402 Area Code 🌍☎️

Omaha is Nebraska's most populous city and the 42nd-largest in the United States, with a 2020 census population of 486,051 and a metropolitan area of approximately 1 million residents across eight counties extending into Iowa. Located along the Missouri River in the Midwestern United States about 10 miles north of the Platte River's mouth, Omaha was founded in 1854 by speculators from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and earned the nickname "Gateway to the West" as it became a major national transportation hub during the 19th century. The city hosted the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition World's Fair and became internationally known for its Stockyards - once the world's largest - and meatpacking plants in the 20th century. Today, Omaha is home to the headquarters of four Fortune 500 companies including Berkshire Hathaway and Union Pacific Corporation, plus major architecture and engineering firms, and cultural attractions like the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the annual College World Series. The city is credited with inventing the Reuben sandwich, cake mix, center-pivot irrigation, the Top 40 radio format, the TV dinner, and the first American ski lift. Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska and the state's second-most populous city, with 291,082 residents according to the 2020 census and an estimated 300,619 in 2024, ranking 72nd nationally. Founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster on salt marshes in what became Lancaster County, the city was renamed after President Abraham Lincoln and designated the state capital in 1869, the same year the University of Nebraska was established there with a 130,000-acre land grant. The Bertram G. Goodhue-designed state capitol building, completed in 1932, is the nation's second-tallest capitol, and the university, now Nebraska's largest institution with 23,954 students, serves as the city's third-largest employer alongside state and federal government offices. Lincoln's economy centers on government, service, manufacturing, and a growing high-tech sector as part of the Midwest Silicon Prairie, while the city has been designated "refugee-friendly" by the U.S. Department of State and hosted the 12th-largest per capita resettlement of refugees including Vietnamese, Karen, Sudanese, Yazidi, Iraqi, and Afghan populations, with Lincoln Public Schools currently supporting approximately 3,500 students speaking 67 languages other than English. Norfolk is a city in Madison County, Nebraska, located 113 miles northwest of Omaha and 76 miles southwest of Sioux City, Iowa, at the intersection of U.S. Routes 81 and 275, with a 2020 population of 24,955 making it Nebraska's seventh-most populous city. Founded in 1866 by 124 German Lutheran settlers from Wisconsin who arrived on July 15 after following the Elkhorn River, Norfolk became the county seat in 1867 and grew rapidly following the arrival of three major railroads between 1879 and 1882. The city's population surged from 45 voters in 1875 to 1,000 by 1886, then to 3,883 by 1900 and over 6,000 by 1910, driven by railroad development and commercial expansion including the establishment of electric lighting in 1888 and a street railway system in 1887. Norfolk became a regional hub when the Meridian Highway (designated U.S. Route 81 in 1926) made it a key north-south thoroughfare across the United States, further solidified by the 1924 completion of the Meridian Bridge across the Missouri River. The city is also home to the Norfolk Regional Center, originally established as the Nebraska Insane Asylum in 1885 and accepting its first patients in 1888, which evolved into a specialized 120-bed treatment facility by 2010.