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Cities: Fort Wayne Fort Wayne Fort Wayne (2000 Population = 205,727, second largest city in the State) is located in northeast Indiana, where the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers join to form the Maumee Rier. It is the seat of of Allen County. Because Fort Wayne lies near a portage between the St. Marys and Wabash Rivers, it served as an important connector between the Great Lakes and Wabash/Mississippi River systems. It was settled by Native Americans long before a French fort was constructed at the site in 1722. Fort Wayne was contested during the French and Indian War of the 1750s, and fell under English control for most of the decades leading up to the American Revolution. American forces under General Anthony Wayne arrived in 1794 and built a fort bearing the General's name. Warriors under Tecumseh beseiged the Fort during the War of 1812 but were repulsed by troops led by General William Henry Harrison, Territorial Governor of Indiana and a future President of the United States. A post office was opened in 1820 and the town was platted in 1824, but it did not begin to take off until the construction of the Wabash and Erie canal in the 1830s and 1840s. Railroads arrived in the 1850s and industrial and manufacturing development proceeded apace. By the second decade of the 20th Century Fort Wayne had become the second largest city in the State, and retains that rank despite recent setbacks to the manufacturing industries that helped fuel its rise to prominence. Among its other accomplishments, Fort Wayne is also the birthplace of designer Bill Blass and actresses Carole Lombard and Shelley Long. Official Web Site