City of Fort Worth

Fort Worth

Fort Worth, once known as “Queen City of the Prairie,” developed as a small frontier outpost during the 1850s, and became the Tarrant County seat in 1860. The arrival of numerous transportation modes and routes, from stage lines to railroads, during the last quarter of the twentieth century made Fort Worth a major hub. In 1920, the Bankhead Highway was rerouted to pass next to the new Army installation, Camp Bowie. The construction of brick paved Camp Bowie Boulevard, eventually lined with restaurants, motels, and gas stations, marked the beginning of the auto-tourism era. In 1957, the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike was constructed north of the Bankhead Highway, diverting traffic away from the historic route and sparing the thoroughfare from later development, leaving its auto-related buildings from the highway’s heyday intact. While you’re in town take a detour across town and release your inner cowboy at the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, where cattle drives are a daily event.