Fort Worth, Texas

The Treaty of Bird's Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in 1843 at Bird's Fort in present-day Arlington, Texas.[16][17] Article XI of the treaty provided that no one may "pass the line of trading houses" (at the border of the Indians' territory) without permission of the President of Texas, and may not reside or remain in the Indians' territory. These "trading houses" were later established at the junction of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River in present-day Fort Worth.[18] At this river junction, the U.S. War Department established Fort Worth in 1849 as the northernmost of a system of 10 forts for protecting the American Frontier following the end of the Mexican–American War.[19] The city of Fort Worth continues to be known as "where the West begins".[11]

A line of seven army posts was established in 1848–49 after the Mexican War to protect the settlers of Texas along the western American Frontier and included Fort Worth, Fort Graham, Fort Gates, Fort Croghan, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Lincoln, and Fort Duncan.[20] Originally, 10 forts had been proposed by Major General William Jenkins Worth (1794–1849), who commanded the Department of Texas in 1849. In January 1849, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month later, Worth died from cholera in South Texas.[20]

General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold (Company F, Second United States Dragoons)[20] to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, Arnold, advised by Middleton Tate Johnson, established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of the late General Worth. In August 1849, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The United States War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14, 1849.[21]

Native American attacks were still a threat in the area, as this was their traditional territory and they resented encroachment by European-American settlers, but people from the United States set up homesteads near the fort. E. S. Terrell (1812–1905) from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth.[22] The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff; the current courthouse was built on this site. The fort was abandoned September 17, 1853.[20] No trace of it remains.

As a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives and became a brawling, bustling town. Millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. It was given the nickname of Cowtown.[23]

During the Civil War, Fort Worth suffered from shortages of money, food, and supplies. The population dropped as low as 175, but began to recover during Reconstruction. By 1872, Jacob Samuels, William Jesse Boaz, and William Henry Davis had opened general stores. The next year, Khleber M. Van Zandt established Tidball, Van Zandt, and Company, which became Fort Worth National Bank in 1884.

In 1875, the Dallas Herald published an article by a former Fort Worth lawyer, Robert E. Cowart, who wrote that the decimation of Fort Worth's population, caused by the economic disaster and hard winter of 1873, had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry. Added to the slowdown due to the railroad's stopping the laying of track 30 miles (48 km) outside of Fort Worth, Cowart said that Fort Worth was so slow that he saw a panther asleep in the street by the courthouse. Although an intended insult, the name Panther City was enthusiastically embraced when in 1876 Fort Worth recovered economically.[24] Many businesses and organizations continue to use Panther in their name. A panther is set at the top of the police department badges.[25]

Lithograph of Fort Worth, 1876

The "Panther City" tradition is also preserved in the names and design of some of the city's geographical/architectural features, such as Panther Island (in the Trinity River), the Flat Iron Building, Fort Worth Central Station, and in two or three "Sleeping Panther" statues.

Map – showing – the Geographical location of Fort-Worth, Tex., and Rail-Roads, 1888

In 1876, the Texas and Pacific Railway finally was completed to Fort Worth, stimulating a boom and transforming the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier center for the cattle wholesale trade.[26] Migrants from the devastated war-torn South continued to swell the population, and small, community factories, and mills yielded to larger businesses. Newly dubbed the "Queen City of the Prairies",[27] Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network.

Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. Louville Niles, a Boston, Massachusetts-based businessman and main shareholder of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company, is credited with bringing the two biggest meatpacking firms at the time, Armour and Swift, to the stockyards.[28]

With the boom times came a variety of entertainments and related problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth north to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then rode northward with their cattle, only to whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to "Hell's Half-Acre", the biggest collection of saloons, dance halls, and bawdy houses south of Dodge City (the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail), giving Fort Worth the nickname of the "Paris of the Plains".[29][30]

Certain sections of town were off-limits for proper citizens. Shootings, knifings, muggings, and brawls became a nightly occurrence. Cowboys were joined by a motley assortment of buffalo hunters, gunmen, adventurers, and crooks. Hell's Half Acre (also known as simply "The Acre") expanded as more people were drawn to the town. Occasionally, the Acre was referred to as "the bloody Third Ward" after it was designated one of the city's three political wards in 1876. By 1900, the Acre covered four of the city's main north-south thoroughfares.[31] Local citizens became alarmed about the activities, electing Timothy Isaiah "Longhair Jim" Courtright in 1876 as city marshal with a mandate to tame it.

