Southern Friendliness Meets American History in Charleston

04 October 2010

Tourists on a carriage tour in Charleston in February. South Carolina tourism officials say tourism has grown to an $18.4 billion industry in the state.

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. This week, come along to one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the United States -- Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War began at its waterfront.

Charleston is on a piece of land in the southeastern United States that points like a finger to the Atlantic Ocean. Rivers flow by either side of the city. They are the Ashley and the Cooper rivers.

The people of Charleston will smile and tell you the Ashley and the Cooper rivers join to form the Atlantic Ocean. They know this is not true, but they like to tell the story anyway. It shows how proud the people of Charleston are of their city.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Charleston has a very rich history. It is the only city in the United States that can claim to have defended itself from American Indians, fierce pirates, Spanish ships, French soldiers, and British forces. It was first in many things. Charleston had the first continual train service in the United States.

It built the first museum and the first public flower garden in America. And the first battle of the American Civil War took place on a very small but important island in its port.