Founded in 1871 as a steel-making center, Birmingham exploded almost overnight, quickly growing into Alabama's largest city and earning the nickname "The Magic City." There are many interesting thing to do when you visiting Birmingham, Alabama, a bustling hub of culture and heritage that's famous for its beautiful golf courses, year-round calendar of entertainment, fabulous shopping and world-class dining. And there are more than 15 tourist attraction that we can visited, such as; Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, The McWane Science Center, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, The Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex, Sloss Furnaces, Oak Mountain State Park, The Alabama Theatre, and many more. Before we informs the tourist attraction in Birmingham, Alabama, let we informs how the city itself.
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. The city's population was 212,237 according to the 2010 United States Census.[2] The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabama's population. Birmingham occupies Jones Valley, flanked by long parallel mountain ridges (the tailing ends of the Appalachian foothills – see Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians) running from north-east to south-west. The valley is drained by small creeks (Village Creek, Valley Creek) which flow into the Black Warrior River. The valley was bisected by the principal railroad corridor, along which most of the early manufacturing operations began. Red Mountain lies immediately south of downtown. Many of Birmingham's television and radio broadcast towers are lined up along this prominent ridge. The "Over the Mountain" area, including Shades Valley, Shades Mountain and beyond, was largely shielded from the industrial smoke and rough streets of the industrial city. This is the setting for Birmingham's more affluent suburbs of Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, and Hoover. South of Shades Valley is the Cahaba River basin, one of the most diverse river ecosystems in the United States.
1. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a large interpretive museum and research center in Birmingham, Alabama that depicts the struggles of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The Institute is located in the Civil Rights District, which includes the historic 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, Fourth Avenue Business District, and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame located in the Carver Theatre. The Institute opened in November 1992, and had more than 25,000 visitors during its first week. The Institute showcases a walking journey through the "living institution", which displays the lessons of the past as a positive way to chart new directions for the future. The permanent exhibitions are a self-directed journey through Birmingham's contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and human rights struggles. Multimedia exhibitions focus on the history of African-American life and the struggle for civil rights. The Oral History Project, one of the museum's multimedia exhibits, documents Birmingham's role in the Civil Rights Movement through the voices of movement participants. The museum is an affiliate in the Smithsonian Affiliations program. Through this program the museum can acquire long-term loans and is currently hosting the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service exhibition "Let Your Motto Be resistance."
2. The McWane Science Center
The McWane Science Center (formerly known as the McWane Center) is a science museum and research archive located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama (United States). The state-of-the-art science center, aquarium and 280-seat IMAX Dome Theater is housed in the historic and refurbished Loveman's department store building. It opened to the public on July 11, 1998. Inside are more than 9,000 square feet (800 m2) of interactive exhibits, including the Challenger Learning Center of Alabama, created in memory of the Space Shuttle Challenger Flight 51-L crew. The World of Water exhibit showcases more than 50 species of marine and freshwater aquatic life. The Alabama Collections Center is the home for more than 500,000 artifacts from the former Red Mountain Museum. The center houses precious minerals, fossils and Native American artifacts. Highlights in the collection include the world's fourth-largest collection of mosasaurs; the Appalachiosaurus (similar to Tyrannosaurus); and the state fossil of Alabama, the Basilosaurus cetoides (an 80-foot (24 m) fossil whale). The McWane Science Center is named after the McWane family and McWane, Inc. both of which helped fund the center.
3. The Birmingham Museum of Art
Founded in 1951, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama today has one of the finest collections in the Southeast US, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts representing a numerous diverse cultures, including Asian, European, American, African, Pre-Columbian, and Native American. Among other highlights, the Museum’s collection of Asian art is considered the finest and most comprehensive in the Southeast, and its Vietnamese ceramics one of the finest in the U.S. The Museum also is home to a remarkable Kress Collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from the late 13th century to c.1750, and the 18th-century European decorative arts include superior examples of English ceramics and French furniture. The Birmingham Museum of Art is owned by the City of Birmingham and encompasses 3.9 acres (16,000 m2) in the heart of the city’s cultural district. Erected in 1959, the present building was designed by architects Warren, Knight and Davis, and a major renovation and expansion by Edward Larrabee Barnes of New York was completed in 1993. The facility encompasses 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2), including an outdoor sculpture garden.
4. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama which is frequented predominately by African Americans. In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights Movement. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church engaged in a $3 million restoration of the building in the first decade of the 21st century. Persistent water damage problems and exterior brick facing failure were addressed. The first phase of restoration, mainly below-grade waterproofing, was completed in 2007, followed by work on the exterior masonry. Additional funds were sought to handle unexpected problems uncovered during the work and to provide for ongoing physical maintenance.
