Welcome to Arlington!
Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas (USA) within the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area. According to a U.S
Census Bureau release, as of July 1, 2006 Arlington has an estimated population of 367,197. Arlington is the 7th largest city in Texas and the
49th largest city in the United States.
Located approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of downtown Fort Worth and 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Dallas,
Arlington is home to the Texas Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington and the theme parks Six Flags Over Texas, which is the original Six Flags, and
Hurricane Harbor. The Dallas Cowboys' new stadium will also be located in Arlington. The city borders Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and
Fort Worth, and surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego.
White settlement in the Arlington area dates back at least to the 1840s. After the May 24, 1841 battle between General Edward H. Tarrant
(Tarrant County is named for him) and Native Americans of the Village Creek settlement, a trading post was established at Marrow Bone Spring in
present-day Arlington. The rich soil of the area attracted farmers, and several agriculture-related businesses were well established by the late
nineteenth century.
Arlington was founded in 1876 along the Texas and Pacific Railroad. The city was named after General Robert E. Lee's Arlington House (in
present-day Arlington County, Virginia). Arlington grew as a cotton-ginning and farming center, and incorporated in 1884. The city could boast of
water, electricity, natural gas, and telephone services by 1910, along with a public school system. By 1925 the population was estimated at
3,031, and it grew to over four thousand before World War II.
Large-scale industrialization began in 1954 with the arrival of a General Motors assembly plant. Automotive and aerospace development gave the
city one of the nation's greatest population growth rates between 1950 and 1990. Arlington became one of the "boomburbs," the extremely
fast-growing suburbs of the post-World War II era. U.S. Census Bureau population figures for the city tell the story: 7,692 (1950), 90,229
(1970), 261,721 (1990), and 359,467 (2004 estimate). Tom Vandergriff served as mayor from 1951 to 1977 during this period of explosive
development. Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington in 1961, and in 1972 the Washington Senators baseball team relocated to Arlington and began
play as the Texas Rangers. A noted heavy metal band from Arlington, Pantera, formed in 1981.
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