Toledo

About Toledo

Toledo is a port city in northwestern Ohio, set where the Maumee River flows into the western end of Lake Erie. Settlers founded the city in 1833 by merging two rival villages and named it after Toledo in Spain. The Toledo War of 1835 to 1836, a mostly bloodless border dispute between Ohio and Michigan, ended with the city firmly in Ohio, and the opening of canals and railroads soon made it a busy Great Lakes shipping hub for coal, grain and iron ore.

In the late 1800s Edward Libbey moved his glass company here, and Toledo became the Glass City, home of Libbey, Owens-Illinois, Owens Corning and other glassmakers whose inventions included the automated bottle machine. That legacy shines at the Toledo Museum of Art, one of the finest art museums in the country, whose dazzling Glass Pavilion displays thousands of works of glass art across the street from the main museum. Today Toledo has about 265,000 residents and an affordable, friendly Midwestern character.

The city's other famous attraction is the Toledo Zoo and Aquarium, consistently ranked among the best zoos in the United States, with historic stone buildings built during the 1930s and a celebrated holiday Lights Before Christmas. Downtown, Fifth Third Field is home to the Toledo Mud Hens minor league team made famous by the television show M*A*S*H, and the Imagination Station science center sits on the riverfront. The Toledo Botanical Garden, the Metroparks' Oak Openings Preserve and the historic Old West End neighborhood, with one of the largest collections of late Victorian homes in the country, round out a visit, and Lake Erie islands are a short drive away.