The second largest city in Texas, Dallas is also the seat of Dallas County. The city is located on the rolling prairies of north-central Texas, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of the Oklahoma border and about 33 miles (53 kilometers) east of Fort Worth. The downtown area is situated near the point where the three forks of the Trinity River merge.

Places of interest

Dallas is well known for its cultural activities. These include the opera, ballet, theater, and symphony concerts. The Dallas Theatre Center was designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Other attractions include the State Fair Park, home to the country's largest collection of Art Deco buildings. The park has an aquarium, a garden center, and a concert hall. Fair Park has four museums: The Morton H. Myerson Symphony Center, the African-American Museum of Art and History, the Age of Steam Railroad Museum, and the Science Palace. In 1993 the Dallas Museum of Art opened the Museum of the Americas.

Interesting structures in the city include the Dallas Market Center and the Sculpture Gardens. The John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza is located near the spot where the former American president was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through the city in November of 1963.

Educational institutions in the area include the Bishop College, the Dallas Baptist University, Southern Methodist University, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, University of Dallas, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Richland College.

Economy

Dallas is an important banking and financial center. It is also the chief center for publishing, printing, and advertising in the region. The important industries in the city are food processing and the manufacture of transportation equipment, machinery, and aircraft parts. Clothing manufacture forms an important part of the city's economic activities, and the city is regarded as the region's fashion center. Dallas is also home to more than 100 insurance companies. In addition, many telecommunications companies have offices in the nearby suburb of Richardson.

History

John Neely Bryan, a Tennessee lawyer, founded Dallas in 1841 when he built the first cabin in the area around the riverbank. He mapped out a town site and trading post at a natural crossing point on the east bank of the Trinity River. It is generally believed that the community that grew there was named after George Mifflin Dallas, who was vice president of the United States from 1845 to 1849. However, there are no historical records proving this theory, so the origin of the name of the city is still under dispute.

Dallas grew with the arrival of the railroads in the 1870s. Cotton helped the town's initial growth, followed by oil and insurance. Dallas was incorporated as a town in 1856 and as a city in 1871. A fire destroyed most of the business district in 1860. On September 30, 1930, the great East Texas oil field was discovered, making the city a major center of the petroleum industry. The military buildup of World War II and the Cold War greatly aided the growth of the city's defense industry, when a number of aircraft-manufacturing firms were located in the area. Population (2000 census), 1,188,580.