Mobile, Alabama
Mobile (pronounced Mo-Beel) is a city in Alabama along Mobile Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of America. It is the state's second largest city and is the home to Alabama's only saltwater and deep-water port.
It is the home of the US subsidiary of Austal, an Australian shipbuilding firm, along with the US operations of Airbus, the European large aircraft manufacturer (the Airbus facility is the third-largest aircraft facility in the world).
Having been previously a French and later a Spanish colony, it is the one part of Alabama where Catholicism is strong in the otherwise Protestant-dominated state (the Archdiocese of Mobile, which oversees all Catholic churches in Alabama and neighboring Mississippi, is located there).
It claims to have hosted the first Mardi Gras celebration in 1703, and to this day continues to host them; unlike the better-known ones in New Orleans (which are often filled with debauchery), most of Mobile's celebrations are family friendly. (The history of Mardi Gras between the two cities led Amtrak to name its train route that runs between them Mardi Gras Service; the route also stops at Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula.)
Five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame came from Mobile: Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Satchel Paige, Ozzie Smith, and Billy Williams. Only the much larger cities of New York City and Chicago have more.
The area is served by the University of South Alabama (a public university), Spring Hill College (the third-oldest Jesuit-affiliated university in the US), and the University of Mobile (a private university affiliated with the Alabama state convention of the Southern Baptist Convention, the university is located in nearby Prichard, a suburb to its northwest).
Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium was the site of Donald Trump's first stadium rally (moved from two smaller venues due to public interest) after his initial announcement of his first Presidential run.
The World War II battleship USS Alabama is docked in Mobile and is open to the public. Among those who served on it was Bob Feller, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (his bunk is marked for those touring the battleship).