Cambridge (2006 population 120,371) is a city located on the Grand River and Speed River in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.Cambridge was formed in 1973 when the city of Galt merged with the towns of Preston and Hespeler and parts of the townships of Waterloo and North Dumfries. When amalgamation plans were first announced, the combined city was to be named Galt, but Preston and Hespeler successfully petitioned the province to instead give the city a new name, to be selected by a referendum on choices submitted by the three members. A ruffled Galt submitted ‘Blair’, while Preston and Hespeler combined to back ‘Cambridge’, after ‘Cambridge Mills’, an early name for the settlement that became Preston. The first mayor of Cambridge was Claudette Miller, who at the time was one of the few female mayors, and at 35 the youngest mayor, in Canada. On May 17, 1974 flooding on the Grand River was so intense it filled city streets with water to a depth of about four feet. Hundreds of businesses and homes were severely damaged.----------------In 1988, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada opened a plant in Cambridge, which employed 4,300 people as of July 2005 and is by far the city’s largest employer. Although highly beneficial to the town, traffic issues caused by slow-moving and long trains passing through main traffic routes to deliver material to the plant have caused some frustration in residents. Several other industrial companies also call Cambridge home, including Gerdau Ameristeel, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, Frito-Lay Canada (formerly Hostess), Babcock and Wilcox, Northstar Aerospace, and Com Dev.-------------A satellite campus of Conestoga College is located within the city, and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture has moved to downtown Cambridge. Public english-language schooling is provided by the Waterloo Region District School Board, which operates 26 elementary and five secondary schools in Cambridge. High schools in the city include the 150-year old Galt Collegiate Institute and Vocational School , Ontario's oldest continuously operating public high school. Commonly called the Castle on the Grand because of the architecture and imposing view on the east bank of the River. Publicly-funded Catholic education is available through schools operated by the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. The WCDSB runs 15 elementary and two secondary schools in the city. Cambridge is also home to the only French Catholic High School in the region; École secondaire Père-René-de-Galinée. Even with a handful of new schools opening their doors in the city, the literacy rate still hovers at an unimpressive 91%, well below the national average.----------Cambridge is home to a number of cultural events and activities, including the Mill Race Festival and Rock the Mill music festivals in downtown Galt. There's also the Wings of Paradise butterfly conservatory, and the Southworks Outlets district.