319 Area Code 🌍☎️

Cedar Rapids is the second-most populous city in Iowa with 137,710 residents at the 2020 census, located in Linn County as the county seat on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles north of Iowa City and 128 miles northeast of Des Moines. The city serves as the economic hub of Eastern Iowa within the Interstate 380 corridor, anchoring a three-county metropolitan area of 276,520 people that includes Marion and Hiawatha. Founded in 1841 by George Greene and Nicholas Brown, who recognized the milling potential of the Cedar River's rapids, Cedar Rapids was formally incorporated by the Iowa State Legislature on January 15, 1849, with a population under 400. The city experienced rapid growth during the 1850s, becoming home to a substantial Czech immigrant population - comprising a quarter of roughly 1,600 inhabitants when the town was reincorporated in 1856 - drawn by cheap land following the 1848 Austrian revolutions. Cedar Rapids developed as a mill town powered by dams and mill races, with early infrastructure investments including a steamboat and railroad connections to expand market access beyond the Mississippi River trade route. Iowa City, the county seat of Johnson County and Iowa's fifth-most populous city with 74,828 residents in 2020, anchors a metropolitan area of over 171,000 people that forms part of the larger Iowa City-Cedar Rapids region with nearly 500,000 residents. The city was established on January 21, 1839, by the Iowa Territorial Legislative Assembly under Governor Robert Lucas's directive to relocate the capital from Burlington toward the territory's center, with commissioners selecting its amphitheater-like site above the Iowa River on May 2, 1839. Iowa City served as the third and final territorial capital from 1841 to 1846 and the first state capital from 1846 until the capital moved to Des Moines in 1857, with architect John F. Rague designing the Old Capitol Building, whose cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1840. Home to the University of Iowa, the city's notable attractions include the Old Capitol Building (now a National Historic Landmark and museum), the University of Iowa Art Museum, and Plum Grove Historic House, the residence of Iowa's first governor. The city's planned grid layout, surveyed in 1839 between Brown Street and Burlington Street, reflects its deliberate design as a purpose-built capital city. Waterloo is the county seat of Black Hawk County in Northeast Iowa and the state's eighth-most populous city with 67,314 residents as of the 2020 census, forming a metropolitan area of approximately 170,000 people with neighboring Cedar Falls. Originally established in 1845 as Prairie Rapids Crossing near Meskwaki tribal camps along the Cedar River, the city was renamed Waterloo in the late 1840s when Charles Mullan selected the name while establishing a post office. Known as the "Factory City," Waterloo experienced explosive manufacturing growth from 1895 to 1915 when its population surged 290% to 33,097, driven by companies including the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company, Rath Packing Company, and the Illinois Central Railroad. John Deere has manufactured tractors and agricultural machinery in Waterloo for over a century, though the company reduced its workforce from a peak of 10,000 employees during the agricultural recession of the 1980s and implemented further layoffs in 2024 and 2025. The city has since diversified its industrial base and remains a major manufacturing, commercial, and cultural center in Northeast Iowa.