US Cities Trivia
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199 free US Cities trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
60 free US cities trivia questions with answers. Portland got its name on a coin toss, Miami is the only major American city founded by a woman, Chicago reversed a river, and Salt Lake City used to be Great Salt Lake City. This US cities trivia quiz collects the stories behind the map: the nicknames (Windy City, Big Easy, Motor City, Mile High, Biggest Little City), the superlatives (oldest, highest, largest by area, most populous capital), the firsts (subway, skyscraper, national capital) and the founding tales from St. Augustine in 1565 to Las Vegas in 1905. It ranges coast to coast and from Utqiagvik to San Antonio, so it works for a geography class, a road-trip game or a pub quiz round. Easy questions ask which city is the Windy City; the hard ones want who won the first Indy 500 and which street San Francisco's first cable car climbed. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia entry on the city, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 199 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which US city is nicknamed the Windy City?
Chicago
It has also been called Second City and City of the Big Shoulders, and it built the world's first steel-skeleton skyscraper in 1885.
Q 02Which California city has hosted the Tournament of Roses Parade since 1890?
Pasadena
Pasadena staged its first Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day 1890; the Rose Bowl football game followed in 1902 and became annual in 1916.
Q 03Which city is known as the Big Easy?
New Orleans
New Orleans is the Big Easy; its other nickname, Crescent City, comes from the bend of the Mississippi the city was built around.
Q 04Which city is called the Motor City?
Detroit
Detroit earned the Motor City name as the home of the Big Three automakers; Ford's Model T was first built there at the Piquette Avenue Plant in 1908.
Q 05Seattle's Space Needle was built for what 1962 event?
A World's Fair
The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair, the Century 21 Exposition, which also gave Seattle its monorail.
Q 06Which city is the Mile High City, its official elevation exactly one mile above sea level?
Denver
Denver is the Mile High City: a marked step on the west side of the Colorado State Capitol sits exactly 5,280 feet above sea level.
Q 07What is the oldest continuously inhabited European-founded city in the contiguous United States?
St. Augustine, Florida
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded it in 1565; only San Juan, Puerto Rico, is older on US soil.
Q 08Which Alaskan city is the largest in the US by total area?
Sitka
Sitka covers about 4,800 square miles including water; as New Archangel it was the capital of Russian America and remained Alaska's capital until 1906.
Q 09Which is the largest city by area in the contiguous US, and also Florida's most populous?
Jacksonville
Jacksonville merged with Duval County in 1968, giving it about 747 square miles of land, far more than Miami's 36.
Q 10Which city opened the nation's first subway, the Tremont Street line, in 1897?
Boston
It also claims the first public park (Boston Common, 1634) and first public school (Boston Latin, 1635).
Q 11What was New York City called under Dutch rule?
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was the Dutch West India Company's settlement on Manhattan from 1624; the English seized it in 1664 and renamed it New York for the Duke of York.
Q 12Which Colorado town is the highest incorporated city in the United States?
Leadville
Leadville sits at 10,152 feet, the highest incorporated city in the US; it boomed on silver in the late 1870s in the shadow of Mount Elbert, Colorado's tallest peak.
Q 13Kansas City is famous for having more than 200 working what?
Fountains
The ones at Kauffman Stadium are the largest privately funded fountains in the world.
Q 21Which word was dropped from Salt Lake City's original name in 1868?
Great
The settlement was Great Salt Lake City from its 1847 founding until the territorial legislature shortened the name to Salt Lake City in 1868.
Q 22Honolulu has been Hawaii's capital since which year, when Kamehameha III moved it from Lahaina?
1845
Kamehameha III moved the royal court from Lahaina to Honolulu in 1845; it remained the capital through the 1893 overthrow and the 1898 US annexation.
Q 23Anchorage was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake on Good Friday of which year?
1964
The Good Friday earthquake struck on March 27, 1964, and shook for about four and a half minutes; at magnitude 9.2 it was the most powerful ever recorded in North America.
Q 14Bristol, a twin city divided by State Street, straddles Virginia and which state?
Tennessee
Bristol's State Street runs along the Virginia–Tennessee line, so each side of the street lies in a different state; the Tennessee half is home to Bristol Motor Speedway.
Q 15Las Vegas was founded in which year, when railroad land was auctioned off downtown?
1905
Las Vegas dates its founding to May 15, 1905, when the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad auctioned 110 acres of downtown lots; the city incorporated in 1911.
Q 16Which city served as the first US capital in 1775 and remained the nation's largest until 1790?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia hosted the Continental Congress from 1775 and was the largest city in the colonies; its firsts include the nation's first hospital (1751) and first stock exchange (1790).
Q 17Which is the most populous state capital in the United States?
Phoenix
Phoenix, with more than 1.6 million residents in the 2020 census, is by far the most populous state capital; no other capital had reached a million.
Q 18Which is the only major US city founded by a woman?
Miami
Miami incorporated in 1896 after Julia Tuttle, who owned the land, persuaded Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway south to Biscayne Bay.
Q 19Pittsburgh's 446 spans over its three rivers give it what nickname?
City of Bridges
Pittsburgh's 446 bridges, three more than Venice, earned it the City of Bridges nickname.
Q 20Which city is the capital of Oregon?
Salem
Salem became Oregon's territorial capital in 1851 and kept the role when Oregon became the 33rd state in 1859.
Q 24Minneapolis and which neighbor make up the Twin Cities?
Saint Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota's capital, sits just downstream of Minneapolis on the Mississippi; together they form the Twin Cities.
Q 25What name is given to the 44 people who founded Los Angeles in 1781?
Los Pobladores
The 44 founders, remembered as Los Pobladores, arrived from Sonora and Sinaloa in September 1781 to establish El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles.
Q 26Which pair of siblings founded Houston, naming it for the future president of Texas?
The Allens
They paid $5,000 for the land, only $1,000 of it in cash, and ran their first advertisement four days later.
Q 27San Antonio's five Spanish missions, including the Alamo, became UNESCO World Heritage sites in which year?
2015
UNESCO inscribed the San Antonio Missions, the Alamo and four others along the San Antonio River, as a World Heritage Site in July 2015, the first in Texas.
Q 28Which three breweries made Milwaukee a national leader in beer production?
Miller, Pabst and Schlitz
Miller, Pabst and Schlitz, all founded in Milwaukee between 1844 and 1855, made it Brew City; Schlitz billed itself as the beer that made Milwaukee famous.
Q 29Francis Scott Key wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner' during the bombardment of which Baltimore stronghold?
McHenry
Fort McHenry withstood a 25-hour British bombardment on September 13–14, 1814; Key's poem about its flag became the national anthem in 1931.
Q 30Nashville's Centennial Park contains a full-scale replica of which ancient building?
The Parthenon
Nashville's Parthenon, a full-scale replica built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, matches the city's nickname, the Athens of the South.