Bowling Green, Kentucky

City with a population of 55,097 in 2008. County seat of Warren County. Fourth-most populous city in Kentucky. Location of the factory where Corvettes were built here from 1981 to 2009. First settled in 1794 when settlers arrived here. Incorporated as a city in 1798. Possibly named after Bowling Green, New York, where a statue of George III was torn down by revolutionaries and melted into bullets. Grew in size due to steamboat and railroad trade during the early 1800s. In the Civil War, the Confederacy occupied the city and made it the capital of a Confederate pretender government of Kentucky, which had declared neutrality between North and South. In early 1862 Confederate forces withdrew in the face of Union advances, destroying bridges and important buildings in the town.