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is the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 39,684 at the 2000 census. It is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The original Rock Island, from which the city gets its name, is the largest island in the Mississippi River and is now known as Arsenal Island.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was founded here in 1851 and was known as the Rock Island Line. The railroad was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1980.
Rock Island is also home to the Rock Island Arsenal on Arsenal Island. It is an active factory producing ordnance and weapons components for the U.S. Army. The Arsenal provides 6,000 civilian jobs for the local area.
The south shore of Rock Island, on the Rock River, is where the former village of
was located, the birthplace of the warrior Black Hawk. The Black Hawk State Historic Site includes much of the site of the original village of Saukenuk. The park includes a museum and a number of hiking trails along the Rock River and in surrounding woods.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.1 square miles (44.4 km²), of which, 15.9 square miles (41.2 km²) of it is land and 1.2 square miles (3.2 km²) of it (7.11%) is water.