Courtright sometimes collected and jailed 30 people on a Saturday night, but allowed the gamblers to operate, as they attracted money to the city. After learning that train and stagecoach robbers, such as the Sam Bass gang, were using the area as a hideout, he intensified law enforcement, but certain businessmen advertised against too many restrictions in the area as having bad effects on the legitimate businesses. Gradually, the cowboys began to avoid the area; as businesses suffered, the city moderated its opposition. Courtright lost his office in 1879.[31]

Despite crusading mayors such as H. S. Broiles and newspaper editors such as B. B. Paddock, the Acre survived because it generated income for the city (all of it illegal) and excitement for visitors. Longtime Fort Worth residents claimed the place was never as wild as its reputation, but during the 1880s, Fort Worth was a regular stop on the "gambler's circuit"[31] by Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and the Earp brothers (Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil). James Earp, the eldest of his brothers, lived with his wife in Fort Worth during this period; their house was at the edge of Hell's Half Acre, at 9th and Calhoun. He often tended bar at the Cattlemen's Exchange saloon in the "uptown" part of the city.[32]

Reforming citizens objected to the dance halls, where men and women mingled; by contrast, the saloons or gambling parlors had primarily male customers.

In the late 1880s, Mayor Broiles and County Attorney R. L. Carlock initiated a reform campaign. In a public shootout on February 8, 1887, Jim Courtright was killed on Main Street by Luke Short, who claimed he was "King of Fort Worth Gamblers".[31] As Courtright had been popular, when Short was jailed for his murder, rumors floated of lynching him. Short's good friend Bat Masterson came armed and spent the night in his cell to protect him.

The first prohibition campaign in Texas was mounted in Fort Worth in 1889, allowing other business and residential development in the area. Another change was the influx of Black residents. Excluded by state segregation from the business end of town and the more costly residential areas, the city's black citizens settled into the southern portion of the city. The popularity and profitability of the Acre declined and more derelicts and the homeless were seen on the streets. By 1900, most of the dance halls and gamblers were gone. Cheap variety shows and prostitution became the chief forms of entertainment. Some politicians sought reforms under the Progressive Era.[31]

Texas and Pacific Railway yard in Fort Worth, 1916

Postcard of the Fort Worth business district, 1921

Texas and Pacific Passenger Station, Fort Worth, Texas (postcard, circa 1909)

In 1911, the Reverend J. Frank Norris launched an offensive against racetrack gambling in the Baptist Standard and used the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth to attack vice and prostitution. When he began to link certain Fort Worth businessmen with property in the Acre and announced their names from his pulpit, the battle heated up. On February 4, 1912, Norris's church was burned to the ground; that evening, his enemies tossed a bundle of burning oiled rags onto his porch, but the fire was extinguished and caused minimal damage. A month later, the arsonists succeeded in burning down the parsonage. In a sensational trial lasting a month, Norris was charged with perjury and arson in connection with the two fires. He was acquitted, but his continued attacks on the Acre accomplished little until 1917. A new city administration and the federal government, which was eyeing Fort Worth as a potential site for a major military training camp, joined forces with the Baptist preacher to bring down the final curtain on the Acre.

President Kennedy in Fort Worth on Friday morning, November 22, 1963: He was assassinated in Dallas later in the day.