5. The Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex
The Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex (formerly Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center and commonly known as the BJCC) is a sports, convention and entertainment complex located in Birmingham, Alabama. The Sheraton Birmingham Hotel Westin Birmingham is located on the complex adjoining the convention center. Alongside numerous exhibit halls, meeting and ballrooms, the complex features three entertainment venues: an arena, concert hall and theater. The complex contains 64 meeting rooms totaling 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of meeting space, including a 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) ballroom that can seat up to 1,200 for banquets. The ten-story Forum, with meeting space, a 275-seat auditorium, classrooms, conference space, and offices, is also located here. The adjacent 838-room Sheraton Birmingham Hotel provides a large ballroom and other convention and meeting facilities nearby. The Sheraton also housed the COGIC AIM Convention Youth Services in 2012. The 294 -room Westin Birmingham Hotel within the Uptown entertainment district provides more than 7,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and an additional 2,500 square feet of pre-function space.
6. Sloss Furnaces
Sloss Furnaces is a National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. It operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971. After closing it became one of the first industrial sites (and the only blast furnace) in the U.S. to be preserved for public use. In 1981 the furnaces were designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior. The site currently serves as an interpretive museum of industry and hosts a nationally recognized metal arts program. It also serves as a concert and festival venue. Construction is also underway on a new $10 million visitors center. The furnace site, along a wide strip of land reserved in Birmingham's original city plan for railroads and industry, is also part of a proposed linear park through downtown Birmingham. An annual Halloween haunted attraction called "Sloss Fright Furnace" is held at the site.
7. Oak Mountain State Park
Oak Mountain State Park is Alabama's largest state park at 9,940 acres (4,020 ha). The park makes up the northeast quadrant of the city of Pelham and is 18 miles south (via I-65) of Birmingham, the state's largest city. Activities include hiking, mountain biking, golf, swimming, camping, fishing, and horseback riding. Oak Mountain is also home to the Alabama Wildlife Center, the state's oldest and largest wildlife rehabilitation facility,[3] and the Oak Mountain BMX racing track. A fee ($1–$3 as of 2012) is charged to enter the park. Oak Mountain was created when the State Land Act of 1927 granted the park the 940 acres (380 ha) between Double Oak Mountain and Little Oak Ridge. From 1934 to 1941, the park saw improvements made by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration. Remnants of the CCC era—foundations, bridges and other infrastructure, often made of stone quarried from within the park—can be seen throughout the park. In 1943, the National Park Service (NPS) deeded the state park approximately 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of surrounding land that the NPS had acquired in the 1930s. Further improvements beginning 1971 saw development of the golf course, pro shop, cottages, administrative buildings, demonstration farm and campgrounds in the area of Dry Brook basin and adjacent to the park's lakes.
8. The Alabama Theatre
The Alabama Theatre is a movie palace in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built in 1927 by Paramount's Publix Theatre chain as its flagship theater for the southeastern region of the United States. Seating 2,500 people at the time, it was the largest in the Birmingham Theatre district. The district was once home to a myriad of large theaters that featured vaudeville, performing arts, nickelodeons, and large first-run movie palaces. The Alabama is the only district theater still operating today. Built to show silent films, the Alabama still features its original Wurlitzer theater organ. Other than the Alabama, the Lyric Theatre is the only theater still standing in the district. The Alabama and its historic organ were added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on February 15, 1977 and to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1979. The theater has been surveyed by the Historic American Buildings Survey on several occasions, the last time being in 1996.
9. Splash Adventure
Splash Adventure (previously known as Alabama Adventure and VisionLand) is a water park, located off Interstate 20/59 in Bessemer, just west of Birmingham and east of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It is owned by Koch Family Parks. Originally known as VisionLand, the park was built largely as a result of efforts by Fairfield mayor Larry Langford. Eleven cities came together to form the West Jefferson Amusement and Public Park Authority and with help from the Alabama Legislature, the group borrowed $65 million to build the park. Construction began in March 1997, and the park opened for business on May 23, 1998. The park opened with four major areas, including Celebration City Theme Park, Steel Waters Water Park, a children's area called Marvel City, and a shopping/dining area known as Main Street.
10. The Birmingham Zoo
The Birmingham Zoo is a zoological park that opened in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama (USA). The 122-acre (49 ha) zoo is home to almost 800 animals representing over 200 species, including many endangered species from six continents. The Zoo is managed by a private non-profit corporation. It is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), participates in AZA Species Survival Plans (SSP). It is located, along with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, in Lane Park, a 200-acre (81 ha) city-owned park near the western terminus of U.S. Highway 280 at U.S. Highway 31 on the southern slope of Red Mountain. In 2007, the zoo announced a major expansion called Trails of Africa. Opened in 2011, this exhibit features bull African Elephants in a bachelor herd setting. The exhibit is revolutionary because it has never been done before in a U.S. zoo to house multiple males together and attempt to replicate these bull herds recently discovered in the wild. At this time, four elephants (Bulwagi, Callee, Ajani, and Tamani) reside in the new facility. Trails of Africa includes an interactive boma yard, safari cafe, waterhole exhibit, and many more small accessories. This exhibit makes the Birmingham zoo a national leader in the care and breeding of elephants. After the completion of the main exhibit in early 2011, the 50 year old pachyderm building was renovated to allow staff to provide a higher quality of care for the 3 Southern White Rhinos and 1 Nile Hippo that reside there. A new Giraffe yard was added in April 2012 that allows the zoo's young herd of Giraffe to continue to grow and allow visitors a closer look at the animals while on the new feeding platform.
