Though Birmingham stands in the heart of the Deep South, it is not an Old South city.

At the same time a profound movement toward diversification was afoot. The huffing and puffing of Birminghams legendary iron and steel mills was gradually replaced by a work force of medical and engineering professionals. Today, Birmingham enjoys a balance of manufacturing and service-oriented jobs in a thriving work force.

Birmingham has been through a lot for a city so young. Unlike many older cities, Birmingham, now in its 140th year, is still in the stages of becoming.

Local historians divide the citys history into six epochs. The first, from the 1830s to the late 1860s, was a time when the area we now know as Birmingham was called Elyton and was just a small pioneer farm settlement. There was no town of any consequence---the great Alabama cities were Mobile, Selma and Montgomery. Though local residents fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, little damage was done to the area because, as one Union general wrote in his diary, the area deserved no attack as it was just a "poor, insignificant Southern village."

The second period, from about 1870 to 1880, was a time when railroads and land barons built a town that was named Birmingham, after Englands industrial giant. Formally organized in 1871, the new town became a commercial hub, with railroads crisscrossing throughout the community.