Erie is a city located in the northwestern region of
Pennsylvania in the United States. The name of the city comes
from Lake Erie, on the southern shore of which the city is
located. With a population of 94,831 as of 2020, the city ranks
fourth in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and
Allentown. The Erie metropolitan area is made up of
approximately 280,000 residents and an additional 195,000
outlying suburban residents. The city is the county seat of Erie
County.
Erie is located near Cleveland (Ohio), Buffalo
(New York), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). The city's economy is
based on the engineering and chemical industries, although
healthcare, higher education and tourism are becoming an
increasingly important economic factor. Many people flock to
Presque Isle, a casino and racetrack named after the state park,
for a coastal getaway.
Erie is known as the Flagship City
due to being the home port of the flagship USS Niagara (1813)
Oliver Hazard Perry. The city is also known as the Pearl City
because of the multiple reflections of the lake. Erie won the
All-American City Award in 1972.
Before colonization by Europeans, the territory of Erie was inhabited
by the Iroquois tribes. French attempts to gain a foothold in the area
in the 1750s were unsuccessful due to the resistance of the Indians,
instigated by British agents. In 1760, the territory came under the
control of the British. Since the American Revolutionary War, ownership
of the area has been disputed by the states of Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, until finally on March 3,
1792, by decision of the federal government, the territory was sold to
Pennsylvania for 75 cents per acre (for a total of $ 151,640 25 cents).
The city was founded on April 18, 1795, but actually remained a
small village until the Anglo-American War of 1812, when the mass
construction of ships in Erie gave impetus to the further development of
the city.
During the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries,
Erie developed as a center for shipbuilding, metallurgy, fishing, and an
important railroad junction. At the end of the 19th century, a community
of Russian Old Believers arose in Erie, who moved to the United States
due to religious persecution in their homeland.
With the onset of
the crisis of traditional industries in the mid-20th century, Erie
experienced a significant decline in economic activity, which led to a
decrease in the population. The city is one of the centers of the Rust
Belt.
The city is located on the south shore of Lake Erie, in the far
northwest of Pennsylvania.
The city's climate is typical of the
Great Lakes region, with four distinct seasons: winter, spring, summer,
and autumn. Erie is located in the so-called. "snow belt", an average of
200 centimeters of snow falls per year (6th place in the USA). Winters
are cold, with heavy snowfalls and blizzards interspersed with thaws.
Due to the proximity of the lake, summers are not as hot and muggy as in
interior Pennsylvania.
According to the 2010 census, there were 101,786 people living in the
city, there were 40,913 households and 22,915 families. Due to economic
decline, the population of the city has decreased over the past 50 years
by approximately 40,000 people.
Whites make up about 65% of the
population of Erie, African Americans - 22%, Hispanics - 8%. Individuals
born outside the US make up 6% of the population. As a result of the
activities of the human rights organization Erie International
Institute, a significant number of refugees from Bosnia, Iraq, Somalia,
Kosovo, Liberia, Sudan and Eritrea settled in the city, which led to a
sharp increase in crime and an increase in the outflow of the middle
class to the suburbs.
At the beginning of the 20th century, many
Russian Old Believers lived in Erie, but by now only one Orthodox church
of the same faith in honor of the Nativity of Christ has remained from
the once large and prosperous community.
The median annual per
capita income is $14,972.
Having begun to develop as a shipbuilding center and an important
lake port that provided Pennsylvania with access to the Great Lakes
system, Erie later became a major railroad junction and a center of
metallurgy and heavy engineering. The decline of traditional industries
that began after World War II dealt a severe blow to the city's economy,
from which Erie has not recovered to this day.
A significant part
of the factories were stopped in the 1970s-1980s. Nevertheless, Erie is
still a major engineering center (in particular, more than half of the
diesel locomotives produced in the United States are assembled in Erie
at the General Electric plant).
Since the late 1980s, the city
began to develop the chemical industry, the production of plastics,
polyethylene and biofuels. The role of tourism and medicine is growing.
Erie is home to many music and dance groups that are known far beyond
the city and even the state.
Also in the city there are many
historical monuments related to the history of the colonists'
development of the Great Lakes region and the struggle of England, the
USA and France for this region.