Home of Fort Liberty and the 82nd Airborne — the Cape Fear River city that is America's largest military community, with a Market House that witnessed the state's 1789 US Constitution ratification and a vibrant arts scene reclaiming its post-military identity
Fayetteville is the sixth-largest city in North Carolina — a city of 210,000 on the Cape Fear River, home to Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), the largest US military installation by population in the world, with over 50,000 active-duty soldiers including the 82nd Airborne Division and US Army Special Operations Command. The city's identity is inseparable from its military character — airborne jump demonstrations over drop zones are a regular sight, and the 82nd Airborne Division War Memorial Museum documents the division's history from WWI through current operations. The Market House (1838…
Fayetteville was established in 1762 and named after the Marquis de Lafayette following the American Revolution (one of the first US cities to honour Lafayette). In 1789, the North Carolina constitutional convention in Fayetteville ratified the US Constitution and created the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The city grew as a market town on the Cape Fear River, with the 1838 Market House (built on the site of an earlier market used for enslaved people auctions) becoming the civic centre. Camp Bragg was established in 1918 as an artillery training base, growing into Fort Bragg, th…