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Charleston Essential Info

Overview

Charleston, established in 1794, is the state capital of West Virginia. With a population of 53,421 (as of 2000), Charleston is the largest city in West Virginia. It's located at the junction of Interstates 77, 79, and 64, as well as the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers, the latter of which flows prominently through the city.

Description is available from Wikitravel under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. A list of contributors is available at the original article.

Basics

Best Time To Go

Mar-Oct

Current Time

Current Weather

61 °F

Partly Cloudy

Fun Facts

  1. Daniel Boone made his last survey of Charleston on September 8, 1798. He left the state in 1799.
  2. The first brick street in the world was laid in Charleston, West Virginia, on October 23, 1870, on Summers Street, between Kanawha and Virginia Streets.
  3. West Virginia’s capital was originally Wheeling. It was changed to Charleston in 1870, back to Wheeling in 1875, and back to Charleston in 1885.
  4. Actress and Alias star Jennifer Garner was born in Houston, moved with her family to Princeton, West Virginia, then Charleston as a child and graduating from city's George Washington High School.
  5. Former Major League Baseball player and current sportscaster John Kruk was born in Charleston.

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