Wilmington Delaware History & Facts

Wilmington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine River, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister during the reign of George II of Great Britain.

As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 70,898. The Wilmington Metropolitan Division, comprising New Castle County, Delaware, Cecil County, Maryland and Salem County, New Jersey, had an estimated 2016 population of 719,887. The Delaware Valley metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey, had a 2016 population of 6,070,500, and a combined statistical area of 7,179,357.

Wilmington is built on the site of Fort Christina and the settlement Kristinehamn, the first Swedish settlement in North America. The modern city also encompasses other Swedish settlements, such as Timmerön / Timber Island (along Brandywine Creek), Sidoland (South Wellington), Strandviken (along the Delaware River near Simonds Garden) and Översidolandet (along the Christina River, near Woodcrest and Ashley Heights).

The area now known as Wilmington was settled by the Lenape (or Delaware Indian) band led by Sachem (Chief) Mattahorn just before Henry Hudson sailed up the Len-api Hanna ("People Like Me River", present Delaware River) in 1609. The area was called "Maax-waas Unk" or "Bear Place" after the Maax-waas Hanna (Bear River) that flowed by (present Christina River). It was called the Bear River because it flowed west to the "Bear People", who are now known as the People of Conestoga or the Susquehannocks.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.0 square miles (44 km2), of which 10.9 square miles (28 km2) is land and 6.2 square miles (16 km2) is water. The total area is 36.25% water.

The city sits at the confluence of the Christina and Delaware rivers, approximately 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Philadelphia. Wilmington Train Station, one of the southernmost stops on Philadelphia's SEPTA rail transportation system, is also served by Northeast Corridor Amtrak passenger trains. Wilmington is served by I-95 and I-495 within city limits. In addition, the twin-span Delaware Memorial Bridge, a few miles south of the city, provides direct highway access between Delaware and New Jersey, carrying the I-295 eastern bypass route around Wilmington and Philadelphia, as well as US 40, which continues eastward to Atlantic City, New Jersey.

These transportation links and geographic proximity give Wilmington some of the characteristics of a satellite city to Philadelphia, but Wilmington's long history as Delaware's principal city, its urban core, and its independent value as a business destination makes it more properly considered a small but independent city in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

Famous Peoples From Wilmington Delaware

Elisabeth Judson Shue

(born October 6, 1963) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films The Karate Kid (1984), Adventures in Babysitting (1987), Cocktail (1988), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Soapdish (1991), The Saint (1997), Hollow Man (2000), Piranha 3D (2010), Battle of the Sexes (2017), and Death Wish (2018). She was nominated for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in the film Leaving Las Vegas (1995).

On television, she has starred as Julie Finlay in the CBS procedural forensics crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from 2012 to 2015, Madelyn Stillwell and Doppelganger in the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys and The Boys Presents: Diabolical, and reprised her The Karate Kid role in the third season of Cobra Kai. She currently stars as "Anne" in the Netflix dramedy series On the Verge.

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