The police department compiled statistics showing that 50% of the violent crime in Fort Worth occurred in the Acre, which confirmed respectable citizens' opinion of the area. After Camp Bowie (a World War I U.S. Army training installation) was located on the outskirts of Fort Worth in 1917, the military used martial law to regulate prostitutes and barkeepers of the Acre. Fines and stiff jail sentences curtailed their activities. By the time Norris held a mock funeral parade to "bury John Barleycorn" in 1919, the Acre had become a part of Fort Worth history. The name continues to be associated with the southern end of Fort Worth.[33]

On March 28, 2000, at 6:15 pm, an F3 tornado struck downtown Fort Worth, severely damaging many buildings. One of the hardest-hit structures was the Bank One Tower, which was one of the dominant features of the Fort Worth skyline and which had Reata, a popular restaurant, on its top floor. It has since been converted to upscale condominiums and officially renamed "The Tower". This was the first major tornado to strike Fort Worth proper since the early 1940s.[34]

When oil began to gush in West Texas in the early 20th century, and again in the late 1970s, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and dealing. In July 2007, advances in horizontal drilling technology made vast natural gas reserves in the Barnett Shale available directly under the city,[35] helping many residents receive royalty checks for their mineral rights. Today, the city of Fort Worth and many residents are dealing with the benefits and issues associated with the natural-gas reserves underground.[36][37]

Fort Worth was the fastest-growing large city in the United States from 2000 to 2006;[38] it was voted one of "America's Most Livable Communities".[39]

In 2020, Fort Worth's mayor announced the city's continued growth to 20.78%.[40] The U.S. Census Bureau also noted the city's beginning of diversification from 2014-2018.[41]

Phyllis J. Tilley Memorial Bridge

W 7th bridge bikeway, 2015

Fort Worth is located in North Texas, and has a generally humid subtropical climate.[42] It is part of the Cross Timbers region;[43] this region is a boundary between the more heavily forested eastern parts and the rolling hills and prairies of the central part. Specifically, the city is part of the Grand Prairie ecoregion within the Cross Timbers. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 349.2 square miles (904 km²), of which 342.2 square miles (886 km²) are land and 7.0 square miles (18 km²) are covered by water. It is a principal city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and the second largest.

The city of Fort Worth is not entirely contiguous and has several enclaves, practical enclaves, semienclaves, and cities that are otherwise completely or nearly surrounded by it, including: Westworth Village, River Oaks, Saginaw, Blue Mound, Benbrook, Everman, Forest Hill, Edgecliff Village, Westover Hills, White Settlement, Sansom Park, Lake Worth, Lakeside, and Haslet.

Fort Worth contains over 1,000 natural-gas wells (December 2009 count) tapping the Barnett Shale.[44] Each well site is a bare patch of gravel 2–5 acres (8,100–20,200 m²) in size. As city ordinances permit them in all zoning categories, including residential, well sites can be found in a variety of locations. Some wells are surrounded by masonry fences, but most are secured by chain link.

A large storage dam was completed in 1914 on the West Fork of the Trinity River, 7 miles (11 km) from the city, with a storage capacity of 33,495 acre feet of water.[45] The lake formed by this dam is known as Lake Worth.

Stockyards

Entrance to the Fort Worth Stockyards, 2012

Sundance Square Plaza, 2013

The Fort Worth Stockyards are a National Historic District.[46] The Stockyards was once among the largest livestock markets in the United States and played a vital role in the city's early growth.[47] Today the neighborhood is characterized by its many bars, restaurants, and notable country music venues such as Billy Bob's. Fort Worth celebrity chef Tim Love of Iron Chef America and Top Chef Masters operates multiple restaurants in the neighborhood.[48][49]

Architecture

See also: List of tallest buildings in Fort Worth

Tarrant County Courthouse

Downtown Fort Worth, with its unique rustic architecture, is mainly known for its Art Deco-style buildings. The Tarrant County Courthouse was created in the American Beaux Arts design, which was modeled after the Texas State Capitol building. Most of the structures around Sundance Square have preserved their early 20th-century façades. Multiple blocks surrounding Sundance Square are illuminated at night in Christmas lights year-round, the only city in Texas to do so.

Fort Worth is the most populous city in Tarrant County, and second-most populous community within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its metropolitan area encompasses one-quarter of the population of Texas, and is the largest in the Southern U.S. and Texas followed by the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. Per the American Community Survey's 2018 estimates, Fort Worth had a population near 900,000 residents.[41] In 2019, it grew to an estimated 909,585.

