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San Antonio, Texas |
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The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum displays works by some of the finest painters of the postimpressionism style, |
HemisFair Plaza Entrance |
HemisFair Plaza, site of a world's fair in 1968 celebrating the city's 250th anniversary, adjoins the river. The site of downtown recreation and entertainment, the plaza contains a convention center and the Tower of the Americas, a spire 190 m (622 ft) high that affords panoramic views of the city. The river winds past La Villita, or The Little Village, a complex of restored buildings from the city's earliest residential settlement and now an arts and crafts community. To the west of downtown San Antonio is Market Square, patterned after markets in Mexico. Immediately south of downtown, along the river, is the King William District, an area settled in the 19th century by wealthy Germans and noted for its unique architecture. |
Spaced along the river south of downtown San Antonio are the four missions constructed by the Spanish that comprise the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park: |
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Other important architectural sites in the city are the Spanish Governor's Palace (completed in 1749), once the seat of Spanish government in Texas; San Fernando Cathedral, originally constructed by workers from the Canary Islands after they arrived in 1731 and rebuilt in 1873 after a fire; the Quadrangle at Fort Sam Houston (1878); and the Bexar County Courthouse, constructed of pink granite and sandstone and completed in 1895. |
The Anglo and more affluent minority populations have over the years moved to outlying areas north and east of the downtown, where rolling hills make attractive home sites and retirement developments. San Antonio's population growth can be partially explained by its desirability as a retirement community, with excellent medical facilities and attractive geographic surroundings. But more important, San Antonio serves as a cultural and economic magnet for immigrants from Mexico and the Río Grande Valley, which is predominantly Hispanic in ethnic origin and cultural sensitivities. |
Rides on a historic carousel, an aerial tram, a model train, and horses are all available at
Brackenridge Park, San Antonio's leading recreational facility. Inside the park is the Japanese Tea Gardens, with winding walkways, stone bridges, and calm pools in what was once a rock quarry. |
also in the park, is one of the nation's largest zoos, with more than 700 species on display. San Antonio Zoological Gardens and Aquarium |
The San Antonio Biological Gardens and Conservatory is a 13-hectare (33-acre) horticultural facility that specializes in Texas flora. |
Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch |
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Splashtown |
Sea World of Texas |
and | Fiesta Texas |
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Tickets sold at Alamo Visitor Center & Texas Adventures |
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Two of the nation's principal interstate freeways cross in San Antonio. Interstate 10, the main route across the southern United States, connects the city with Houston to the east. Products from Mexico are frequently transported on Interstate 35, which also ties the city to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region to the north. Interstate 37 links the city with Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico. San Antonio has good railroad connections to the nation as well as passenger train service. Air transportation is through San Antonio International Aiport. San Antonio's government consists of a council composed of 11 members elected for two-year terms. Ten members are selected from districts; the 11th is chosen by voters citywide and acts as mayor. The council appoints a city manager, who administers the city under policies established by the council. |
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By 1731 three other missions were operating in the river valley south of Mission San José. In that same year a group from the Canary Islands arrived, persuaded by the Spanish to move to the frontier, and established a community named Villa de San Fernando. Later this community was consolidated with the presidio and with the small settlement that had developed around the earliest mission to form the community of San Antonio. During much of the 18th century, the San Antonio area was dominated by Mission San José, which flourished as one of the most prosperous and influential missions in Texas. Then, in 1793, nearly all the missions in Texas were secularized and most of the mission buildings in the San Antonio area were abandoned. |
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After Texas entered the Union in 1845, the city enjoyed rapid growth as the servicing and distribution center for the western movement of settlers. In 1860 its population was the largest in Texas, with German immigrants outnumbering both the Anglo and Hispanic populations. The city served as a Confederate depot during the American Civil War (1861-1865). But lacking a port or complex transportation network, the city's economic importance was limited until the coming of the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad in 1877. Thereafter it emerged quickly as the shipping and manufacturing center of southern and western Texas. Until 1910 most of the new immigrants to the area were Anglos from southern states, and the city grew to about 70,000 inhabitants. |
San Antonio still faces complicated economic problems. In 1995 a federal commission voted to close Kelly Air Force Base, site of the economically important Air Logistics Center, as part of a nationwide consolidation program. A more far-reaching problem is the fragility of the city's water supply. The Edwards Aquifer, the principal source of water for the metropolitan area, is being depleted through overuse and periodic spells in which rainfall is insufficient to recharge it. Meeting the various residential, industrial, and agricultural demands on the water source may do much to shape the future of San Antonio in terms of both population growth and manufacturing expansion in surrounding areas. |
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