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Cleveland was discovered by General Moses Cleaveland in 1796 when he was sent out to map and survey what was then the Connecticut Western Reserve. When he came upon the land where Cleveland would eventually be settled, Cleaveland knew that the area had an ideal location on Lake Erie and soon made plans to develop the area as the capital of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The new settlement was quickly named after Cleaveland and its modern spelling is said to have been adopted when The Cleveland Advertiser dropped the first “a” in order to fit the newspaper’s masthead.

 Although Cleveland incorporated as a village in 1814, it did not see significant growth until 1832 when the Ohio and Erie Canal was completed. The canal connected the Ohio River to the Great Lakes making Cleveland a major port with access to both the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River.

 With its strategic proximity to major waterways, Cleveland grew as a manufacturing and distribution center. Later, railroads were built through Cleveland that only enhanced the city’s reputation as an industrial powerhouse. As an industrial city, Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River were quickly polluted. In fact, the pollution of the Cuyahoga River was so severe that a fire burned on the river’s surface due to tremendous amounts of industrial waste in 1969.

 Things got worse for Cleveland before they got better. The 1970s saw the city default on its financial obligations making it the first major city in the U.S. to do so since the Great Depression. The city soon gained a reputation as “The Mistake on the Lake.” Since then, Cleveland has worked hard to overcome this designation by cleaning up the waste and regaining the public’s faith in the city’s fiduciary integrity.

 Today, Cleveland is still a manufacturing center, but has diversified into a service-based economy focusing on finance, insurance and healthcare. The city has truly renewed itself and its reputation to be considered one of the most livable cities in the U.S. by The Economist.