Novosibirsk is the administrative centre of the Novosibirsk region, situated on the Ob river. The city was founded in 1893 when the railway bridge across the Ob river has been building. The city is an academic centre with a population of 1446000. The university and the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Science are located in Novosibirsk. Among the places to see is the Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral, built in 1897. The main industries are the instrument making, the machine building, the ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy and the working of precious metals. There is also a cable-producing plant. The city has metro.