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Austin City Hall
301 West 2nd
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: 512-974-2000 |
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| Austin is the capital of Texas and the seat
of Travis County, although portions extend into Hays and
Williamson counties. It is the 11th-most populous city in the
US and the 4th-most populous in Texas. It is the fastest
growing large city in the United States and the second most
populous capital city after Phoenix, Arizona. As of the US
Census Bureau's July 1, 2015 estimate, Austin has a population
of 931,830. Located in Central Texas in the foothills of Texas
Hill Country, the city is home to numerous lakes, rivers, and
waterways including Lady Bird Lake, Barton Springs, McKinney
Falls, the Colorado River, Lake Travis, and Lake Walter E. Long.
It is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area,
which had an estimated population of 2,056,405 as of July 1, 2016. |
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| In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the
area in central Austin along the Colorado River. In 1839, the
site was officially chosen to replace Houston as the new capital of the
Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name "Waterloo."
Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to "Austin" in honor of
Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's
first secretary of state. The city subsequently grew throughout the 19th
century and became a center for government and education with the
construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University
of Texas at Austin. After a lull in growth from the Great
Depression, Austin resumed its development into a major
city and, by the 1980s, it emerged as a center for technology
and business. A number of Fortune 500 companies have
headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including Amazon.com,
Apple Inc., Cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle Corporation, Texas
Instruments, 3M, and Whole Foods Market. Dell's worldwide headquarters is located in
nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin. |
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Residents of Austin are known as Austinites.
They include a diverse mix of government employees, college
students, musicians, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers, and a vibrant
LGBT community. The city's official slogan promotes
Austin as "The Live Music Capital of the World," a reference to
the many musicians and live music venues within the city, as
well as the long-running PBS TV concert series Austin City
Limits. The city also adopted "Silicon Hills" as a nickname in
the 1990s due to a rapid influx of technology and development
companies. In recent years, some Austinites have also adopted
the unofficial slogan "Keep Austin Weird," which refers to the
desire to protect small, unique, and local businesses from being
overrun by large corporations. In the late 19th century, Austin
was known as the "City of the Violet Crown" because of the
colorful glow of light across the hills just after sunset. Even
today, many Austin businesses use the term "Violet Crown" in
their name. Austin is known as a "clean-air city" for its
stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places
and buildings, including restaurants and bars. The FBI ranked
Austin as the second-safest major city in the U.S. for the year
2012. U.S. News & World Report named Austin the best place to
live in the U.S. in 2017. |
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| Bob Bullock Texas History Museum |
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| University of Texas |
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| Austin–Bergstrom International Airport Entrance |
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| Pennybacker Bridge |
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| LBJ Presidential Library on The
University of Texas Campus |
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| Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial
Stadium, Home of Texas Longhorns Football |
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| Deep Eddy Pool is the Oldest Man - Made
Pool |
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| Austin Metrorail Train |
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