Lincoln is the capital of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers 93.46 square miles with a population of 280,364 in 2016. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 71st-largest in the United States. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area in the southeastern part of the state called the Lincoln Metropolitan and Lincoln-Beatrice Combined Statistical Areas. The statistical area is home to 348,720 people, making it the 105th-largest combined statistical area in the United States.The city was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster on the wild salt marshes of what was to become Lancaster County. In 1867, the village of Lancaster became Nebraska's state capital and was renamed Lincoln. The Bertram G. Goodhue designed state capitol building was completed in 1932 and is the second tallest capitol in the United States.