There were 337,072 housing units, 308,188 households, and 208,389 families at the 2018 census estimates.[62] The average household size was 2.87 persons per household, and the average family size was 3.50. Fort Worth had an owner-occupied housing rate of 56.4% and renter-occupied housing rate of 43.6%. The median income in 2018 was $58,448 and the mean income was $81,165.[63] The city had a per capita income of $29,010.[64] Roughly 15.6% of Fort Worthers lived at or below the poverty line.[65]

In 2010's American Community Survey census estimates there were 291,676 housing units,[66] 261,042 households, and 174,909 families.[67] Fort Worth had an average household size of 2.78 and the average family size was 3.47. A total of 92,952 households had children under 18 years living with them. There were 5.9% opposite sex unmarried-partner households and 0.5% same sex unmarried-partner households in 2010. The owner-occupied housing rate of Fort Worth was 59.0% and the renter-occupied housing rate was 41.0%. Fort Worth's median household income was $48,224 and the mean was $63,065.[68] An estimated 21.4% of the population lived at or below the poverty line.[69]

Religion

St. Patrick Cathedral

Fort Worth is part of the Bible Belt and as such Christianity is the largest religious group. While the city of Dallas and Dallas County have more Catholic than Protestant residents, Fort Worth and Tarrant County are home to more Protestants than Catholics. Overall, the Dallas metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is more religiously diverse than Fort Worth and its surrounding suburbs.

The largest Christian group in Fort Worth as of 2018 are Baptists (18.1%).[76] The Baptist community of Fort Worth is dominated by the Southern Baptist Convention,[77] National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc,[78] National Baptist Convention of America International, Inc,[79] and the Texas Baptists.[80] The second largest Christian group are Catholics (7.1%), served primarily by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.[81] Methodists (3.9%) form the third largest group followed by Pentecostals (1.6%), Latter-day Saints (1.6%) Lutherans (1.1%), Episcopalians or Anglicans (0.6%), Presbyterians (0.5%), and other Christians including the United Church of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Eastern Orthodox Church (6.5%).[76]

St. Vincent's Cathedral of the ACNA's Fort Worth Diocese

The Episcopal or Anglican community in Fort Worth are primarily divided between the Episcopal Church in the United States and Anglican Church in North America. The Anglican Communion-affiliated Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is part of the Episcopal Church. The Anglican Church in North America has a parallel hierarchy also named the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. The latter body was formed in schism from the Episcopal Church in the United States.[82]

Methodist organizations dividing Methodist Christians include the United Methodist Church and African Methodist Episcopal Church.[83] Fort Worth is the episcopal seat of the Central Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Church of God in Christ and Assemblies of God USA comprise a significant number of Pentecostals,[84] and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest Latter-day Saint body in the city and surrounding area.[85] Lutherans are split among the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and other smaller bodies, and the Eastern Orthodox community is primarily served by the OCA Diocese of the South and Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.[86][87]

The oldest continuously operating church in Fort Worth is First Christian Church, founded in 1855.[88] Other historical churches continuing operation in the city include St. Patrick Cathedral (founded 1888), Saint James Second Street Baptist Church (founded 1895), Tabernacle Baptist Church (built 1923), St. Mary of the Assumption Church (built 1924), Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church and Parsonage (built 1929 and 1911), and Morning Chapel C.M.E. Church (built 1934).

About 1.2% of Fort Worth's population identified with Islam in 2018.[76] More than two mosques exist in the city and most are affiliated with Sunni Islam, though some Ahmadiyya and Shia Muslim mosques are also present.[89] Fort Worth has a small Jewish community forming 0.1% of the religious demographic, and followers of Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism make up less than 0.1% of Fort Worth's religiously-affiliated community.[76]

At its inception, Fort Worth relied on cattle drives that traveled the Chisholm Trail. Millions of cattle were driven north to market along this trail, and Fort Worth became the center of cattle drives, and later, ranching until the Civil War. During the Civil War, Fort Worth suffered shortages causing its population to decline. It recovered during the Reconstruction Era with general stores, banks, and "Hell's Half-Acre", a large collection of saloons and dance halls which increased business and criminal activity in the city. By the early 20th century the military used martial law to regulate Hell's Half-Acre's bartenders and prostitutes.

