Huntsville

Huntsville is a city in Madison County in the U.S. state of Alabama, and the county seat of Madison County. Huntsville is the largest city in northern Alabama in a region of a half-million people, with the city proper having 168,132 residents (2006 estimate). Started with a single cabin in 1805, the city was incorporated six years later as Twickenham. However, it was renamed "Huntsville" (after first settler John Hunt) during the War of 1812, and has grown across nearby hills and along the Tennessee River, adding textile mills, then munitions factories, to become a major city, hosting the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal. Huntsville is the largest core city of the four-county large Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the population of Huntsville was 164,570. As of 2006 Census estimates the Huntsville Metropolitan Area had a population of 368,661 with the city proper having 168,132 residents. Huntsville, and its cross-river... full article at wikipedia