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 Seats for Forklifts Houston - Houston, fourth largest city within the United States, is the seat of Harris County and the economic hub of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area (the 6th biggest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population over six million). It has a population of about two million in the year 2008, and its neighborhood comprises Downtown, Uptown, Montrose, The Heights, Rice Village Area, River Oaks, Midtown and Chinatown.
John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, who were both real estate agents from new York City who bought the area in hopes of establishing a city. The city was named after the Sam Houston, who was a known general during the Battle of San Jacinto and was voted the president of Texas in the year 1836. Houston was incorporated by the very first mayor of the city, James Holman. The latter part of the 1800's saw the city develop as a commercial and railroad hub for cotton export. It also became the headquarters for General John Bankhead Magruder during the American Civil War. The 1950's and 1960's saw the unincorporated areas joined into the city limits, which expanded the city's size. It also gave way for the local shipbuilding industry to expand during the World War II and the establishment of NASA's "Manned SpaceCraft Center."
Houston has about twenty thousand exhibitions, plays, arts programs and concerts, and it draws more than 11 million residents and visitors each and every year. Its nonprofit arts are a strong player in the city's economy as well, generating approximately seventy million dollars in government and state revenue. Its cultural events and exhibitions reportedly make roughly 10 million annually. The city of Houston is the only one among few cities that have permanent resident companies in all the areas of the performing arts: The Houston Symphony Orchestra (music), Alley Theatre (theatre), Houston Ballet (ballet), and Houston Grand Opera (opera). The city's strongest area is the visual and performing arts scene, and among the most dynamic names here is the Theater District located downtown. It has nine performing arts organizations and six performance halls. The city also provides various concerts, Broadway acts, exhibitions, shows, art groups and local folk artists in smaller progressive arts organizations. Additionally, Houston is even home to various museums. The Museum District, a popular cultural institution, is a popular site of roughly seven million tourists each and every year. Some of the most well-known ones also consist of: the Houston Zoo, Holocaust Museum, the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Museum of Fine Arts. Bayou Bend, a facility of the Museum of Fine Arts, has among America's best collections of ornamental art, furniture and paintings.
The oil and natural gas business within Houston are internationally known. In addition, extremely strong within the area are the sectors of aeronautics and biomedical research. Houston has an emerging renewable energy resource sector that consists of both wind and solar energy. These areas are fast becoming a popular economic base in the city today. Practically all of the big companies have also made the city of Houston their operational base. They consist of: ExxonMobil, ConocoPhilips, BP and Shell Oil. Various companies which have made the city their headquarters comprise: Apache Corporation, Marathon Oil Corporation, Citgo, and Horizon Wind Energy.
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