The City of Lakes — where Prince recorded Purple Rain, the largest Somali diaspora community in North America brought its cuisine to Lake Street, the Stone Arch Bridge crosses the Mississippi at the only natural waterfall on the river's entire length, and the indoor Skyway system connects 80 blocks of downtown without ever stepping outside in winter
Minneapolis (430,000; metro 3.6 million) is the largest city in Minnesota and the cultural and economic centre of the Upper Midwest — a genuinely distinctive American city whose character is shaped by Scandinavian-Lutheran immigrant heritage, a large East African (particularly Somali) community, a world-class arts scene anchored by the Walker Art Center and the Guthrie Theater, and a relationship with winter cold so embedded in civic identity that the city built an 80-block elevated skyway network connecting downtown buildings to avoid going outside from November to March. St. Anthony Falls,…
Minneapolis was established at the confluence of Bassett Creek and the Mississippi River on territory of the Dakota Sioux, and the name is a hybrid of the Dakota 'mni' (water) and the Greek 'polis' (city) — the City of Waters. The city's industrial foundation was the flour-milling industry powered by St. Anthony Falls: from 1880 to 1930, Minneapolis mills (Pillsbury, Gold Medal/Washburn-Crosby) produced more flour than any other city in the world, supplying bread to the entire United States. Prince Rogers Nelson (born 7 June 1958, Minneapolis) is the city's most famous native — his recording…