Omaha, Nebraska

About Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles (30 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. Omaha is the anchor of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, with Council Bluffs, Iowa sitting adjacent to Omaha across the Missouri River. According to the 2008 estimate by the United States Census Bureau, Omaha's population was 432,921. The city and its suburbs formed the 60th-largest metropolitan area in the United States in 2000, with an estimated population of 829,890 residing in eight counties or about 1.2 million within a 50 mile (80 km) radius.

The city grew on the Missouri River, with the first settlement extending from the Lone Tree Ferry crossing from Kanesville, Iowa in the early 1850s. Omaha earned its nickname, the "Gateway to the West", because of its central location as a transportation hub for the United States in the mid-1800s. Along with transportation and jobbing, early industries that were important to the city through the mid-20th century were its railroads, breweries, stockyards and meatpacking plants.

Today the economy of Omaha is diverse and built on the knowledge economy. The city is the home to five Fortune 500 companies: ConAgra Foods; Union Pacific Corporation; Peter Kiewit and Sons, Inc.; Mutual of Omaha Companies; and Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle of legendary investor and so-called "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett. In 2001 Newsweek identified Omaha as one of the Top 10 high-tech havens in the nation. Six national fiber optic networks converge in Omaha. The Gallup Organization, TD Ameritrade, PayPal and LinkedIn all have major operations or headquarters in Omaha. The city also is the home to three of the top 30 architectural and engineering firms in the world: Leo A. Daly Co., HDR, Inc. and DLR Group.[10] Tourism in Omaha benefits the city's economy greatly, with the annual College World Series providing important revenue[11] and the city's Henry Doorly Zoo serving as the top attraction in Nebraska.[12]