Here is a small Dallas mystery: nobody is entirely sure who the city is named for. The usual answer is George Mifflin Dallas, the U.S. vice president of the 1840s, and it may well be him — but John Neely Bryan, who did the naming, never pinned it down, and historians have floated a half-dozen other Dallases over the years. The city has worn the uncertainty lightly. Long ago Dallasites shortened the whole question to two letters that settle nothing and say everything: Big D.
The skyline tells that story. Reunion Tower — “the Ball,” a geodesic sphere on a slender stem, lit up at night — went up in 1978 and became an instant landmark. Out at Fair Park stands something rarer still: the largest collection of Art Deco exposition buildings in the world, raised for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, all murals and statuary and grand promenades. Downtown, the Dallas Arts District grew into one of the biggest urban arts districts in the country, its concert halls and museums drawn by some of the most famous architects alive. Dallas has always liked to build big, and to be seen doing it.
Why People Visit Dallas
Dallas rewards visitors who like a city with confidence: a skyline you can read like a history book, a world-class arts district, museums of real weight, and food worth crossing town for. Add the flying red Pegasus, the Art Deco of Fair Park, and Texas hospitality scaled up, and Big D makes a strong case for itself.
