CHARLESTON

CHARLESTON



What is it about Charleston...the sea breezes, the thick southern charms, the pastel homes along Rainbow Row?

The answers are varied, as Charleston easily beguiles over 4 million visitors each year, luring them in with a wide variety of attractions and historical sites.

Located about midway along the South Carolina Atlantic Ocean coastline, this gem of a city is an exotic blend of English, French and West African cultures, as well as an arts and culinary center of distinction.

All but surrounded by rivers, at its very heart lies a peninsula lined with historic homes, stunning gardens and cobblestone streets. And for gastronomes and shoppers, trendy restaurants and specialty stores await.

• Charleston

ADDITIONAL SOUTH CAROLINA CITY PAGES:

• Hilton Head
• Myrtle Beach

Arthur Ravenel Bridge, Charleston
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• Charleston boasts the first public college, museum and playhouse in the United States.
• George Gershwin composed his well known opera Porgy and Bess while living on Folly Beach, South Carolina. Porgy and Bess are buried in the James Island Presbyterian Church graveyard.
• The first game of golf played in the United States took place in Charleston, South Carolina.

Charleston Waterfront Homes
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These are but a few of things to see and do in Charleston. Check all of them out, and more, on your South Carolina vacation:

• Historic Charleston
  This area of Charleston is replete with history at every turn, and not to be missed is the Nathaniel Russell House. Since 1808, visitors have admired the grand townhouse of onetime Charleston merchant Nathaniel Russell. Set amid spacious formal gardens, the Nathaniel Russell House is a National Historic Landmark and is widely recognized as one of America’s most important neoclassical dwellings.
  
  The graceful interior with elaborate plasterwork ornamentation, geometrically shaped rooms and a magnificent free-flying staircase are among the finest ever created in early America.
  
  Located in Downtown Charleston just sough of Broad Street, the house is furnished with period antiques and works of art that evoke the gracious lifestyle of the city's merchant elite. Today the Nathaniel Russell House interprets the lives of the Russell family, as well as the African American slaves and artisans who were responsible for maintaining one of the South's grandest antebellum townhouses.
• Fort Sumter
  Where The American Civil War Began...
  
  Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later. Union forces would try for nearly four years to take it back.
  
  Fort Sumter National Monument encompasses three sites in Charleston: the original Fort Sumter, the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center, and the Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. Access to Fort Sumter itself is by a 30 minute ferry ride from the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center or Patriots Point.
  
  The museum at Fort Sumter focuses on the activities at the fort, including its construction and role during the Civil War.


• Arthur Ravenel Bridge
  North America's longest cable-stayed bridge spans the Charleston Harbor. The Arthur J. Ravenel Jr. Bridge connects historic Charleston and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
  
  The bridge is home to the annual USA Track & Field 10,000 meter Cooper River Bridge Run on the first weekend of April. This event attracts up to 50,000 people. The route starts in Mount Pleasant and finishes in downtown Charleston at Marion Square.