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is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota, the county seat of Burleigh County, and the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. Its population was 55,532 at the 2000 census. Its metropolitan population was 94,719 in 2000, but was estimated in 2007 to have grown to 107,719. Bismarck was founded in 1872 and has been North Dakota's capital since it gained statehood in 1889.
Bismarck is situated on the east bank of the Missouri River, directly across the river from Mandan. The two cities make up the core urban area of the
The North Dakota State Capitol, the tallest building in the state, towers over the central part of Bismarck. The state government employs many people within the city. As a hub of manufacturing, retail trade, and health care, Bismarck is the economic center of a large portion of south-central North Dakota.
, the city that would become present-day Bismarck was founded in 1872 and given the name
, in honor of Edwin Ferry Johnson (1803–1872), a distinguished civil engineer who was engineer-in-chief for the Northern Pacific Railway from June 1866 to November 1870. The Northern Pacific Railway changed the city's name in 1873 to
, after the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in an effort to attract German immigrants to settle along its route. However, the discovery of gold in the nearby Black Hills in 1874 was the first real impetus for growth. In 1883, Bismarck became the capital of the Dakota Territory and, in 1889, of the state of North Dakota.