Nitro is a city in Kanawha and Putnam counties in the State of West Virginia, along the Kanawha River.

The population was 7,178 at the 2010 census. Nitro is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 287,702. New definitions from February 28, 2013 placed the population at 363,000. Nitro was incorporated in 1932 by Circuit Court.

City name origin

The name Nitro derives from nitrocellulose, the main ingredient in smokeless gunpowder.[5] The Nitro area was to be the American ammunition production facility during World War I. Daniel C. Jackling "supervised the construction and operation" of the plant, which by the time of the armistice "was producing one hundred thousand pounds of high explosives per day." Its name was selected by the United States government because of the establishment there, during World War I, of a large federal plant for the manufacture of explosives. The city is known as "a Living Memorial to World War I."

Geography

Nitro is located at 38°24′55″N 81°49′52″W (38.415281, -81.831249), primarily in Kanawha County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.67 square miles (12.10 km2), of which, 4.28 square miles (11.09 km2) is land and 0.39 square miles (1.01 km2) is water. The city lies across the Kanawha River from the city of St. Albans to the south, and is adjacent to the census-designated place of Cross Lanes.

Education

The city's public school students do not all attend the same schools, because West Virginia school districts are divided strictly along county lines, without regard to city boundaries.

Kanawha County residents are served by the following schools in the city:

• Nitro Elementary School (public)


• Nitro High School (public)

There is no public middle school in Nitro on either side of the county line, nor is there any public school within the Putnam County portion of the city. Middle school students in Kanawha County must bus to Andrew Jackson Middle School in Cross Lanes. Putnam County students must bus to Rock Branch Elementary, Poca Middle, and Poca High.