Since the late 20th century several major companies have been headquartered in Fort Worth. These include American Airlines Group (and subsidiaries American Airlines and Envoy Air), the John Peter Smith Hospital, Pier 1 Imports, Chip 1 Exchange,[90] RadioShack, Pioneer Corporation, Cash America International, GM Financial,[91] Budget Host, the BNSF Railway, and Bell Textron. Companies with a significant presence in the city are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Lockheed Martin, GE Transportation, and Dallas-based telecommunications company AT&T. Metro by T-Mobile is also prominent in the city.

In 2013, Fort Worth-Arlington ranked 15th on Forbes' list of the "Best Places for Business and Careers".[92] In 2018, Fortune named Fort Worth the 18th best city for Hispanic entrepreneurs.[93] In 2018, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex ranked 18th on U.S. News & World Report's list of "125 Best Places to Live in the USA".[94]

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is adjacent to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

American Airlines DC-3 NC21798 "Flagship Knoxville" on permanent display at the CR Smith Museum

The Japanese Gardens at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, 2011

Building on its Frontier Western heritage and a history of strong local arts patronage, Fort Worth promotes itself as the "City of Cowboys and Culture".[95] Fort Worth has the world's first and largest indoor rodeo, world class museums, a calendar of festivals and a robust local arts scene. The Academy of Western Artists, based in Gene Autry, Oklahoma, presents its annual awards in Fort Worth in fields related to the American cowboy, including music, literature, and even chuck wagon cooking.[96]

Parks

The Fort Worth Water Gardens

Fort Worth has a total of 263 parks with 179 of those being neighborhood parks. The total acres of park land is 11,700.72 acres with the average being about 12.13 acres per park.[103]

The 4.3 acre (1.7 hectare) Fort Worth Water Gardens, designed by noted New York architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, is an urban park containing three pools of water and terraced knolls; the Water Gardens are billed as a "cooling oasis in the concrete jungle" of downtown. Heritage Park Plaza is a Modernist-style park that was designed by Lawrence Halprin.[104] The plaza design incorporates a set of interconnecting rooms constructed of concrete and activated throughout by flowing water walls, channels, and pools and was added to the US National Register of Historic Places on May 10, 2010.[105]

There are two off-leash dog parks located in the city, ZBonz Dog Park and Fort Woof. Fort Woof was recognized by Dog Fancy Magazine as the No. 1 Dog Park in the Nation in 2006, and as City Voter's the Best Dog Park in DFW in 2009. The park includes an agility course, water fountains, shaded shelters, and waste stations.[106]

Farrington Field, home of the Fort Worth Vaqueros FC

While much of Fort Worth's sports attention is focused on Dallas's professional sports teams,[107] the city has its own athletic identity. The TCU Horned Frogs compete in NCAA Division I athletics, including the football team, consistently ranked in the top 25, and the baseball team, which has competed in the last six NCAA tournaments and 3 straight College World Series, coming within a win of making the College World Series finals in 2009 and 2016. The women's basketball team has competed in the last seven NCAA tournaments. Texas Wesleyan University competes in the NAIA, and won the 2006 NAIA Div. I Men's Basketball championship and three-time National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) team championships (2004–2006). Fort Worth is also home to the NCAA football Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, as well as four amateur sports teams.

TCU Horned Frogs

Main article: TCU Horned Frogs

The 2010 Fiesta Bowl with Boise State against TCU

The presence of Texas Christian University less than 5 miles (8 km) from the downtown area and national competitiveness in football, baseball, and men's and women's basketball have sustained TCU as an important part of Fort Worth's sports scene.

The Horned Frog football team produced two national championships in the 1930s and remained a strong competitor in the Southwest Conference into the 1960s before beginning a long period of underperformance.[108] The revival of the TCU football program began under Coach Dennis Franchione with the success of running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Under Head Coach Gary Patterson, the Horned Frogs have developed into a perennial top-10 contender, and a Rose Bowl winner in 2011.[109] Notable players include Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien, Bob Lilly, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jerry Hughes, and Andy Dalton. The Horned Frogs, along with their rivals and fellow non-AQ leaders the Boise State Broncos and University of Utah Utes, were deemed the quintessential "BCS Busters", having appeared in both the Fiesta and Rose Bowls. Their "BCS Buster" role ended in 2012 when they joined the Big 12 athletic conference in all sports. The Horned Frog football teams have one of the best winning percentages of any school in the Football Bowl Subdivision in recent years.

