Biohazard Cleanup Near Flats Wilmington, DE

Wilmington is the most populous city in Delaware and the county seat of New Castle County, with a population of 70,898 at the 2020 census and 30,164 households.

The city lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River.

Wilmington was first settled by Swedish settlers in March 1638 at Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America and the headquarters of the colony of New Sweden.

The settlement was incorporated as the village of Willingtown in 1731, received a borough charter as Wilmington in 1739, and was chartered as a city on March 7, 1832, named for Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington.

In 1802 Eleuthère Irénée du Pont began making gunpowder in a mill on the Brandywine River just outside the town, and DuPont became a major supplier to the United States military.

During the Civil War Wilmington's industries boomed, and by 1868 the city was producing more iron ships than the rest of the country combined and ranked first in gunpowder production.

William Poole Bancroft led the creation of the city's first comprehensive park system in the late 19th century, giving Wilmington Rockford Park and Brandywine Park.

After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the National Guard occupied Wilmington until January 1969, reportedly the longest occupation of an American city by state forces in the nation's history.

Wilmington's modern economy is focused on national banking and finance institutions, and the city is nicknamed the Corporate Capital of the World as well as the Chemical Capital of the World.

Wilmington is the core city of the Wilmington metropolitan division, which had 740,426 residents in 2020, and it is one of the major cities in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.