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Charleston is known as The Holy City due to the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape, particularly the numerous steeples which dot the city's skyline, and for the fact that it was one of the few cities in the original thirteen colonies to provide religious tolerance, albeit restricted to non-Catholics. Many Huguenots found their way to Charleston. Charleston was also one of the first colonial cities to allow Jews to practice their faith without restriction. Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, founded in 1749, is the fourth oldest Jewish congregation in the continental United States. Brith Sholom Beth Israel is the oldest Orthodox synagogue in the South, founded by Ashkenazi (German and Central European Jews) Jews in the mid-19th century. The population was estimated to be 124,593 in 2009, making it the second most populous city in South Carolina, closely behind the state capital Columbia. Current trends put Charleston as the fastest-growing municipality in South Carolina. The city is one of two principal cities of a metropolitan statistical area of 659,191, the second largest in the state and the 76th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States. The city of Charleston is located just south of the mid-point of South Carolina's coastline, at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Charleston Harbor lies between downtown Charleston and the Atlantic Ocean. Charleston's name is derived from Charles Towne, named after King Charles II of England. America's most-published etiquette expert, Marjabelle Young Stewart, recognized Charleston 1995 as the "best-mannered" city in the U.S, a claim lent credibility by the fact that it has the first established Livability Court in the country. |