That reinvention is why Arlington calls itself "The American Dream City." Today it is the third-largest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a city of nearly 400,000 sitting squarely between Dallas and Fort Worth, with a General Motors assembly plant, the University of Texas at Arlington, Lake Arlington, the Trinity River woods of River Legacy Parks, and an entertainment district that draws visitors from across the country. The prairie practicality is still there underneath the bright lights — a hardworking Texas city that also happens to throw a very large party.
The blackland prairie here was Caddo country long before the town. In 1841, in the Republic of Texas years, frontiersmen built Bird's Fort near present-day Arlington, and the Bird's Fort Treaty was signed in the area in 1843 — a frontier accord between the young republic and Native nations on land that had been inhabited for centuries. Settlement followed slowly, with scattered farms and the small community of Johnson Station out on the Cross Timbers.
Why People Visit Arlington
Arlington rewards travelers who want big-event energy with Texas convenience — the stadiums and theme parks of the Entertainment District, set between Dallas and Fort Worth and easy to reach from either. People come for the games, the coasters, and the concerts, and stay for the river-and-lake parks and the offbeat heritage of a prairie town that talked itself into becoming the American Dream City.
