| Houston | |
| City in the United States | |
| Location | |
| State | Texas |
| Coordinates | 29°45’46″N, 95°22’59″WL |
| General | |
| Surface | 1,623.92 km² |
| – country | 1,552.9 km² |
| – water | 71.02 km² |
| Residents (April 1, 2020) |
2,304,580 (1484 inhabitant/km²) |
| – agglomeration | 6,051,363 (2010) |
| Politics | |
| Mayor | Sylvester Turner (D) |
| Website | houstontx.gov |
| Houston’s skyline | |
Houston Satellite Image
According to Ehuacom, Houston (pronunciation: /ˈhjuːstən/ hjuuwstun) is the largest Texas city in the United States of America. The city is located on the Gulf of Mexico. Measured by population, it is the fourth largest city in the US and the largest on the Gulf Coast. Houston is located in Harris County, the third largest county in the United States by population. Houston itself has about 2 million inhabitants, with an urban agglomeration of 6 million inhabitants.
History
The town was founded in 1836 by John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen. She was named after the popular General of the Battle of San Jacinto, Sam Houston, who was elected president of Texas in September 1836.
Economy
Houston has a large petrochemical industry thanks to its strategic position in relation to the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, the Houston Ship Canal is one of the busiest waterways in the US. It caused a major industrial growth of the city. Houston is also home to numerous corporate headquarters, including banks and energy companies.
Compaq Computer was founded in Houston in 1982. The company always had its headquarters here until it merged with Hewlett-Packard Company in 2002. Now the headquarters function is shared with Palo Alto, California.
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
NASA ‘s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is located in Houston. All missions undertaken by NASA are coordinated from here. Houston is the title of the capcom, the only person at the flight control center with whom the astronauts speak directly. As a result, Houston is also the first word spoken on the moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, the commander of Apollo 11, spoke these words: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
The statement “Houston, we have a problem” is often made in jest when one encounters some kind of problem. This is an inaccurate rendering of ” Houston, we’ve had a problem,” a well-known phrase Commander Jim Lovell spoke in response to an explosion aboard Apollo 13.
Culture
Museums
Many museums in Houston are located in the so-called Houston Museum District. Some of these museums are:
- Museum of Fine Arts
- Menil Collection
- Contemporary Art Museum
- Holocaust Museum Houston
Education
- Awty International School: comprehensive school with international education at primary and high school levels.
Religion
Houston has been the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese since 1959 and of an archdiocese since 2004.
Demographics
Of the population, which consists for 31% of single -person households, 9% is older than 65 years. Unemployment is 5.1% (2010 census figures).
About 43.8% of Houston’s population is Hispanic and Hispanic, 23.7% of African origin and 6.0% of Asian origin.
The population increased from 1,697,873 in 1990 to 1,953,631 in 2000 and 2,099,451 in 2010.
Houston has a large population of immigrants from Asia / Asian Americans. In Chinatown are many Chinese religious buildings (Chinese temples, Chinese-Buddhist temples and Chinese churches). Some of the Chinese here were born in Vietnam. Houston has the largest population of Vietnamese Americans in Texas and the third largest in the United States. Many of these Vietnamese Americans came to Texas from Southern California in 2007 because of the lower cost of living.
Climate
In January the average temperature is 11.2 °C, in July it is 28.6 °C. Annual average rainfall is 1291.1 mm (data based on the measurement period 1961-1990).
Traffic and transport
Houston is an important hub for aviation, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport is the seventh busiest airport in the United States. Houston also has a second, smaller airport: William P. Hobby Airport.
The city includes a large highway network, built in a spider web system, with 7 radiating highways and two ring roads (a third ring road – the Grand Parkway – is under development). Interstate 45 runs north-south from the coastal city of Galveston to Dallas. Interstate 10 runs east-west from San Antonio to New Orleans. In addition, US Route 59 runs from Victoria to Lufkin. US Route 290 comes from Austin and ends in Houston. The two ring roads Interstate 610 andTexas State Highway Beltway 8 forms a 61 and 134 kilometer route around the city. Some of the highways in Houston are toll roads, including most of Beltway 8. Due to the rapid growth of the Houston metropolitan area – the metropolitan area grew by 913,000 inhabitants between 2000 and 2007 – the highway network is constantly being improved. A striking number of nodes are built as star nodes, and are often large-scale with long flyovers. Interstate 10 west of downtown, known as the Katy Freeway, was widened from 6-8 lanes to 16 lanes between 2004 and 2008, with toll and interchange lanes. Other highways also often count up to ten lanes in total.
In Texas it is customary to use so-called frontage roads. This is also largely done in Houston. They are not part of the highway proper, but handle the traffic from the highways to the secondary road network and the many companies located along the frontage roads. The busiest highway is the Southwest Freeway (U.S. Route 59), which had 337,000 vehicles per day in 2007.
Houston has a station on the Amtrak line from New Orleans to Los Angeles; this line is also known as the Sunset Limited. Since 2004, Houston has also had a light rail system with one eight-mile line running from the downtown university center to Reliant Stadium in the south. Future extensions (five additional lines) are planned in a ten-year plan.
Sports
Houston has three sports clubs that compete in one of the top four American professional sports. It’s about:
- Houston Rockets (basketball)
- Houston Astros (baseball)
- Houston Texans (American football)
There is no ice hockey club that plays at the highest level. The Houston Dynamo football club does play in Major League Soccer.
Town twinning
- Baku (Azerbaijan)
- Chiba (Japan)
- Huelva (Spain)
- Istanbul (Turkey)
- Lahore (Pakistan)
- Leipzig (Germany)
- Perth (Australia)
- Shenzhen (China)
- Dalian (China)
- Taipei (Taiwan)
- Tampico (Mexico)
- Tyumen (Russia)
Nearby places
The figure below shows nearby places within a 12 km radius of Houston.
Houston
Bellaire (10 km)
Hilshire Village (11 km)
Hunters Creek Village (11 km)
Southside Place (5 miles)
Spring Valley (12 km)
West University Place (7 km)
