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Location Information:
Austin
is the capital of the U.S. state of
Texas and the seat of Travis County.
Located in Central Texas on the
western edge of the American South,
it is the fourth-largest city in
Texas and the fifteenth most
populous city in the United States.
It was the third-fastest-growing
large city in the nation from 2000
to 2006. Austin has a population
of 786,382 (2009 U.S. Census
estimate). The city is the cultural
and economic center of the
Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area,
with a population of 1,750,224 (2009
U.S. Census estimate), making it the
35th-largest metropolitan area in
the United States.
The
area was settled in the 1830s on the
banks of the Colorado River by
pioneers who named the village
Waterloo. In 1839, Waterloo was
chosen to become the capital of the
newly independent Republic of Texas.
The city was renamed after Stephen
F. Austin, known as the father of
Texas. The city grew throughout the
19th century and became a center for
government and education with the
construction of the Texas State
Capitol and the University of Texas.
After a lull in growth from the
Great Depression, Austin resumed its
development into a major city in the
1980s and emerged as a center for
technology and business. Today, the
Greater Austin area is home to many
companies, high-tech and otherwise,
including the headquarters of four
Fortune 500 corporations: Whole
Foods Market, Freescale
Semiconductor, Forestar Group, and
Dell. On March 12, 2010, Facebook accepted a grant to build a
downtown office that could bring as
many as 200 jobs to the city
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