Dallas, Texas Discount Car Rentals

Dallas Attractions and Things to See

Dallas, Texas needs little introduction, since it is the third biggest city in the state, and the ninth largest in the nation, that was founded in 1841, and incorporated as a city in 1856. It is situated in north Texas, one of the most significant cities in the south and the nucleus of the biggest inland metro area in the country, with an outstanding economy that includes telecommunications, energy, banking, transportation, commerce and computer technology, with numerous Fortune 500 companies claiming the city as home. It is the biggest metro area in the United States that is landlocked, and its historical significance in the cotton and oil business, as well as railroads, have made this city what it is today. Over the years, it has continued to develop a strong financial and industrial industry, and is considered a major inland port, thanks to the location of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, one of the busiest and biggest in the world, and helps to rate it as a beta world city.

Its historical importance started during the 19th century, when it would be fought over to become an independent nation, only to become part of the United States, after being threatened and defeated numerous times by the Mexican invaders. It has been inhabited by the Caddo Native Americans, and then part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, with France even laying claim to it huge land mass, but in 1819, the Adam-Onis Treaty made the Red River the northern boundary of New Spain, that would put the future Dallas in the Spanish territory. It would remain part of Mexico until 1821, when the country declared its independence from Spain and became part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Then, in 1836, the Republic of Texas separated itself from Mexico to become an independent nation.

While the city does have a few buildings over 700 feet in height, some of its architecture dates from the late 19th and 20th centuries, with most of the noteworthy architecture being styled in the modernist and postmodernist periods, with outstanding iconic examples like the JFK Memorial, I. M. Pei's Dallas City Hall, Reunion Tower and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Dallas is famous for its barbeque, Tex-Mex dishes and authentic Mexican, with well known products like frozen margaritas, and the chain restaurants of Romano' Macaroni Grill and Chili's. Zagat Survey named the Fearing's restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Dallas hotel to be the best hotel restaurant in the nation for 2009, with a good amount of excellent steak houses the includes Bob's Steak and Chop House, presently ranked number 1 on the USDA Prime Steakhouses chart.

The city has a fabulous arts district in the northern area of downtown that include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Dallas Children's theater, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center where the Dallas Symphony Orchestra resides, the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Contemporary. The AT&T Dallas Center for the Performing Arts houses the City Performance Hall, the Winspear Opera House and the Dee and Charles Wyly theater, as well as DISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a magnet school that has just been enlarged. The city has many excellent night clubs that have become venues for jazz and blues, and Deep Ellum, an entertainment and arts district in east Dallas near the downtown area is home to many hundreds of artists that live in lofts and operate from their studios all through the district at concert venues, bars and pubs.

Dallas is home to 406 city parks that occupy 21,000 acres, with their flagship park called Fair Park that hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, with 17 lakes contained in the various parks, 447 athletic fields, 47 community and neighborhood centers, 60 swimming pools, 112 volleyball courts, 276 sports fields, 126 play slabs, 173 basketball courts, six 18-hole gold courts, two driving ranges, 232 playgrounds, 258 picnic areas and 258 neighborhood tennis courts.