Honolulu City

Civic Structure

Honolulu City is located on Oahu. It is the county seat of the county of Honolulu. Honolulu City is located in the city and county of Honolulu and constitutes a census county division or CCD.

The city-county charter was adopted in 1907. This combined city and county functions for the area into one municipal government.
Honolulu has been the capital of Hawaii since 1845. Kamehameha the 3rd made Honolulu his capital in 1845.


Demographics

Honolulu’s metropolitan area is home to around a million people. Honolulu City itself is home to around 400,000. About 80% of the state’s population lives in Honolulu’s metropolitan area.

Geography

The area of Honolulu County is 2,128 square miles, in part because it encompasses several different islands. It contains 601 square miles of land, with the remaining area water.

Honolulu city and county contains all of Oahu and several minor islands, including the northwestern Hawaiian Islands except for the Midway Atoll, which is an unincorporated territory managed by the federal government. This means that many uninhabited islands far to the northwest are considered part of Honolulu city and county whereas some of the closer, larger islands are their own jurisdiction.

Honolulu covers the southern part tip of the island. The city’s boundaries mostly end at the Koolau Mountains to the north. Pearl Harbor is a large natural harbor to the west and was once home to most of the United States Pacific fleet. Hanamua Bay is a smaller bay in the city and a popular snorkeling spot. Hanamua Bay was once a volcanic crater and now flooded by the ocean.


Economy

Honolulu means sheltered harbor. It is the multiple large harbors that made Honolulu the home of many visitors to Hawaii.
Honolulu has the largest airport in the islands, hosting most flights into the state.

Honolulu City is home to Waikiki Beach, a well known tourist attraction. The service industry provides many jobs in the city, rivaling government functions, transportation, military and education as a source of employment. Honolulu hosts the University of Hawaii at Manoa as well as the largest private university in the state.
Honolulu not only hosts Honolulu International Airport but several inter-island ferries and inter-island airlines.



Attractions

Honolulu is home to the Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refuge and the USS Arizona Memorial. The USS Arizona Memorial was built over the sunken hull of the battleship, where 1,102 of the 1,177 soldiers and sailors on that ship were lost and remain. The memorial hosts over a million visitors a year. Nearby is the Pacific Aviation Museum and the Battleship Missouri Memorial, where Japanese forces formally surrendered.
It is the home of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. This is where over 45,000 who died have been buried.

The Bishop Museum is filled with native Hawaiian artifacts and history. The Waikiki Aquarium is a large saltwater aquarium loaded with specimens from around the Pacific.
Honolulu City contains Honolulu Zoo, home to a captive population of breeding Nene birds, the endangered state bird.


History

Settlement of Honolulu dates back to at least the 10th century by native Polynesians. Captain William Brown, a British captain, was the first foreigner to entire Honolulu Harbor in 1794.
Honolulu was the site of the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, 1941. This was the event that brought the United States into World War 2.


Trivia

Honolulu is the westernmost major American city. It is also the southernmost major American city.
Honolulu has a sister city relationship with 25 different cities, including but not limited to Mumbai, India, Caracas, Venezuela, Hiroshima, Japan, Tokyo, Japan, Vladivostok, Russia, and Hainan, China.