Motor racing

NASCAR stock car race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2006

Fort Worth is home to Texas Motor Speedway, also known as "The Great American Speedway". Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile quad-oval track located in the far northern part of the city in Denton County. The speedway opened in 1997, and currently hosts an IndyCar event and six NASCAR events among three major race weekends a year.[111][112]

Amateur sports-car racing in the greater Fort Worth area occurs mostly at two purpose-built tracks: Motorsport Ranch and Eagles Canyon Raceway. Sanctioning bodies include the Porsche Club of America, the National Auto Sports Association, and the Sports Car Club of America.

Location of studios and offices for KXAS (as well as KXTX), in Fort Worth, just south of DFW Airport

Fort Worth and Dallas share the same media market. The city's magazine is Fort Worth, Texas Magazine, which publishes information about Fort Worth events, social activity, fashion, dining, and culture.[124]

Headquarters of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Fort Worth has one major daily newspaper, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, founded in 1906 as Fort Worth Star. It dominates the western half of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and The Dallas Morning News dominates the east. The Star-Telegram is the 45th-most widely circulated newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 210,990 and a Sunday circulation of 304,200.

KXAS studios and offices (as well as those of co-owned KXTX-TV, and for a time those of radio stations WBAP (AM) and KSCS-FM) were located in this building east of downtown Fort Worth on Barnett Street

The Fort Worth Weekly is an alternative weekly newspaper for the Fort Worth metropolitan division. The newspaper had an approximate circulation of 47,000 in 2015.[125] The Fort Worth Weekly published and features, among many things, news reporting, cultural event guides, movie reviews, and editorials.

Fort Worth Business Press is a weekly publication that chronicles news in the Fort Worth business community.

The Fort Worth Press was a daily newspaper, published weekday afternoons and on Sundays from 1921 until 1975. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company and published under the then-prominent Scripps-Howard Lighthouse logo. The paper reportedly last made money in the early 1950s. Scripps Howard stayed with the paper until mid-1975. Circulation had dwindled to fewer than 30,000 daily, just more than 10% of that of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The name Fort Worth Press was resurrected briefly in a new Fort Worth Press paper operated by then-former publisher Bill McAda and briefer still by William Dean Singleton, then-owner of the weekly Azle (Texas) News, now owner of the Media Central news group. The Fort Worth Press operated from offices and presses at 500 Jones Street in Downtown Fort Worth.[126]

Television stations shared with Dallas include (owned-and-operated stations of their affiliated networks are highlighted in bold) KDFW 4 (Fox), KXAS 5 (NBC), WFAA 8 (ABC), KTVT 11 (CBS), KERA 13 (PBS), KTXA 21 (Independent), KDFI 27 (MNTV), KDAF 33 (CW), and K07AAD-D (HC2 Holdings).

The Trinity Railway Express makes a stop in downtown Fort Worth

Like most cities that grew quickly after World War II, Fort Worth's main mode of transportation is the automobile, but bus transportation via Trinity Metro is available, as well as an interurban train service to Dallas via the Trinity Railway Express. As of January 10, 2019, train service from Downtown Fort Worth to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's Terminal B is available via Trinity Metro's TEXRail service.

Electric streetcars

Interurban Line between Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas (postcard, circa 1902–1924)

The first streetcar company in Fort Worth was the Fort Worth Street Railway Company. Its first line began operating in December 1876, and traveled from the courthouse down Main Street to the T&P Depot.[127] By 1890, more than 20 private companies were operating streetcar lines in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Street Railway Company bought out many of its competitors, and was eventually itself bought out by the Bishop & Sherwin Syndicate in 1901.[128] The new ownership changed the company's name to the Northern Texas Traction Company, which operated 84 miles of streetcar railways in 1925, and their lines connected downtown Fort Worth to TCU, the Near Southside, Arlington Heights, Lake Como, and the Stockyards.

