Nizhnii Tagil joined us as a sister city in June of 1996. It is an industrial city of 438,000 located on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in the Sverdlovsk Oblast (western Asia). Founded in 1722, it has been a major center for mining, metallurgy, and manufacturing. The city produced the first bicycle and first steam locomotive in Russia. Nizhnii has air pollution worse than Chattanooga's old problem and has been declared an "environmental emergency zone."

Street scene along the main thoroughfare (Karl Marx Boulevard) April 2000

Nizhnii looks at Chattanooga as an example of how to modify industrial practices to clean up the environment without losing its industrial base. Even though exchanges of information on environmental issues will take center stage, art and cultural exchanges as well as teacher and student visits will also be given high priority. The year 2000 saw connections with a school in Tagil and Chattanooga's 21st Century Academy (our area's only high school that offers Russian).

Monument to the fallen soldiers of Russia*s wars April 2000		Ice fishing along the impounded Tagil River * known as "The Pond" Nov 2000