Fort Worth has been called "the City Where the West Begins", "Cowtown", and the "silent partner" in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. None of these descriptions quite tells the story of this city and its people. Since its founding in the mid-nineteenth century as a military outpost, Fort Worth has gone through many phases - —cattle, oil, aviation, and tourism. What was once the little village on the Trinity has grown up to become a global city that is a melting pot of economic forces and diverse cultures.