The major economic center of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area is the city of Dallas, which is part of the 4th largest metropolitan and the eighth biggest city in the nation. The city of Dallas is also the seat of Dallas County, with some of its portions extending to Rockwall, Kaufman, Denton, and Collin counties. Midtown Dallas is currently going through building of new high-rise apartments, restaurants, and retail; Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the hub of the city and the center of urban revival; East Dallas is home to Deep Ellum, a popular arts area close to Downtown, whilst Downtown's Southwest has recently gone through gentrification in neighborhoods, like the Bishop Arts District.
There are many attractions which visitors and residents of Dallas find both educational and entertaining are unique to the city. Places like for example the Six Flags Over Texas/Hurricane Harbor (the biggest water park in the Southwest that offers performances and nearly 100 rides, consisting of the world's No. 1-rated wooden roller coaster), SpeedZone (offers miniature golf, racing, game room and private rooms/event areas), Dallas World Aquarium (features other exhibits and a South American Rain forest), Dallas Arboretum (sixty six acres of lush groves, landscape and gardens), Dallas Heritage Village (13 acres of a living history museum), Dallas Zoo (gives hands-on feeding experiences with tropical birds), Fossil Rim (the driving safari gives visitors the chance to hand-feed or observe sixty species of free-roaming animals from the wild, including zebras, cheetahs and rhinos within their natural environment), and Tour 18 Golf Course are only amongst the things to watch out for.
The arts and culture scene in Dallas is thriving now, specially in the fields of architectural design, museums, and urban arts. New York Magazine even ranked the city as the best for art enthusiasts. Among the sites to go to that are noteworthy consist of: Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza, Shakespeare Festival of Dallas, Dallas Holocaust Museum, Meadows Museum, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas CityArts Festival, Bath House Cultural Centre, the African American Museum at Fair Park, as well as the Majestic Theater. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza examines the times, life, legacy and death of President John F. Kennedy together with display, photos and artifacts. Shakespeare Festival of Dallas provides free summer festivals that take place each and every year. Meadows Museum has the biggest and most comprehensive collection of Spanish art outside of Spain. Dallas Holocaust Museum is devoted to teaching the lessons of the holocaust and honoring its victims through its large collection of audiovisual materials, including microfiche, videotapes, slides, and over 2,500 books. Dallas CityArts Festival incorporates all of the various arts into three-day event, consisting of performing, cultural, and visual and the culinary arts. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has year-round performances at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The African American American Museum at Fair Park explores the African-American experience through exhibits and displays. Bath House Cultural Center houses the White Rock lake Museum, a 116-seat black-box theatre, three gallery spaces, and a number of multipurpose spaces. The Majestic Theater showcases presentations for dramatic plays, musical productions, national pageants, dance and concerts or a grand theatrical setting utilized for dinner on stage.
During the early days of the city, the city of Dallas was mainly dependent on farming. With the several technological developments within the building of many rail lines, this allowed for the growth of the cotton business. By the year of 1900, the city of Dallas became the biggest cotton maker within the world. Information and Telecommunications also became a driving force in the local financial system by the end of WWII. The city of Dallas was soon referred to as the heart of "Silicon Prairie" because of the many telecommunications businesses in the area particularly along the Telecom Corridor within Richardson. Some of the businesses located within the area include: Texas Instruments, Nortel Networks, AT&T, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Rockwell, Verizon Communications, Cisco and Sprint.