User:Drumguy8800/InnerUSD

Dallas was formally incorporated as a town in 1856. It was a fairly insignificant place until after the American Civil War, and only legally became a city in 1871. That year, railroads were beginning to approach the area and Dallas city leaders did not intend to stand idly and be left out. They paid the Houston and Central Texas Railroad 5,000 to shift its route 32 km (20 mi) to the west and build its north-south tracks through Dallas, rather than through Corsicana as planned. A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay the Texas and Pacific Railway to locate there, so they devised a way to trick the Railroad&mdash;Dallas had a rider attached to a state law which required the railroad to build its tracks through Browder Springs&mdash;which turned out to be just south of Main Street. The major north-south and east-west Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas in 1873, thus ensuring its future as a commercial center.