The Railroad Transformed Fort Worth in 1876

Before the railroad came, Fort Worth was the end of the line for stagecoaches heading west. When the Texas and Pacific Railroad arrived in 1876, it made Fort Worth the largest stagecoach terminus in the Southwest — and then much more. The city's population grew quickly after the tracks arrived.

The railroad made it easy to ship live cattle and packed meat to distant markets for the first time. This directly drove the growth of the Stockyards and the meatpacking industry in the decades that followed. Without the railroad, Fort Worth would likely have stayed a small frontier town rather than growing into a major city.