This middle-of-the-road economic situation has made it hard for workers to get rich in traditional professional employment because there are no tremendous opportunities to work for large corporations. Manufacturing accounts for about 15 percent of the jobs and a quarter of the economy, suggesting how cherished this kind of employment is to Wilmingtonians.

Locals view the relatively few corporate professional employees with a degree of awe and speak with amazement of their high salaries and profuse benefits. By far, most people in the area work in smaller businesses for someone else or are engaged in some kind of enterprise of their own.

Geography seems to be the main factor that sets Wilmington apart from the overall North Carolina economy, and it is also driving some new trends that are positioning Wilmington to take advantage of a new and prosperous era at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. Its maritime environment creates opportunities for business based on what is naturally available -- the sea, the river, the many beautiful views -- instead of that which must be manufactured.

There have been, of course, significant times in history when Wilmington relied heavily on its natural resources for both manufacturing and agriculture. Early 18th century settlers used the area's lush pine forests to foster a lumber industry that continues today. The manufacture of lumber-related by-products, such as tar, turpentine and pitch, was the dominant business in the 19th century, but this type of manufacturing has since declined.

Rice and cotton were an early source of income for the area; the downtown wharves were once the site of the largest cotton exporting operation in the world. After the War Between the States, the economy shifted away from cotton and rice plantations because the labor supply was no longer available.

Railroads provided jobs for 4,000 families in the first part of the 20th century, as Wilmington became a major rail center. The Atlantic Coast Line, the evolution of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, was a technological marvel and the pride of the Wilmington economy at the time. Many an opulent downtown home was built on railroad dollars. Trains moved the area's products efficiently into the inland market, and there was popular speculation that the rails would move the economy into prosperity.

In 1955, the railroad announced the closing of its corporate office and sent a considerable segment of Wilmington's population south to Jacksonville, Florida in 1960. This was a severe economic loss that forced stunned Wilmingtonians to ponder their destiny. Not only were good-paying jobs lost with the railroad, but service businesses all over the area lost steady customers.