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About Arlington

In northern Texas, between Fort Worth (west), Grand Prairie, and Dallas, is the city of Arlington (east). The region’s first known settlers, the Caddo Indians, perished as a result of westward migration. Bird’s Fort was the name of an early white community built in 1840 on the site of an Indian council. The Battle of Village Creek (1841), in which the Caddo were defeated and more than 200 Indian lodges were burnt, was the result of ongoing conflicts between Indians and prospective settlers. At what is now Arlington, the Republic of Texas and nine Indian tribes signed a peace agreement in 1843. In 1876, railroad workers lay out the city, which they called after General Robert E. Lee’s Virginia mansion.

Arlington, which was formerly well-known for its cotton ginning and agricultural products, is now predominantly an industrial and commercial hub. After 1950, the automobile and aerospace sectors there thrived, and the city’s population grew quickly in tandem. Arlington Baptist College and the University of Texas at Arlington (1895) are both located there (1939). The city is home to the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, as well as Six Flags Over Texas, a sizable amusement park. A well-liked recreation area is Lake Arlington, a 2,275-acre (921-hectare) reservoir that provides drinking water for the city. Inc. 1884. 2010 population: 365 438; Fort Worth-Arlington Metro Division: 2,136 022; Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metro Area: 6,371 773; (2020) 394 266; Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine Metro Division: 2,507 421; Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metro Area: 7,637 387.

The Texas Rangers are an American Major League Baseball team with their home field in Arlington, Texas (AL). The Rangers were originally known as the Washington (D.C.) Senators and have won two American League championships (2010 and 2011).

The Senators lost at least 100 games in each of their first four seasons, finishing last or tied for last in each of their first three seasons. Frank Howard, a towering slugger, was added to the Senators before the 1965 season, but their startling decline continued. Despite never having managed a baseball team at any level, Ted Williams was hired by Washington after the franchise’s third consecutive last-place performance in 1968. In his first season in charge, Williams led the Senators to their first successful campaign (86-76 record), but the group declined in each of its following two years. After the 1971 season, the Senators’ team ownership decided to move the franchise to Arlington due to years of low attendance and insufficient revenue.

The team, now known as the Texas Rangers in honour of the state’s illustrious military-police force, didn’t fare much better in its inaugural season in Arlington than it had in Washington. The Rangers not only lost 100 games, but Williams, who was perhaps the team’s biggest draw, also announced his retirement. Near the close of the 1973 season, the Rangers hired Billy Martin as their head coach. The following year, Texas won 84 games and took second place in its division behind recent addition Fergie Jenkins’s strong pitching. For the balance of the decade, the Rangers were unable to win a division championship.

Buddy Bell, a third baseman, rose to stardom in the early 1980s, but the Rangers struggled as a team, finishing with losing records in five of their final six seasons from 1980 to 1985. Throughout the decade, Texas continued to recruit youthful talent, including second baseman Julio Franco and outfielder Ruben Sierra, but its lengthy postseason drought persisted. Nolan Ryan, a future Hall of Fame pitcher who played for the Rangers from 1989 to 1993 and pitched his sixth and seventh no-hitters in career, was one bright spot during this period. The team was purchased by a group of investors in 1989 that included future American president George W. Bush, who worked as the Rangers’ managing general partner from 1989 until 1994.

The Rangers won three AL West championships (1996, 1998, and 1999) thanks to their lineup of strong hitters by the middle of the 1990s, which included first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, outfielder Juan Gonzalez, and catcher Ivan Rodriguez. However, Texas’s first trips into the postseason were disappointing as each year, it was soundly defeated by the New York Yankees in the opening round of the playoffs. Despite the Rangers coming in dead last in their division the year before, the team grabbed headlines in 2001 when star shortstop Alex Rodriguez signed for a then-record $252 million over 10 years. In his three seasons with the team, he was unable to get the Rangers out of the depths of the division, and Texas moved him to the Yankees in 2004 to start the rebuilding process.

Ryan was appointed team president in 2008 (and joined the organization’s ownership group in 2010), and the Rangers team, which was full of both exciting young players and seasoned veterans like third baseman Michael Young, blasted back into the postseason in 2010. The Rangers then won their first two playoff series to win the AL pennant, make it to the World Series, where they fell to the San Francisco Giants, and win the championship. In 2011, Texas won the American League pennant for a second straight year. Texas then played the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, which Texas lost in seven games. The Rangers made a comeback to the postseason in 2012, however they were promptly ousted after falling to the Baltimore Orioles in the newly implemented one-game Wild Card play-off match.

The team missed the Wild Card play-off in 2013 after losing the tie-breaking 163rd regular-season game to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rangers suffered through an injury-plagued campaign the following year, which saw the team drop out of play-off contention and finish with the worst record in the AL (67–95). The slump was short-lived, however, as Texas won 88 games in 2015 and won the division, but was defeated in the first round of the playoffs. By finishing 36-11 (.766) in such tight games in 2016, the Rangers set a contemporary baseball record for winning percentage in one-run games and won another division title. However, the squad suffered its second consecutive divisional series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Houston Astros, the Rangers’ cross-state rivals, rose to the top of the American League, just as the Rangers started a run of losing seasons.

Arlington, TX

Arlington is a city in Texas, west of Dallas. It’s home to the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), whose campus has a modern planetarium. In River Legacy Parks, trails cut through hardwood forest rich in wildlife. The park also has the River Legacy Living Science Center, with aquariums, terrariums and interactive exhibits. The Dallas Cowboys football team plays at AT&T Stadium, which also hosts concerts. 

Area: 257.5 km²
Population: 397,269 (2020)
Mayor: Jim Ross
Neighborhoods: East Arlington, West Arlington, Southwest Arlington, Southeast Arlington, Central Arlington, Webb