History of DallasHistory & audio guide · Dallas

Dallas is associated with oil and skyscrapers, but its story is one of a crossing. And this special tells it in full, chapter by chapter. It was born in a land of prairies and shallow rivers, at the exact point of the Trinity River where you could ford it: first a wooden frontier post, almost improvised. Then came the railroad, and with it cotton, banks and explosive growth.

The city understood early something that would define it: it didn't need to produce everything, it was enough to connect, finance and distribute. With 20th-century oil it became one of the financial brains of Texas: elegant, business-minded, obsessed with money. And on November 22, 1963 it was marked forever by Kennedy's assassination, at Dealey Plaza, an episode that changed how the United States saw itself.

What came next was reinvention without nostalgia: a global, diverse metropolis, with neighborhoods reborn from neglect and its trauma turned into a museum. Seven chapters to understand how a frontier town ended up a stage for world history, never stopping its growth. Walk it while Ruthy tells you the story, standing right there, in no hurry.