Facts About Mobile

1. Mobile was one of the first cities founded in Alabama, in 1702, around 117 years before Alabama became a state.
2. The European settlement of Mobile began with French colonists, who in 1702 constructed Fort Louis de la Louisiane, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of La Louisiane.
3. The city gained its name from the Mobile tribe that the French colonists encountered living in the area of Mobile Bay.
4. Mobile has four different nicknames: The Port City, The Azalea City, The City of Six Flags, and The Gateway to the Gulf.
5. Mobile is home to the second-largest River Deltas in the United States of America, the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta.
6. Mobile is known as the “Home of Mardi Gras,” the city hosted its inaugural celebration in 1703, a decade and a half before similar festivities in New Orleans.
7. Mobile has a total area of 180.07 square miles, with 139.48 square miles of land, and 40.59 square miles by water.
8. One of the Largest Wetland ecosystems in the world is situated in Mobile, known as America’s Amazon.
9. Mobile is home to the 9th largest port in the United States of America and the 12th Busiest.
10. Mobile sees around 5ft of rain annually, making it one of the rainiest cities in America.
11. In 2006, one of the first ever videos to go viral on YouTube was shot in Mobile, Alabama. It was the newscast that featured the sighting of the Crichton Leprechaun.
12. Mobile maintains sister city relationships with a diverse range of locations, including Ariel, West Bank; Bolinao, Philippines; Cockburn, Australia; Constanța, Romania; Gaeta, Italy; Havana, Cuba; Heze, China; Ichihara, Japan; iLembe, South Africa; Katowice, Poland; Košice, Slovakia; Pyeongtaek, South Korea; Tianjin, China; Veracruz, Mexico; and Worms, Germany.
13. Mobile is often referred to as the “Azalea City” due to its abundance of azalea blooms in the spring.
14. The USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park is a prominent attraction in Mobile. The park features the USS Alabama battleship, as well as submarines, aircraft, and other military artefacts, offering visitors an immersive experience in naval history.
15. Mobile serves the central Gulf Coast as a regional centre for medicine, with over 850 physicians and 175 dentists.
16. The city has hosts the Greater Gulf State Fair, which is held each year in October since 1955.
17. Mobile was founded in 1702 by the French as the first capital of Louisiana.
18. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area, a region of 430,197 residents composed of Mobile and Washington counties; it is the third-largest metropolitan area in the state.
19. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobile’s population increased to 204,689 residents, making it the second-most populous city in Alabama.
20. In 1963, Alabama schoolchildren were able to raise enough money to have the historic USS Alabama (BB-60) moved from Seattle, Washington to Mobile, Alabama.