Fort Worth is a city in the U. According to the United States census estimate, Fort Worth's population was , making it the fourth-most populous city in the state and the 12th-most populous in the United States. The city of Fort Worth was established in as an army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Fort Worth is the location of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and several museums designed by contemporary architects.
One month later, Worth died from cholera in South Texas. General William S. In August , Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. Terrell β from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth. The fort was abandoned September 17, As a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail , Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives and became a brawling, bustling town.
Millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives , and later, the ranching industry. It was given the nickname of Cowtown. The population dropped as low as , but began to recover during Reconstruction. The next year, Khleber M. Cowart, who wrote that the decimation of Fort Worth's population, caused by the economic disaster and hard winter of , had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry.
Added to the slowdown due to the railroad's stopping the laying of track 30 miles 48 km outside of Fort Worth, Cowart said that Fort Worth was so slow that he saw a panther asleep in the street by the courthouse. Although an intended insult, the name Panther City was enthusiastically embraced when in Fort Worth recovered economically. A panther is set at the top of the police department badges. In , the Texas and Pacific Railway finally was completed to Fort Worth, stimulating a boom and transforming the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier center for the cattle wholesale trade.
Newly dubbed the "Queen City of the Prairies", [ 26 ] Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network. Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. Louville Niles, a Boston , Massachusetts -based businessman and main shareholder of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company, is credited with bringing the two biggest meatpacking firms at the time, Armour and Swift , to the stockyards.
