150 free US Cities trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 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 150 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 city's engineers reversed its namesake river so sewage would flow away from Lake Michigan?
Chicago
The lake was the city's drinking water; the fix sent the waste toward the Mississippi instead. Chicago is also home to the world's first steel-skeleton skyscraper, built in 1885.
Q 03Which city is known as the Big Easy?
New Orleans
Its other nickname, Crescent City, comes from the bend of the Mississippi around it.
Q 04Which city is called the Motor City?
Detroit
It also gave the world Motown and techno, and in 2013 became the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy.
Q 05Seattle's Space Needle was built for what 1962 event?
A World's Fair
The Century 21 Exposition also gave the city its monorail; Seattle's official nickname changed from Queen City to Emerald City in 1982.
Q 06Which city is the Mile High City, its official elevation exactly one mile above sea level?
Denver
The Broncos still play at a stadium called Mile High.
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
It was New Archangel under the Russians and was Alaska's capital until 1906.
Q 09Which is the largest city by area in the contiguous US, and also Florida's most populous?
Jacksonville
Its consolidated city-county government makes it far bigger on the map than Miami.
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
The English took it in 1664 and renamed it for the Duke of York, but the name only stuck permanently in 1674.
Q 12Which Colorado town is the highest incorporated city in the United States?
Leadville
It sits above 10,000 feet between Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, the state's two tallest peaks.
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.
Texarkana is a twin city straddling the line between Texas and which state?
Q 21Which word was dropped from Salt Lake City's original name in 1868?
Great
Brigham Young's settlers arrived in July 1847 during the Mexican-American War.
Q 22Honolulu has been Hawaii's capital since which year, when Kamehameha III moved it from Lahaina?
1845
It stayed the capital through the overthrow of the kingdom, US annexation and Pearl Harbor.
Q 23Anchorage was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake on Good Friday of which year?
1964
It remains the second-largest earthquake ever recorded; the city holds nearly 40 percent of Alaska's population.
Q 24Minneapolis and which neighbor make up the Twin Cities?
Arkansas
The name is a portmanteau of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Q 15Las Vegas was founded in which year, when railroad land was auctioned off downtown?
1905
At the close of the 20th century it was the most populous North American city founded within that century.
Q 16Which city served as the first US capital in 1775 and remained the nation's largest until 1790?
Philadelphia
William Penn founded it in 1682; its firsts include the nation's first library, hospital, zoo and stock exchange.
Q 17Which is the most populous state capital in the United States?
Phoenix
With over 1.6 million people it is the fifth-largest US city and has the hottest summers of any major American city.
Q 18Which is the only major US city founded by a woman?
Miami
Citrus grower Julia Tuttle owned the land and talked Henry Flagler into extending his railroad there.
Q 19Pittsburgh's 446 spans over its three rivers give it what nickname?
City of Bridges
That is three more than Venice.
Q 20Portland, Oregon got its name after a coin toss. What was the losing name?
Boston
Francis Pettygrove, from Portland, Maine, won two out of three tosses against Asa Lovejoy of Boston.
Saint Paul
Minneapolis sits on Saint Anthony Falls, the only natural waterfall on the Mississippi.
Q 25Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by 44 settlers known as what?
Los Pobladores
Spanish governor Felipe de Neve founded it on the village of Yaanga; it is now the second-most populous US city.
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
The city is the second most populous in Texas and the seventh in the country.
Q 28Which three breweries made Milwaukee a national leader in beer production?
Miller, Pabst and Schlitz
The city on Lake Michigan is also home to the Harley-Davidson Museum and Summerfest.
Q 29Francis Scott Key wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner' during the bombardment of which Baltimore stronghold?
McHenry
The poem became the national anthem in 1931; Baltimore has been an independent city, outside any county, since 1851.
Q 30Nashville's Centennial Park contains a full-scale replica of which ancient building?
The Parthenon
It fits the city's other nickname, the Athens of the South; the Grand Ole Opry made it Music City from 1925.