shelby County.Birmingham is the cultural and entertainment capital of Alabama with its numerous art galleries in the area and home to Birmingham Museum of Art, the largest art museum in the state. Birmingham is also home to the state`s major ballet, opera, and symphony orchestra companies such the Alabama Ballet, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Ballet, Birmingham Concert Chorale, Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and Opera Birmingham.Location
-Climate
Humid sub tropical
Alabama''s sons (and a few daughters) who made their marks in sports history are honored here. Boxing great Joe Louis, baseball hero Willie Mays, track star Jessie Owens and Crimson Tide coach Paul Bear Bryant are just a few of those featured. Sports memorabilia and vintage equipment are also on display. The gleaming modern Hall of Fame structure is adjacent to the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center.
The city''s only antebellum mansion offers tours featuring its collection of 19th-century furniture and decorative arts. The building is a grand example of Greek revival architecture prominent in the 1840s. A tearoom is available, and the gardens provide a beautiful site for weddings and other events.
Located at 16th Street North across the street from Kelly Ingram Park and the 16th Street Baptist Church, this fascinating gallery tells the story of Birmingham''s tragic and triumphant contributions to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ''60s. This state-of-the-art facility utilizes multimedia presentations, photographs and other artifacts to document the African-American struggle for racial equality and to relate this history to other struggles for human rights worldwide.
Join the 250,000 people who turn out for one of the Southeast''s largest annual music festivals. With 150 acts and 10 stages, this popular event features a wide variety of musical styles from jazz and rock to folk, country and gospel. City Stages also includes some free events, such as the Spoken Word Festival, performance art and dance productions. Downtown essentially shuts down during City Stages weekend.
A hands-on science museum, McWane Center allows visitors to test physics principles, explore aquatic habitats, simulate space exploration and more. Interactive exhibits allow you to make your own animated movie, build a roller coaster or ride a bicycle along a wire 30 feet above the ground! There is also the giant dome-screened IMAX Theater , a gift shop and a food court with items such as fast food, lasagna, wrap sandwiches, popcorn, coffee and fruit.
This outstanding nature center situated on the site of an iron ore mine was closed in the 1950s and reopened as a nature refuge in the 1970s. Visitors to this mid-city refuge can explore the former quarries and ore crushers, hike 10 miles of trails, watch hawks soar, study rock formations and enjoy the wildflowers and wildlife.
Built in 1910 for in the city''s then-professional baseball team, the Coal Barons, Rickwood Field is being restored to look the way it did in its 1940s heyday, all the way down to the hand-operated scoreboard. Wearing old-time uniforms, the Birmingham Barons play the annual Rickwood Classic. Baseball greats who played at Rickwood include Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb and Birmingham''s own Burleigh Grimes.
Explore eight decades of winged history with such historic aircraft as Huff Daland crop duster, the first Delta Airlines plane, a 1910 Curtis Pusher and an F4 jet fighter. See artifacts from the Red Baron, Tuskegee Airmen (World War II black fighter pilots), notable female pilots and other aviation pioneers. The museum is conveniently located near the Birmingham International Airport.
Since 1907, this historic building''s ovens have been roasting thousands of pounds of peanuts for sports stadiums across the Southeast, grocery stores and hungry passersby. Try a bag of hot, freshly roasted goober peas. You can purchase 30-pound boxes or even a whole truckload.
This holiday tradition allows you to marvel at more than 500,000 shining lights on display at the Birmingham Zoo. Walk through the zoo grounds or ride the ZooLight Express Train. Nightly musical entertainment is also a draw. Call for a schedule of crafts, animal demonstrations, musical groups and games.