23 Facts About Fort Wayne

1. Fort Wayne is a center for the US defense industry, employing thousands of residents.

2. Fort Wayne played host to the first professional baseball game ever played on May 4, 1871.

3. Fort Wayne is sometimes referred to as the "City of Churches", an unofficial moniker dating to the late-19th century when the city was the regional hub of Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal faiths.

4. The City of Fort Wayne offers full curbside recycling and solid waste collection services for residents, presently contracted through Republic Services.

5. Fort Wayne is served by ten medical centers belonging to one of two regional healthcare providers in the city: Parkview Health System and Lutheran Health Network.

6. Fort Wayne is headquarters and main operations hub of Norfolk Southern's Triple Crown Services subsidiary, the largest truckload shipper in the US.

7. Fort Wayne is served by a single interstate along with an auxiliary beltway (Interstate 469).

8. Fort Wayne includes two municipal airports, both managed by the Fort Wayne–Allen County Airport Authority.

9. Fort Wayne is served by two primary newspapers, the Journal Gazette and Pulitzer Prize-winning News-Sentinel.

10. Fort Wayne hosts institutions affiliated with both of Indiana's major state university systems.

11. In 2016, Fort Wayne was designated a Bronze Level bicycle friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.

12. Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation maintains 86 public parks totaling 2,805 acres.

13. Fort Wayne is credited as the birthplace of the NBA, as Pistons' coach Carl Bennett brokered the merger of the BAA and the NBL in 1948 from his Alexander Street home.

14. On June 2, 1883, Fort Wayne hosted the Quincy Professionals for one of the first lighted evening baseball games ever recorded.

15. Fort Wayne joined several other cities reeling economically within the Rust Belt.

16. Fort Wayne is sometimes referred to as the "City of Churches", an unofficial moniker dating to the late-19th century when the city was the regional hub of Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal faiths.

17. Fort Wayne has the largest Burmese American population in the US, estimated at 6,000.

18. Fort Wayne was hit by the Great Depression beginning in 1929, with most factories cutting their workforce.

19. Fort Wayne lies in the humid continental climate zone, experiencing four distinct seasons.

20. Fort Wayne was an All-America City Award recipient in 1982, 1998, and 2009.

21. Fort Wayne was built in 1794 by the United States Army under the direction of American Revolutionary War general Anthony Wayne, the last in a series of forts built near the Miami village of Kekionga.

22. Fort Wayne is the cultural and economic center of northeastern Indiana.

23. Fort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the seat of Allen County, United States.