With 157,000 residents, Springfield is Massachusetts’ third-largest city. Located in western Massachusetts on the east bank of the Connecticut River in the Pioneer Valley, it has emerged from a long and diverse manufacturing history to become an insurance, banking, telecommunications, higher education, and transportation hub.

Puritans arrived here in 1636, establishing a settlement called Agawam. First located on the west bank of the river, the settlement was soon relocated to the east bank and was renamed Springfield in 1640. As it evolved into a manufacturing center, plants turned out a wide range of products, from guns to board games, bicycles and motorcycles to airplanes. The first successful gasoline-powered automobile to be produced in the United States, the Duryea, was built here in 1893.

In 1787, Daniel Shays led an unsuccessful attack on a federal arsenal here during an anti-tax uprising known as Shays Rebellion.

The city’s long history as a center of firearms research and manufacturing is depicted at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. Established in 1794, the armory had produced more than nine million guns by the time it closed in 1968. Among them were the famous Springfield rifle and the Garand semiautomatic (M1) rifle.

Teacher James Naismith’s development of basketball at Springfield in 1891 is remembered at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr Seuss, also grew up here, and is the subject of the Dr Seuss Museum. The Indian Motorcycle Museum recalls the period from 1901 to 1953 when the famous bikes were built here. Another attraction is the Springfield Library and Museums, with facilities devoted to history, science, and art.

The city is also home to Western New England College, Springfield College, American International College and a community college.

Springfield can be reached by car via I-90 and I-91.