The State of Texas chartered the Union Terminal Company on March 16, 1912. The mission of the company was to build a central terminal in Dallas for the seven railroads then serving the city. [1] The terminal company ownership expanded to eight railroads, each having a 12.5% share: the Texas & Pacific; the Frisco; the Rock Island; the Cotton Belt; the Southern Pacific; the Santa Fe; the Katy; and the Trinity & Brazos Valley. [2]
Dallas, officially the City of Dallas, is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Dallas County, with portions extending into Collin, Denton, Kaufman and Rockwall counties. With an estimated 2017 population of 1,341,075, it is the ninth most-populous city in the U.S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio. It is also the eighteenth most-populous city in North America as of 2015. Located in North Texas, the city of Dallas is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States and the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. that lacks any navigable link to the sea. It is the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country at 7.3 million people as of 2017. The city's combined statistical area is the seventh-largest in the U.S. as of 2017, with 7,846,293 residents.
The Texas and Pacific Railway Company was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California.
The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, also known as the Frisco, was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central U.S. from 1876 to April 17, 1980. At the end of 1970 it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway or the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. It was purchased and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1980. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.
The company opened the Dallas Union Terminal in October 1916 and was also operating 5 miles of track within Dallas. At the peak of its usage, as many as eighty trains stopped each day at the station. [3] The last passenger train departed the terminal on May 31, 1969, and the Union Terminal Company ceased doing business on March 13, 1974. [1] Dallas Union Terminal is now called Union Station and is a DART Light Rail, Trinity Railway Express commuter rail, and Amtrak intercity rail station.
DART Light Rail, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Light Rail, is a light rail system in Dallas, Texas and its suburbs owned and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The system comprises 93 miles (150 km) among its four lines — the Red Line, the Blue Line, the Green Line, and the Orange Line. It is the longest light rail system in the United States. As of the fourth quarter of 2017, the system has an average weekday ridership of 98,700, making it the largest light rail system in the Southern United States by ridership, and the sixth largest in the United States by ridership. The system uses 163 light rail trains manufactured by Kinki Sharyo, with all trains being converted to "Super" LRVs which feature level boarding and higher passenger capacity.
The Trinity Railway Express is a commuter rail line in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It was established by an interlocal agreement between Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and Trinity Metro. Each transit authority owns a 50% stake in the joint rail project and contractor Herzog Transit Services operates the line. The TRE began operating in December 1996.
Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city centre and middle to outer suburbs beyond 15 km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis. Trains operate following a schedule at speeds varying from 50 to 225 km/h. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.
In 1936, the Texas Highway Department with funding from the United States Bureau of Public Roads built a triple underpass to separate the grade of the Union Terminal Company track and Elm, Main and Commerce Streets. Railroad employees witnessed the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza from the bridge on November 22, 1963. Lee Bowers, A Union Terminal Company employee working in a tower near the bridge, also witnessed the shooting and provided testimony to the Warren Commission.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was riding with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie when he was fatally shot by former U.S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald firing in ambush from a nearby building. Governor Connally was seriously wounded in the attack. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead about thirty minutes after the shooting; Connally recovered from his injuries.
Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End district of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It also was the location of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963. The Dealey Plaza Historic District was named a National Historic Landmark in 1993 to preserve Dealey Plaza, street rights-of-way, and buildings and structures by the plaza visible from the assassination site, that have been identified as witness locations or as possible locations for assassins.
Lee Edward Bowers Jr. was a witness to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. The timing and circumstances of Bowers' death have led to various allegations that his demise was part of a cover-up subsequent to the Kennedy murder.
