Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the tenth-most populous city in the United States, the fourth-most populous city in the state after Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, and the second-most populous state capital city after Phoenix, the capital of Arizona. It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010. Downtown Austin and Downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the Interstate 35 corridor. This combined metropolitan region of San Antonio–Austin has approximately 5 million people. Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Beta-level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
Lago Vista, Texas is a lakeside community located on the northern shores of Lake Travis. The city is located within Travis County, Texas, United States, and is less than 20 miles from downtown Austin. Much of Lago Vista is located on a peninsula that extends across 15.52 square miles of Texas Hill Country. The Colorado River runs adjacent to the city.
Manor is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States. Manor is located 12 miles northeast of Austin and is part of the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area. The population was 13,652 at the 2020 census. Manor is one of the faster-growing suburbs of Austin. The city was the seventh fastest growing suburb in America in 2018 by Realtor.com and the 17th best small suburb to live in by U.S. News and World Report in 2019.
Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin.
Pflugerville is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States, with a small portion in Williamson County. The population was 65,191 at the 2020 census. Pflugerville is a suburb of Austin and part of the Austin–Round Rock– Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was named after the original German settlers who farmed the area; Pflüger means "plowman".
Round Rock is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in Williamson County, which is a part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 according to the 2020 census.
Lady Bird Lake is a river-like reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, United States. The City of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pond for a new city power plant. The lake, which has a surface area of 416 acres (168 ha), is now used primarily for recreation and flood control. The reservoir is named in honor of former First Lady of the United States Lady Bird Johnson.
Hyde Park is a neighborhood and historic district in Austin, Texas. Located in Central Austin, Hyde Park is defined by 38th Street to the south, 45th Street to the north, Duval Street to the east, and Guadalupe Street to the west. It is situated just north of the University of Texas and borders the neighborhoods of Hancock and North Loop.
Deep Eddy Pool is a historic man-made swimming pool in Austin, Texas. Deep Eddy is the oldest swimming pool in Texas and features a bathhouse built during the Depression era by the Works Progress Administration. The pool began as a swimming hole in the Colorado River, became a resort in the 1920s, and is today a popular swimming pool operated by the City of Austin.
After declaring its independence from Mexico in March, 1836, the Republic of Texas had numerous locations as its seat of government. This being seen as a problem attempts were made to select a permanent site for the capital. January, 1839, with Mirabeau B. Lamar as the newly elected president, a site selection commission of five commissioners was formed. Edward Burleson had surveyed the planned townsite of Waterloo, near the mouth of Shoal Creek on the Colorado River, in 1838; it was incorporated January 1839. By April of that year the site selection commission had selected Waterloo to be the new capital. A bill previously passed by Congress in May, 1838, specified that any site selected as the new capital would be named Austin, after the late Stephen F. Austin; hence Waterloo upon selection as the capital was renamed Austin. The first lots in Austin went on sale August 1839.
Bastrop State Park is a state park in Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The park was established in 1933 and consists of stands of loblolly pines mixed with post oak and junipers.
The Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan statistical area, or Greater Austin, is a five-county metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The metropolitan area is situated in Central Texas on the western edge of the American South and on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, and borders Greater San Antonio to the south.
Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas, United States. The area of the district is bound by Lamar Boulevard to the west, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north, Interstate 35 to the east, and Lady Bird Lake to the south.
Auditorium Shores is an urban park located in downtown Austin, Texas, within the larger Town Lake Park. Its name refers to its location between the former Palmer Auditorium and the shores of Lady Bird Lake. The park is known as the site of major music performances at South by Southwest and Fun Fun Fun Fest, as well as a number of other events.
Stephen Ira Adler is an American lawyer and politician who was the 58th mayor of Austin, Texas from 2015 to 2023.
The Seaholm Power Plant is a historic former power station located on the north shore of Lady Bird Lake in Downtown Austin, Texas. Opened in 1951, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. The power plant ceased operation in 1996, and the facility and site were later redeveloped into a mixed-use district.
The history of African Americans in Austin dates back to 1839, when the first African American, Mahala Murchison, arrived. By the 1860s, several communities were established by freedmen that later became incorporated into the city proper. The relative share of Austin's African-American population has steadily declined since its peak in the late 20th century.
The Capitol View Corridors are a series of legal restrictions on construction in Austin, Texas, aimed at preserving protected views of the Texas State Capitol from various points around the city. First established by the Texas Legislature in 1983 and recodified in 2001, the corridors are meant to protect the capitol dome from obstruction by high-rise buildings. While supported by cultural and historical preservation organizations, the corridors have also been criticized for limiting the potential for the development of new tall structures in downtown Austin.
Colonel Monroe Martin Shipe, also called M. M. Shipe, was an American real estate developer who developed Hyde Park, an early streetcar suburb in Austin, Texas. He also founded the Austin Electric Railway Company, a streetcar network that initially served Hyde Park but expanded to become the public transit network for the city of Austin and, eventually, the direct predecessor of Austin's current transit agency, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The Third Street Railroad Trestle is a historic wooden railroad trestle bridge crossing Shoal Creek in downtown Austin, Texas. Built around 1922 by the International–Great Northern Railroad, it replaced an earlier bridge in the same place. The bridge was used by the I–GN Railroad, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad until 1964, when commercial rail traffic stopped; after 1991 the bridge was abandoned. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
