Baton Rouge is Louisiana’s second largest city as well as being the capital of the state. It can be found in East Baton Rouge Parish, by the southeast part of the state by the Mississippi River. The population is around 227,017. Historically it was the Istrouma Bluff (which was the first bluff upriver from the Mississippi River Delta) that lends protection to Baton Rouge’s residents against flooding and other natural disasters. The city also built a levee system which hails from the bluff southward to protect the riverfront and low-lying agricultural areas. Today it is a very prestigious medical, petrochemical and industrial research center and as a region is known as the “Capital Area.”