Meridian is the eighth most populous city in the U. Along major highways, the city is 93 mi km east of Jackson ; mi km southwest of Birmingham, Alabama ; mi km northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana ; and mi km southeast of Memphis, Tennessee. Established in , at the junction of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and Southern Railway of Mississippi, Meridian built an economy based on the railways and goods transported on them, and it became a strategic trading center. Rebuilt after the war, the city entered a "Golden Age".
It became the largest city in Mississippi between and , and a leading center for manufacturing in the South, with 44 trains arriving and departing daily.
Union Station , built in , is now a multi-modal center, with access to Amtrak and Greyhound Buses averaging , passengers per year. Although the economy slowed with the decline of the railroad industry, the city has diversified, with healthcare, military, and manufacturing employing the most people in The population within the city limits, according to census estimates, is 38,, but a population of , in a mile 72 km radius and , in a mile km radius, of which , and , people respectively are in the labor force, feeds the economy of the city.
The area is served by two military facilities, Naval Air Station Meridian and Key Field , which employ over 4, people. Key Field is named after brothers Fred and Al Key , who set a world endurance flight record in Rush Foundation Hospital is the largest non-military employer in the region, employing 2, people.
Meridian was home to two Carnegie libraries, one for whites and one for African Americans. The Carnegie Branch Library , now demolished, was one of a number of Carnegie libraries built for blacks in the Southern United States during the segregation era. Highland Park houses a museum which displays memorabilia of his life and career, as well as railroad equipment from the steam-engine era.
