Dallas – (Fort Worth)
Dallas, a Texas city, has more than one million inhabitants, which becomes almost four with the urban agglomeration. It is a major trading center for oil and cotton, it is also an important financial center. Dallas is also remembered for being the place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Dallas is, the second largest city in Texas if you add the population of the satellite city, Fort Worth, with which it forms a large urban core., despite this, the inhabitants feel that they are in two different cities. It has a prominent skyline, and has more restaurants per capita than New York. Dallas is meant to be a mixture of almost everything, you can find an area similar to Manhattan in the southwest, and it has been regarded as a temple of consumerism, but it is also a magnificent art center, and finally, Dallas is a well-known ecclesiastical center. It is the third largest city in the United States, economically speaking, where many large companies are based, and one of the two cities in Texas where a rodeo takes place every week, as well as having proportionately more shopping malls than any other city in the country.. It has hundreds of square feet dedicated to downtown art galleries and has two churches, the largest Methodist and Baptist in the world. The grounds around Dallas were formerly wooded plains, known as the Cross Timbers.
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As the population continued to grow, it transformed from the initial “Dallas” to the “Greater Dallas” and “Metroplex”, formed by Dallas along with the boroughs of Arlington, Fort Worth and various small towns joined by highways.
History– In the area where present-day Dallas is located, the Anadrako tribes lived when the French traders arrived. But the settlement was not permanent until John Neely Bryan arrived from Tennessee in 1840, when a small trading site was established on the Trinity River. Bryan was joined by other settlers, among them from nearby Arkansas, a character named Joe Dallas, after whom Bryan named the newly created city (although there is no evidence that this actually happened). With the arrival of the railroad, Dallas really became part of the maps, the line connecting Houston and Dallas was built in 1872, and the one between Texas and the Pacific was built in 1873. In May 1864, Dallas was the scene of intense fighting during the Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War.
What to see of the artistic and monumental heritage of Dallas and Fort Worth.
Dallas Arts District — is the most important arts district in the country. In this district is the Dallas Museum of Art, it has collections from Europe from the two Americas, from Africa and Asia. Since its founding in 1903, the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) has worked to build a permanent collection of global significance. Within the district are several historic buildings that have survived, such as the Greek Revival-style Belo Mansion, the St. Paul Methodist Church and the Cathedral Shrine of Guadalupe.
Kimbell Art Museum — has a collection of ancient artifacts, and masterpieces by Fra Angelico, El Greco, Caravaggio, La Tour, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Houdon, Goya, David, Delacroix, Cézanne, Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse, Holbein and Le Brun.
Fair Park – is primarily intended for children, and consists of four separate zones. It also hosts the famous Cotton Bowl football match, as well as theater festivals and concerts. It has an aquarium, natural history museum, and African American history museum, but its highlight is the Hall of State, a giant Art Deco structure that gathers everything about Texas.
Acuarium — is home to a large collection of over 335 species of aquatic animals, including fresh and saltwater fish and include, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians.
Fort Worth Zoo — highlights its magnificent collection of reptiles.
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Stockyards National Historic District of Fort Worth — Cobblestone streets, wooden sidewalks, and copies of antique gas lamps make this small neighborhood 3km north of downtown eye-catching. The Stockyards District was born around the stockyards, the Fort Worth Stockyards, from which more than a million items were shipped every day for Eastern markets. Today the neighborhood allows us to understand what the life of Texas was like a century ago. Saloons and honky-tonk clubs are found throughout the neighborhood, often with live music. The oldest and most characteristic is the White Elephant Saloon. Nearby are the Longhorn Saloon and Billy Bob’s Texas. Considered to be the largest nightclub in the world, Billy Bob’s Texas is housed in a huge building and boasts 42 bars. The neighborhood has a small museum and a steam train. Today the district is in a phase of growing expansion and there are always trendy bars and very popular cafés.
Age of Steam Railroad Museum — Steam Locomotive Museum.
Amon Carter Museum: considered one of the best museums in the country, it was founded by the generosity of Mr. Amon G. Carter (1879-1955), to house his collection of paintings and sculptures, including works by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell.
Biblical Arts Center — This is an unnamed museum whose purpose is to use the arts to help people of all religions clarify or see depicted sites, events and characters from the Bible.
Arboretum and Botanical Garden — 66-acre gardens of great natural beauty located within minutes of downtown Dallas.
