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Louisville
A river city at the Falls of the Ohio
Louisville grew at the only major obstacle on the entire Ohio River — the Falls of the Ohio, a stretch of rapids where the river drops over a limestone shelf. Boats had to stop and portage around the falls, and the town that grew up at the break, founded in 1778, prospered by handling the transferred cargo. The falls made the city, fixing a trade and shipping center on the river that forms Kentucky's northern border.
The Ohio River curves past downtown, with Indiana on the far bank, and the surrounding country is the gently rolling farmland of north-central Kentucky at the edge of the Bluegrass region. The largest city in the state, Louisville is known for the Kentucky Derby, bourbon, and its river-port heritage, anchoring a metro that spans the Ohio into Indiana.