Biohazard Cleanup Near Gilmore Bellevue, NE

Bellevue is the oldest continuously inhabited town in Nebraska, settled by European Americans in the 1830s and incorporated in 1855, before Nebraska was even a state.

The Nebraska State Legislature has credited Bellevue as the state's second-oldest incorporated settlement after Nebraska City, and the town once served as a seat of government in territorial days.

Bellevue began as a trading post for the Missouri Fur Company established by Joshua Pilcher, and Lucien Fontanelle, who became the post's owner, is remembered as the town's first permanent resident.

Moses Merrill founded Nebraska's first Christian mission in Bellevue, ministering to the Otoe people in the settlement's early years.

Bellevue residents expected their town to become the Nebraska Territory capital, and the first territorial governor, Francis Burt, did move there — but he died shortly after arriving, and the next governor chose Omaha instead.

The city's name is French for "beautiful view," a nod to its setting on the bluffs above the Missouri River, and it was originally spelled "Belleview."

Offutt Air Force Base, built just south of Bellevue beginning in 1921 on the old Fort Crook site, is the headquarters of the United States Strategic Command.

The two B-29 bombers that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan — the Enola Gay and Bockscar — were built at the Glenn L. Martin bomber plant at Offutt during World War II.

With 64,176 residents in the 2020 census, Bellevue is Nebraska's third most populous city, behind only Omaha and Lincoln, and it counted 24,765 households that year.

Bellevue sits on the east edge of Sarpy County, bounded by the Missouri River, as part of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area.