The Big D Are you ready to meet a giant cowboy named Big Tex Eat a fried peanut butter banana cheeseburger Journey into space and travel back in time Then let’s go We’re dropping in on Dallas Texas The Big D is a big city in a big state with a lot to see and do 4
Look at Texas on the map It’s hard to miss Texas is the second biggest state in the United States Only Alaska is bigger Dallas is in North Texas right next to the Trinity River the longest river in the state Trinity means a group of three Dallas was settled where three branches of the river joined into one United States of America Rio Grande River NM Mexico OK Trinity River TX AR LA The border between Texas and Mexico is the Rio Grande River Notes Dallas The Trinity River has had many names Native Americans called it Daycoa and Arkikosa Other it The Three Forks And in 1609 the Spanish named it people called La Santisma Trinidad or the Most Holy Trinity 5
Flying over Dallas today you see a big city with tall buildings surrounded by flat land That’s because Dallas is on the edge of the Great Plains The Great Plains are about 2,500 miles 4,023 kilometers long and stretch all the way from Texas to Canada Dallas Great Plains 6
In Dallas there are great buildings too old and new different kinds and lots of shapes See that one with the ball on the top Hundreds of feet high it’s called Reunion Tower and it’s a Dallas landmark A glass elevator zooms to the top in just 68 seconds That’s much faster than climbing up the tower’s 837 steps A landmark is something people recognize It can be a building a mountain or even a flying red horse In Dallas Pegasus the flying red horse is one of the city’s most famous landmarks From the top of Reunion Tower you can see the entire city of Dallas The original Pegasus was on top of Dallas’s Magnolia Hotel A new Pegasus is perched there today 7