Dallas Civic Garden Center — Dedicated to preserving the urban environment through education. The center is located in Fair Park and is a national, historical and cultural landmark and the largest recreation park in the city.
Dallas Historical Society — a Cherokee named Ned and a miner from Tenneesee are the atypical founding fathers.
African American Museum — Museum of African American Life and Culture: was founded in 1974 as part of the Bishop College Library, and is dedicated to the conservation and display of African American artistic, cultural and historical materials.
Six Floor Museum — At the western end of downtown Dallas, this private museum meticulously recreates the environment in which John Kennedy’s assassination took place on November 22, 1963. Located in the warehouse from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy, the exhibition is dedicated to the Kennedy period and to the life of the slain president. The corner window from which the shots were fired has been rebuilt as it was on the day of the assassination. Part of the museum illustrates the different conspiracy theories that challenge the official version.
Reunion tower — This towering 50-story building overlooks Dallas from the western edge of downtown. At the top it has a sphere that contains a restaurant, a cocktail bar and a panoramic area. The Reunion Tower is not the tallest building in the city, but it offers an unforgettable panorama of Dallas and its metropolitan area.
Six Flags Over Texas — is a theme amusement park located in Arlington, halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, with over 100 attractions and shows year-round.
West End Historic District — Bordered by highways and rail lines, this small neighborhood is made up of century-old warehouses that have been revitalized and now become the city’s premier entertainment center. In the north a former candy factory has become the “West End Marketplace, a four-story complex with shops, restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas.
Wet ‘n Wild – is a beautiful valley where you can do a variety of activities. outdoors, camping, swimming in the lake, studying nature, fishing, boating and picnicking.
Tyler State Park — is a 985.5-acre park located in Smith County and a great place to camp, with a lake where you can fish, swim or go boating.
Dinosaur Valley State Park — has some of the best preserved dinosaur footprints in the world.
Dallas City Hall — is an ultra-modern building that created controversy when it opened in 1978. It was designed by architect IM Pei who also designed the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Thanks-giving Square — A haven of peace in the bustle of downtown, this tiny park is filled with waterfalls and gardens and has a bell tower and chapel for all faiths. A small museum traces the origins of the American tradition of Thanksgiving, the holiday of Thanksgiving, and expresses a feeling of gratitude for life in all its many forms.
Deep Ellum — the jazz and blues district, filled with restaurants, shops and nightlife spots.
Wilson Block Historic District — is a group of houses built between 1898 and 1902, located east of downtown.
Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth — the oldest in Texas, has exhibits featuring works by leading 20th-century artists.
Cowtown Coliseum — site where rodeos have been held since 1908.
Plaza Sundance — In the heart of downtown Fort Worth is Sundance Square, whose name recalls the city’s past as a Far West resort. Filled with early 20th-century commercial buildings, the brick-paved streets of Sundance Square offer theaters, shops and restaurants. The city’s symphony orchestra, dance and opera company are based in this district.
The Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art — displays 60 works by Western artists.
Fort Worth Water Gardens — On the site of Fort Worth’s historic Red Light District dating back to the Far West, this two-acre park has waterfalls, streams and fountains. Built in concrete to a design by Philip Johnson, the Water Gardens provide some relief on hot summer days.
The city’s economy, now strong and consolidated, is based on the exploitation of oil fields, on industries, oriented towards electronics, clothing, cotton and furniture, and on a large network of powerful insurance companies. Now Dallas is teeming with towering glass skyscrapers, an airport with 50 million passengers a year, and the highest US average of Cadillacs per inhabitant, a number equal only to that of the richest Arab Emirates.
Houston
Houston was founded in 1836 in southwestern Texas. Its metropolitan area is one of the five most populated in the American territory. It was named after the first president of the Republic of Texas, General Sam Houston. The city of Houston is located near the Galveston Bay, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, with which it is connected through a canal that allows the navigation of large ships. The city is surrounded by the San Jacinto River and a series of streams and wetlands. Given its latitude and proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, Houston enjoys a semi-tropical climate, with short, mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. The average annual temperature is 20’5 ° C, 12 ° C in January and 29 ° C during the month of July.
