Minneapolis, the state’s most populous city, spreads out on a relatively level plain. Within its limits are 22 lakes and lagoons and some 170 parks. The city’s riverfront is part of Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (1988). Lake Minnetonka, 12 miles (19 km) long and with 110 miles (177 km) of irregular shoreline, is in the western suburban area; its outlet, Minnehaha Creek, flows eastward and then drops 53 feet (16 metres) over an escarpment at Minnehaha Falls. The climate is cool temperate, with long, cold winters and warm summers. Area city, 58 square miles (150 square km). Pop. (2000) city, 382,618; Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MSAMetro Area, 2,968,806; (2005 est.) city, 372,811
Sioux and Ojibwa peoples were early inhabitants of the region. The Franciscan missionary Louis Hennepin visited the area in 1680 and named St. Anthony Falls, which later provided power for grinding flour for Fort Snelling (1819; now a state park), a military outpost at the confluence of the rivers. The village of St. Anthony developed on the east side of the falls. Settlers had begun occupying U.S. military-reservation land on the west side of the river in 1849; in 1855 the government gave these illegal squatters patent rights, and the village of Minneapolis was incorporated in 1856. Its name was derived from the Sioux word minne, meaning “water,” and the Greek polis, for “city.” St. Anthony was chartered as a city in 1860 and Minneapolis in 1867; the two cities merged as Minneapolis in 1872.
The falls were an important factor in the city’s early economic growth as a lumber and flour-milling centre. By 1870 Minneapolis was the country’s top producer of flour. The lumber business reached its height in the late 19th century, when logs from the forests of the north jammed the river. As wheat growing in the northwest increased, flour milling superseded lumbering as the leading industry (the last lumber mill closed in 1919). Railroads, which multiplied connections with Chicago and the south and with the east through Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, were completed in the late 19th century. After World War I the availability of lower freight charges by means of Great Lakes shipping shifted much of the export flour trade to Buffalo, New York, though Minneapolis remained the headquarters for some large milling companies. In the second half of the 20th century, the city remained one of the nation’s primary wheat markets; the Minneapolis Grain Exchange was still one of the largest cash exchange markets in the world.
The population of Minneapolis grew steadily from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, reaching a peak of 521,718 in 1950. The number of people subsequently began declining until about 1990, when the city population basically stabilized. At the same time, the population of the Twin Cities metropolitan area increased rapidly, fueled by the movement of thousands from city to suburbs. Throughout the city’s history the great majority of its residents have been of European (notably Scandinavian) ancestry, but that proportion has been decreasing, and the number of African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics has been growing; blacks now constitute roughly one-fifth of the population.
Minneapolis garnered national and international attention on Aug. 1, 2007, when the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed unexpectedly during rush hour, causing 13 fatalities and nearly 150 injuries. A year later the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the bridge had collapsed because of a design flaw. The incident sparked nationwide concern for the safety of the country’s infrastructure.
Minneapolis is now a commercial, transportation, distribution, health care, financial, and industrial centre. Highly diversified manufactures include metal products, electronics, precision instruments, medical devices, plastics, machinery, computers and computer equipment, chemicals, automotive parts, and agricultural products. Publishing, milling, food processing, graphic arts, insurance, and high-technology industries are also important. The Twin Cities region is a rail and trucking centre and includes a major international airport in the southeastern corner of Minneapolis. The Skyway, a system of enclosed, climate-controlled pedestrian walkways located on the second-floor level, connects various points in the downtown area. A 12-mile (19-km) light-rail transit line, connecting downtown Minneapolis with the airport and the Mall of America in suburban Bloomington, opened in 2004.
Minneapolis has the main portion of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (1851), campus; other institutions of higher education include Augsburg College (Lutheran; 1869), Dunwoody College of Technology (1914), Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1886), a campus of Metropolitan State University (1971), and North Central University (Pentecostal; 1930). Of historical and cultural interest are the Guthrie Theater (home of the state repertory theatre), the Minnesota Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Swedish Institute, the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Public Library’s planetarium, the Hennepin History Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Bell Museum of Natural History. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, an indoor stadium featuring a roof held up by air pressure, is home to Minnesota’s professional baseball (Twins) and gridiron football (Vikings) teams; the men’s (Timberwolves) and women’s (Lynx) professional basketball teams play in the Target Center.