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Since it earliest days, theeconomy of Louisville, Kentucky, has been underpinned by the shipping and cargo industries. Today,Louisville is home todozens of companies and organizations across severalindustrial classifications.
The city's location at theFalls of the Ohio, and its unique position in the centralUnited States (and other origins) to the mouth of theMississippi River, theGulf of Mexico, and beyond. TheLouisville and Nashville Railroad was also an important link between the industrialized northern cities and the South.
Louisville's importance to theshipping industry continues today with the presence of theWorldport air hub forUPS. The city's location at the crossroads of three majorInterstate highways (I-64,I-65 andI-71) also contributes to its modern-day strategic importance to the shipping and cargo industry. In addition, the Port of Louisville[1] continues Louisville's river shipping presence atJefferson Riverport International. As of 2003, Louisville ranks as the seventh-largestinland port in the United States.[2]
Louisville has emerged as a major center for thehealth care andmedical sciences industries. Louisville has been central to advancements inheart andhand surgery as well ascancer treatment. Some of the firstartificial heart andhand transplants were conducted in Louisville. TheJames Graham Brown Cancer Center is well-renowned. The city's thriving downtown medical research campus includes a new $88 millionrehabilitation center and ahealth sciences research and commercialization park, that in partnership with theUniversity of Louisville, has lured nearly 70 top scientists and researchers.[citation needed] Louisville is also home toHumana, one of the nation's largesthealth insurance companies.
Norton Healthcare is the second largest employer in the Louisville area, with over 20,000 employees, and a major health care provider throughout Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana.[citation needed]
Louisville is a significant center of manufacturing. Within the city's limits are two majorFord plants, namely theKentucky Truck Plant and theLouisville Assembly Plant. Also located in the city is the headquarters and majorhome appliance factory ofGE Appliances (a subsidiary ofHaier).
The city is a major center of theAmerican whiskey industry, with about one-third of allbourbon coming from Louisville.[3][4][5][6]Brown-Forman, one of the major makers of American whiskey, is headquartered in Louisville and operates a distillery in the Louisville suburb ofShively. The current primary distillery site operated byHeaven Hill, called theBernheim distillery, is also located in Louisville near Brown-Forman's distillery. Other distilleries and related businesses can also be found in neighboring cities in Kentucky,Barton 1792 (Bardstown),Jim Beam (Clermont),Wild Turkey (Lawrenceburg), orMaker's Mark (Loretto, with a restaurant/lounge in Louisville). Similar to theKentucky Bourbon Trail that links these central Kentucky locations, Louisville offers tourists its own "Urban Bourbon Trail",[7] where people can stop at nearly 20 "area bars and restaurants, all offering at least 50 labels of America's only native spirit."[5]
Craft beer is an increasingly profitable business for the city, home to over 14 locally owned breweries includingBluegrass Brewing Company andFalls City Brewing Company. In 2013 overall beer sales were reported to be down 2% from the previous year, whereas craft beer sales had risen 18%.[8] To keep up the demand, MayorGreg Fischer announced in 2015 plans to create "Lou Brew": a tour, similar to the Urban Bourbon Trail, that will highlight the local breweries and craft beer scene of Louisville to both natives and tourists.[9]
Not typically known forhigh tech outside of the previously identified industries, Louisville in the 2010s has been at or near the forefront of some high-tech-related developments. In April 2017,Google Fiber confirmed that the city will be wired for its ultrafast network,[10] though the company ultimately abandoned the plan.[11] Meanwhile, since October 2016,AT&T Fiber has been building out its similar service in the city as well as neighboring counties in Indiana.[12] Beyond networking, the city, through itspublic–private partnership calledCode Louisville, recognized by PresidentBarack Obama, is aiding area residents in the learning of software coding skills.[13][14][15]
Louisville prides itself in its large assortment of small, independent businesses and restaurants, some of which have become known for their ingenuity and creativity. In 1926 theBrown Hotel became the home of theHot Brown "sandwich". A few blocks away, theSeelbach Hotel, whichF. Scott Fitzgerald references inThe Great Gatsby, is also famous for a secret back room whereAl Capone would regularly meet with associates during theProhibition era. The room features a secret back door escape and was used as a starting point for rumrunners who would transport illegalmoonshine from the hills of eastern Kentucky toChicago. Also, in 1880,John Colgan invented a way to makechewing gum taste better for a longer period of time.
The Highlands area of Louisville on Bardstown Road has many independent businesses, including the PrestonArts Center, Baxter Avenue Theater, Carmichael'sbook store, Heine Brothers' Coffee,John Conti Coffee, Wick's Pizza, Steilberg's String Instruments and O'Shea's Irish Pub, among others. Several local breweries such as Milewide Brewing, Gravely Brewing, Great Flood Brewery, Akasha, Apocalypse, Holsopple, New Albanian Brewery ofNew Albany, Indiana, Browning's Restaurant and Brewery, Cumberland Brews, and the Bluegrass Brewing Company offer an assortment of local brewing talent in the area.
One Louisville independent business receiving wide acclaim is Omega Mirror Products, the largest manufacturer ofmirror balls. At the height of thedisco era, they manufactured 90% of all mirror balls in the United States.[16]
Louisville has connections to the entertainment industry. Several major motion pictures have also been filmed in or near Louisville, includingGoldfinger,The Insider,Stripes,Lawn Dogs,Elizabethtown,Demolition Man, andSecretariat.[17]
Also located in Louisville is abranch of theFederal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Louisville for a long time was also home to theBelknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, at its peak one of the largest manufacturers and wholesale distributors of hardware in the United States, as well asBrown & Williamson, the third largest company in thetobacco industry before merging withR. J. Reynolds in 2004 to form theReynolds American Company. Brands such as KOOL, Viceroy, Capri, Misty and Raleigh were introduced in Louisville. Brown & Williamson, one of the subjects of the tobacco industryscandals of the 1990s, was the focus ofThe Insider, a1999 film shot around the Louisville area.
UPS air operations are headquartered in Louisville, Ky.
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