Nashua

Nashua, city in southern New Hampshire. The seat of Hillsborough County, Nashua is located at the junction of the Merrimack and Nashua rivers. It was the second largest city in New Hampshire at the 2000 census, after Manchester. Nashua is a medical, retail trade, and manufacturing center. Rivier College (1933) and Daniel Webster College (1965) are here.

Nashua developed as a textile-milling center during the mid-19th century; this development was facilitated by the availability of waterpower and by the city's transportation link to Boston, via the Merrimack River and the Middlesex Canal (1804). Although the textile mills closed after World War II (1939-1945), Nashua's creation of a diverse industrial base has provided the means for the city's continued growth in the late 20th century. Population 67,865 (1980); 79,662 (1990); 86,605 (2000); 87,157 (2006).