Roads

See also: List of Dallas–Fort Worth-area freeways

Fort Worth is served by four interstates and three U.S. highways. It also contains a number of arterial streets in a grid formation.

Interstate highways 30, 20, 35W, and 820 all pass through the city limits.

Interstate 820 is a loop of Interstate 20 and serves as a beltway for the city. Interstate 30 and Interstate 20 connect Fort Worth to Arlington, Grand Prairie, and Dallas. Interstate 35W connects Fort Worth with Hillsboro to the south and the cities of Denton and Gainesville to the north.

I-20 in southern Fort Worth

U.S. Route 287 runs southeast through the city connecting Wichita Falls to the north and Mansfield to the south. U.S. Route 377 runs south through the northern suburbs of Haltom City and Keller through the central business district. U.S. Route 81 shares a concurrency with highway 287 on the portion northwest of I-35W.

Notable state highways:

• Texas State Highway 114 (east-west)
• Texas State Highway 183 (east-west)
• Texas State Highway 121 (north-south)

Public transportation

"The T" bus in Ft. Worth, April 2005

Map of public rail transit in the Fort Worth metro area

Trinity Metro, formerly known as the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, serves Fort Worth with dozens of different bus routes throughout the city, including a downtown bus circulator known as Molly the Trolley. In addition to Fort Worth, Trinity Metro operates buses in the suburbs of Blue Mound, Forest Hill, River Oaks and Sansom Park.[133]

In 2010, Fort Worth won a $25 million Federal Urban Circulator grant to build a streetcar system.[134] In December 2010, though, the city council forfeited the grant by voting to end the streetcar study.[135]

Fort Worth is a part of the Sister Cities International program and maintains cultural and economic exchange programs with its sister cities:[139]

• Fort Worth United Soccer Club
• List of museums in North Texas
• List of people from Fort Worth, Texas

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• Delia Ann Hendricks, The History of Cattle and Oil in Tarrant County (M.A. thesis, Texas Christian University, 1969).
• Oliver Knight, Fort Worth, Outpost on the Trinity (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953).
• Richard G. Miller, "Fort Worth and the Progressive Era: The Movement for Charter Revision, 1899–1907", in Essays on Urban America, ed. Margaret Francine Morris and Elliot West (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975).
• Ruth Gregory Newman, The Industrialization of Fort Worth (M.A. thesis, North Texas State University, 1950).
• Buckley B. Paddock, History of Texas: Fort Worth and the Texas Northwest Edition (4 vols., Chicago: Lewis, 1922).
• J'Nell Pate, Livestock Legacy: The Fort Worth Stockyards, 1887–1987 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1988).
• Warren H. Plasters, A History of Amusements in Fort Worth from the Beginning to 1879 (M.A. thesis, Texas Christian University, 1947).
• Robert H. Talbert, Cowtown-Metropolis: Case Study of a City's Growth and Structure (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University, 1956).
• Joseph C. Terrell, Reminiscences of the Early Days of Fort Worth (Fort Worth, 1906).
• Farber, James (1960). Fort Worth in the Civil War. Belton, Texas: Peter Hansborough Bell Press.
• Garrett, Julia Kathryn (1972). Fort Worth: A Frontier Triumph. Austin: Encino.
• Knight, Oliver (1953). Fort Worth, Outpost on the Trinity. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Miller, Richard G. (1975). "Fort Worth and the Progressive Era: The Movement for Charter Revision, 1899–1907". In Morris, Margaret Francine; West, Elliot (eds.). Essays on Urban America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Pate, J'Nell (1988). Livestock Legacy: The Fort Worth Stockyards, 1887–1987. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
• Pinkney, Kathryn Currie (2003). From stockyards to defense plants, the transformation of a city: Fort Worth, Texas, and World War II. Ph.D. thesis, University of North Texas.
• Sanders, Leonard (1973). How Fort Worth Became the Texasmost City. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum.
• Talbert, Robert H. (1956). Cowtown-Metropolis: Case Study of a City's Growth and Structure. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University.