ROCKY MOUNT

city, Nash and Edgecombe counties, east central North Carolina, U.S., 50 mi (80 km) east-northeast of Raleigh. Founded in 1816, it was named for the rocky mounds and ridges along its site near the falls of the Tar River. After the arrival of the Wilmington and Weldon Railway in 1840, it developed as a railroad centre and division point that merged with a village that had grown around cotton mills (established 1818) by the falls. The tracks of the Seaboard Coast (railway) Line bisect the main street and mark the boundary of the two counties. The city has one of the world's largest bright-leaf tobacco marts, and its diversified manufactures include textiles, furniture, fabricated metals, and chemicals. North Carolina Wesleyan College, 3 mi north, was founded in 1956. Pop. (1990) 48,997.