It is a city with a heart and soul. Cosmopolitan, yet unpretentious, it has a thriving cultural scene and vibrant nightlife. It's high-tech while staying low-key. It's a big city, surrounding a college town. Quirky and far from ordinary, it's the kind of place where you check your worries at the city limits sign, trade in suits for something a bit more casual and prepare for experiences you'll find only in Austin.
Austin is just simply not like the rest of Texas. From the quirky cast of characters that populate Sixth Street to the largest urban colony of Mexican Freetail bats that live under the Congress Avenue bridge, four-star restaurants to down-home barbecue joints, corporate CEOs to struggling musicians, Texas' capital city stands apart from the rest.
Facts about Austin
- Nicknamed the Live Music Capitol of the World, Austin is home to many artists of all disciplines and has a growing comedy scene anchored by venues like The Hideout Theatre, ColdTowne Theater, Esther's Follies, The Velveeta Room, and Capitol City Comedy Club.
- The Congress Avenue Bridge houses the world's largest urban population of Mexican Free-tailed Bats. Starting in late February, up to 1.5 million bats emerge at dusk to hunt insects and small children.
- Austin is the 16th largest city in the US and expected to reach 1 million in population by 2015.
- On August 1, 1966, in the city's most traumatic event, Charles Whitman terrorized Austin by killing 16 people, his wife and mother in the early hours, 3 in the Main Building on the UT Campus and 11 with a high-powered rifle from atop the UT Tower. Whitman was killed by APD officer Houston McCoy with two fatal shotgun blasts.
- Austin averages 300 days of sunshine per year.
- Texas is home to Dell and Compaq Computers. Central Texas is often referred to as the "Silicon Valley of the South" because of this riveting fact. Austin is also home to the progressive, organicentric grocer, Whole Foods Market.
- Barbed wire was invented in Austin by John Grenninger in 1857 in an effort to keep the fleet-of-foot from grabbing any more of his watermelons.
- Congress Avenue was once the widest street in the world, about three times wider than it is now. East Avenue was also once touted as the widest street in Texas, laid out to be 200 feet wide, in contrast to the old Congress Avenue's 120 feet.
- Pappy Lee O'Daniel invited every last Texan to attend an inaugural dinner at the Governor's Mansion in honor of his re-election in 1941. 20,000 people showed up making it one of the largest dinner parties in history. The guests devoured 19,000 lbs of barbecue, 1,000 lbs. of potato salad, and 1100 lbs. of pickles and onions.
Facts about Texas
- Texas is the 4th fastest growing state increasing it's population by 6.3% from 2000-2003.
- The State Capitol Building in Austin, built of Texas pink granite, stands seven feet higher than that of the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C. and is the tallest in the country.
- Texas was at one point it's own country; a republic.
- The Republic of Texas, with Sam Houston as president, was born In 1836 following the war between American settlers in Texas and the Mexican government which featured the well known battle of the Alamo.
- With more than 267,000 square miles, Texas is as large as all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois combined.
- Texas' largest county is Brewster with 6,208 square miles. The states of Connecticut (5,544 Sq Mi), Delaware (2,489 Sq Mi) and Rhode Island (1,545 Sq Mi) can fit inside this county. What's up now?
- The average temperature in January for Amarillo, TX (a northern city) is 36.7 degrees farenheit while in Brownsville, TX (the southernmost city) the average is 61.4. On March 27, 1984, the temperature in Brownsville was 106 degrees while Amarillo reported snow and 35 degrees.
- Texas has had six different flags fly over it's territory. The Spanish, The French, The Mexican, The US, The Confederate, and The Republic of Texas (current State Flag). Texas is also the only state allowed to fly it's state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
- The offical state small mammal is the Armadillo.
- The official flying mammal is the Mexican Free-tailed Bat.
- The official state large mammal is the Longhorn.
- These things are very official.
