Editing Evansville, Indiana (section)

=== 20th and 21st centuries ===
{{See also|Ohio River flood of 1937}}
The Graham brothers, Ray, Robert, and Joseph, got their start with a successful glass factory in Evansville. After they sold it in 1907, the glass factory became Libbey-Owens-Ford. In 1916, seeing the need for a dependable truck, the Graham brothers entered the truck chassis business. Evansville was home to Graham Brothers Trucks from then until 1929. The dependability of Graham trucks was due in part to their use of Torbensen internal gear drive rear axles.

In 1921, after the death of both Dodge brothers, Graham Brothers started selling 1.5 ton pickups through Dodge dealers. (Dodge did not manufacture trucks at the time). These vehicles had Graham chassis and some Dodge parts. Dodge Brothers bought a controlling interest in Graham Brothers in 1925, picking up the rest in 1926.<ref>{{cite web|title=Graham Brothers|date=June 21, 2022 |url=https://www.allpar.com/trucks/graham-brothers.html}}</ref>

The city saw exponential growth in the early twentieth century with the production of lumber and the manufacturing of furniture. By 1920, Evansville had more than two dozen furniture companies. In the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, city leaders attempted to improve Evansville's transportation position and successfully lobbied to be on the Chicago-to-Miami "Dixie Bee Highway" ([[U.S. Route 41 in Indiana|U.S. Highway 41]]). A bridge was built across the Ohio River in 1932 and in that same decade steps were taken to develop an airport.

But the [[Ohio River flood of 1937]] covered 500 city blocks in Evansville, resulting in a major crisis.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Keuren |first=Ernest C. |display-authors=et al |chapter=The Evansville Flood |title=Evansville's Great Flood, 1937 |place=Evansville |publisher=University of Evansville Press |year=1987}}{{full citation needed|date=June 2022|reason=Did not find book with this author/date}}</ref> With steamboats less necessary to the local economy, city and federal officials responded to the flood and its destruction by constructing more and higher levees: construction that penned and hid the Ohio River behind a barrier of earthen berms and concrete walls.<ref>{{cite news |author=Husk, Kim |title=River Fortress Would Protect Evansville |work=The Evansville Courier |date=23 July 1993}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Evansville was a major center of industrial production which helped revive the regional economy after the [[Great Depression]]. A huge, 45-acre shipyard complex was constructed on the riverfront east of St. Joseph Avenue for the production of oceangoing LSTs ([[Landing Ship, Tank|Landing Ship-Tanks]]). The Evansville Shipyard was the nation's largest inland producer of LSTs. The Plymouth factory was converted into a plant which turned out "bullets by the billions," and many other companies switched over to the manufacture of war material.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chrysler Goes to War |url=http://wpchryslermuseum.org/document.doc?id=72|access-date=7 March 2012}}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> In 1942, an aircraft factory was constructed adjacent to the airport north of the city for the manufacture of the Republic P-47D fighter aircraft, the [[P-47 Thunderbolt|legendary P-47 Thunderbolt]]. Evansville produced a total of 6,242 P-47s, almost half of the P-47s made nationally during the war.<ref>{{cite news| last=Lucas| first=John| title=Airplanes, especially P-47s, are city man's passion| work=[[Evansville Courier & Press]]| date=2006-10-16| access-date=2007-06-03| url=http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/oct/18/airplanes-especially-p-47s-are-city-mans-passion/}}</ref>

After the war, Evansville's manufacturing base of automobiles, household appliances, and farm equipment benefited from growing post-war demand. A growing housing demand also caused residential development to leap north and east of the city. However, between 1955 and 1963, a nationwide recession hit Evansville. Among other closures, Servel (which produced refrigerators) went out of business and Chrysler ended its local operations. The economy was saved from near total collapse by 28 businesses that moved into the area, including [[Whirlpool Corporation|Whirlpool]], [[Alcoa]], and [[General Electric]].

During the final third of the 20th century, Evansville became the hub of the tri-state region's commercial, medical, and service industries. A 1990s economic spurt was fueled by the growth of the [[University of Southern Indiana]]. The arrival of giant [[Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana|Toyota]] and [[AK Steel Holding Corporation|AK Steel]] manufacturing plants into nearby [[Gibson County, Indiana|Gibson]] and [[Spencer County, Indiana|Spencer]] Counties respectively, as well as [[Bally's Evansville|Casino Aztar]] (now Bally's), Indiana's first gaming boat, also contributed to the growth of jobs. As the twenty-first century began, Evansville continued in a steady pace of economic diversification and stability.

On December 6, 2022, in recognition of the city's massive production efforts during World War II, it was announced that Evansville had been designated Indiana's American [[World War II Heritage City]] by the [[National Park Service]].