Charlotte

Modern development meets Revolutionary history in Charlotte, the largest city in the state of North Carolina and the 20th largest in the United States.

Charlotte's earliest settlers were Presbyterians of Scottish-Irish descent, and they were fiercely independent. The city was known as a hotbed of separatism well prior to the American Revolution, culminating in the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (signed a year prior to the American equivalent). The town square was the site of a minor skirmish with Cornwallis' army, which led to the city's characterization as a "hornet's nest" of rebellion, hence the name of the Charlotte Hornets, the city’s former National Basketball Association team, now based in New Orleans.

During the 1980s, Charlotte grew into a major U.S. financial center. Bank of America and Wachovia are headquartered here, along with other regional banking and financial services companies, located primarily in the uptown financial district. Charlotte is also a major center in the U.S. motor sports industry, with NASCAR having multiple offices in and around the city, which will be the home of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, to be completed in 2009.

As the city grows, so too does its tourism industry. In addition to a boom in hotels, restaurants and shops over the past decade, Charlotte is home to the Discovery Center, one of the best science museums in the country, and the U.S. National Whitewater Center, opened in 2006. It is the world’s only multi-channel re-circulating whitewater river and an official U.S. Olympic Training Site. The 307-acre public adventure-sport facility includes whitewater rafting and kayaking, mountain bike and hiking trails, climbing center and a ropes course along with locker room facilities—all overlooking the home rapids of the U.S. National Slalom Canoe/Kayak Team.

Partial text courtesy of Wikipedia  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte%2C_nc] and Wikitravel [http://wikitravel.org/en/Charlotte].