View of the Magic City

When I was younger, I thought Birmingham (Alabama) was a huge city. Compared to where I lived and the few places I had traveled as a child, it was. I had always wondered what the city looked like from the front porches of the houses atop Red Mountain. I got a chance to see on Sunday and the view was as lovely as the houses that run along the crest of the mountain.

Why the Magic City? According to the Red Mountain Park, the story is of "rare opportunity, remarkable risk, and back-breaking toil. It is the unique and compelling story of a Southern city that did not even exist during the Civil War -- but which grew as if by magic in the decades just after, exemplifying the transition of America's economic base from agrarian to industrial".

"In 2007, U.S. Steel made one of the largest corporate land donations in the nation’s history, selling over 1,100 acres at a tremendously discounted price to the Red Mountain Park and Recreational Area Commission.  That transaction made possible the creation of Red Mountain Park, the opening of which will make Birmingham the “greenest” city in America in terms of public park space."