A Brief History of Birmingham, AL

Real estate promoters who sold lots near the planned crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North railroads founded Birmingham on June 1, 1871. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store Yeilding's, run by the Yeilding family. The site of the railroad crossing was notable for the nearby deposits of iron ore, coal and limestone (the three principal raw materials used to make steel). Birmingham is the only place in the world where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in such a close proximity. From the start, the new city was planned as a great center of industry. The founders borrowed the name of Birmingham, England's principal industrial city, to advertise the point. Birmingham started off slow, but after the outbreak of cholera and a Wall Street crash in 1873, things began to pick up.