San Antonio, Center East

• State: TX
• Country: United States
  San Antonio, in south-central Texas, is at the headwaters of the San Antonio River. One of the largest cities in Texas, San Antonio was founded May 1, 1718 by a Spanish military expedition from Mexico on west bank of the river. By 1731 settlers from the Canary Islands laid out a town near the Spanish fort, and together, with the Mission San Antonio de Valero, also established in 1718, they became known as San Antonio de Béjar. The Mission San Antonio de Valero, later called The Alamo, served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. With the siege of the Alamo in 1836, this edifice became hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Indepencence. During the latter part of the 19th century, San Antonio became a major cattle center where cattle was rounded up and driven overland to the railheads in Kansas. Military installations had accounted for San Antonio's rapid growth after WW II. Fort Sam Houston is the headquarters of the 5th Army and the home of the Academy of Health Science