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Shreveport

Shreveport (pronounced /ˈʃriːvpɔrt/) is the third largest city in Louisiana and the first major city in the state. It is the principal city of the third largest metropolitan area in Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States.

It is the seat of Caddo Parish and extends along the Red River (most notably at Wright Island, the Charles and Marie Hamel Memorial Park, and Bagley Island) into neighboring Bossier Parish. Bossier City is separated from Shreveport by the Red River. The population was 218,021 at the 2010 census, and the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Area population exceeds 535,000. The Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area ranks 117th in the United States, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a corporation established to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, an overland route into the newly independent Republic of Texas and, prior to that time, into Mexico.

Shreveport is the commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex, the area where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. Many people in the community refer to the two cities of Shreveport and Bossier City as "Shreveport-Bossier."