Located in northeastern Indiana, Fort Wayne is 18 miles west of the Ohio border and 50 miles south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 270,402 as of 2019 making it the second-most populous city in Indiana after Indianapolis. Fort Wayne is the cultural and economic center of northeastern Indiana.
Fort Wayne was built in 1794 by the United States Army under the direction of American Revolutionary War general Anthony Wayne, the last in a series of forts built near the Miami village of Kekionga. Named in Wayne's honor, the European-American settlement developed at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Mary's, and Maumee rivers as a trading post for pioneers. The village was platted in 1823 and underwent tremendous growth after completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal and advent of the railroad. Once a booming manufacturing town located in what became known as the Rust Belt, Fort Wayne's economy in the 21st century is based upo...