Coat of Arms of Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south east of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, head town of Bahia Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the .

The city has an important sea port with a depth of 40 feet (12 m), kept constant upstream almost all along the length of the bay, where the Naposta Stream drains.

Bahía Blanca means "White Bay". The name is due to the typical colour of the salt covering the soils surrounding the shores. The bay (which is actually an estuary) was seen by Ferdinand Magellan during the first circumnavigation around the world on the orders of Charles I of Spain, in 1520, looking for a canal connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean all along the coasts of South America.

Foundation
The city was founded as a fortress on 11 April 1828 by Colonel Ramón Estomba under the orders of Brigadier-General and subsequent Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, being named Fortaleza Protectora Argentina (Argentine Protective Fortress), intended to protect dwellers and their cattle from native rustling, and also to protect the coast from the Brazilian navy, which had landed in the area the previous year. It was visited by Charles Darwin during his travels through South America in September 1833. The fortress was attacked by malones (incursions of nomadic aboriginals on horseback) several times, most notably in 1859 by 3,000 Calfucurá warriors. It became commercially important after the construction of a railroad by the British in 1885 linking the city of Buenos Aires to the town.In doing so, the trade of grains from the Pampas was much facillitated.

The fast growth of the local economy, the policy of encouragement of immigration from Europe and the abundance of natural resources of the country attracted many immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy, and a remarkable amount from France, who settled in Pigüé, about 125 km to the north of the city (these were visited in 1984 by the President of France, François Mitterrand alongside his host, President Raúl Alfonsín). Another important foreign settlement close to the city was of Dutch settlers, in Tres Arroyos, located about 250 km north east. They were recently visited by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, her heir Prince Willem-Alexander and her daughter-in-law Princess Máxima, née Máxima Zorreguieta, in Argentina, raised and educated in Buenos Aires. Important groups of immigrants from Germany and jews from Eastern Europe did also arrive in the city and in the area at the beginning of the XXth century, and also during and after World War II.

European immigrants brought their uses and customs that combined and fused with the already existing social conceptions. There were at least five opera houses in Bahía Blanca at the beginning of the 20th century and six cinemas by 1920.

Puerto Belgrano, located 29 km to the south-east, is Argentina's largest naval base. Its construction started with a secret decree signed by Argentine President José Evaristo...