History– The region where Houston is located today has a long, rich and varied history. Groups of descendants of the first humans who crossed the Bering Strait settled there many thousands of years before our era. Those tribes gradually spread, establishing an indigenous culture on the Gulf of Mexico, in the north section of the coast of the present state of Texas. Various reports by Spanish explorers, written in the 15th and 16th centuries, mention the earliest encounters between Europeans and the natives of East Texas. According to the description of the Spaniards, the natives were ferocious and bloodthirsty, so visitors opted to continue to other regions of the southwest, and the area that now occupies Houston remained uninhabited for a long time. At the end of the war of 1812, some Caribbean buccaneers, including Jean Lafitte, they settled briefly on Galveston Island, south of the city of Houston. Even today the legend is told that affirms the existence of the pirate treasure presumably buried there by Lafitte and his companions. Less than twenty years later, immigrants from US territories began arriving in Texas; at that time, the area was part of the territory of Mexico which had gained independence from Spain in 1818. At first Mexico welcomed the new settlers, but as the population of North Americans grew, disputes arose between them. and the Mexican government. The controversy turned into a war for independence that began in 1836. The area where Houston is located today was the epicenter of the conflict, won by the Americans thanks to bloody surprise attacks. General Sam Houston distinguished himself in the war and after the independence of the Republic of Texas he served as the first president of the new nation. In homage to this character, the city of Houston bears his name. Houston grew slowly but steadily. In 1870, according to the population census, this was the third largest city in Texas, as well as a vital center of river and rail transportation. It was primarily a distribution center, but at the same time an active wood industry was beginning to emerge. Three events during the first sixty years of the twentieth century marked Houston indelibly, and transformed the quiet city into the most important metropolis of the southwestern United States. In the first place, the discovery of oil in 1901 which generated immense fortunes and gave Houston enormous economic power. The second, occurred in 1914, and was the construction of a navigable canal, a colossal project that transformed Houston into an oil port. The third event was NASA’s decision in 1961 to establish the center of operations for space flights in Houston.
The world oil crisis of 1973, which occurred due to the decision of OPEP, (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), to control the production of crude oil, consecrated Houston as the country’s energy center. As a result of this, in the mid-1980s, the city was home to eight of the ten largest companies in the energy sector, as well as two hundred refineries and more than five thousand related companies. Despite the oil, Houston has begun a phase of industrial diversification that has led it to become a center of services and information.
What to see Tourist places and culture– When it comes to higher education, Houston is one of the largest academic centers in the country, with three renowned institutions. The oldest is Rice University, while the largest is the University of Houston. Texas Southern University is the third most prestigious institution. Rice University is home to one of the largest scientific resources in the country, (the Woodson Center for Research) which houses, among others, an important archive on the history of the American space adventure.
Houston is one of four cities in the country that has permanent ballet, theater and opera companies, as well as a symphony orchestra. The Wortham Center, an impressive cultural complex, is home to the Houston Great Opera and the Houston Ballet.
Houston is full of museums and galleries, such as the Museum of Natural Sciences and the Museum of Art of the American West. The Museum of Fine Arts offers an important collection of American decorative arts. Houston is also home to the famous Menil Collection featuring 20th Century, Medieval and Byzantine artwork. It is located inside a remarkable modern building designed by the architect Renzo Piano. The largest section is the one dedicated to surrealist painting. The museum also has a high-end collection of Cubist works, by Picasso and Braque in particular, as well as a number of 20th-century American works by Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. Separate sections display ancient and medieval art from the Mediterranean. A section is dedicated to the works of the indigenous peoples of Africa, of the South Pacific and the Pacific Coastal Region of North America. A few steps eastwards lead to the ecumenical Rothko Chapel, a simple concrete room built to house a series of large abstract paintings by the American Mark Rothko.
Montrose District — “Montrose” is the name of a series of lively galleries, shops, clubs, cafes and restaurants with an alternative flavor along Montrose Street. Montrose District is one of the few neighborhoods in Houston that can be traveled on foot, very busy in the evenings on weekends.
Space Center Houston — Near the Johnson Space Center, the control base for all American space exploration with astronauts since 1965, this center illustrates the story of the conquest of space. Interactive sections are interesting for young people and allow you to try on space helmets, touch the moon rocks and closely observe the interior of the space shuttles of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The main attraction of the Space Center is the visit to the control structures still in operation that guided the historic mission to the Moon.
Economy– Lively economic activity of the city based on the great agricultural and mining resources, on the flourishing industrial activity and on the commercial activity centered on the port, the third in the country. It is home to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, NASA’s base of operations and training center for space flights. In the last 25 years its population, very heterogeneous (Asians, blacks, Hispanics) has increased fivefold. The entire population of the Houston metropolitan area is 3.7 million people.
