The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop, bounded on the east by I-345 (although known and signed as the northern terminus of I-45 and the southern terminus of US 75 (Central Expressway), on the west by I-35E, on the south by I-30, and on the north by Woodall Rodgers Freeway.

[2] In 1910, Downtown Dallas was the location of a lynching of a black American man accused of raping a two-and-a-half-year-old white girl.

Both President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally (who survived) were shot as their motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in what is now the West End Historic District.

Part of the former Texas School Book Depository is now the Sixth Floor Museum, with exhibits about Kennedy and the assassination.

The building boom of the 1970s and 1980s produced a distinctive contemporary profile for the downtown skyline influenced by nationally prominent architects.

At the same time, the establishment of the West End Historic District in the 1980s preserved a very large group of late 19th-century brick warehouses that have been adapted for use as restaurants and shops.

[6] Its redeveloped Main Street has recently become more of a place for Dallasites to play after several restaurants, hotels, and residential towers opened their doors along the strip.

Additionally, the $200 million, 42-story Museum Tower residential skyscraper in the Downtown Dallas Arts District was completed in 2013.

The park is expected to include an equestrian center, lakes, trails, and three bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Funding over the years, however, has been a constant problem, though serious work on the project now appears imminent, with the first two bridges having received significant private backing.

These changes are located in four downtown areas: Victory Park, the Arts District, the Trinity River, and the Convention Center corridor.

The Dallas Arts District, already one of the world's largest, recently completed the final stages of a massive 10-year construction project that resulted in a 2,300-seat opera house, a series of theaters, residential space, retail, parks, and a gleaming, 42-story residential tower known as Museum Tower that opened in 2013.

Dubbed the Trinity River Project by local officials, plans are also in place for improved levees to protect downtown from possible flooding.

The 5.2-acre urban green space, named the Klyde Warren Park, further strengthens the existing synergy between the Uptown real estate market and the booming development occurring in the Downtown Dallas Arts District, which together help further the continuing growth and redevelopment of Downtown Dallas.

The Blue and Red light-rail lines run through, from south to north, Convention Center, Union, West End, Akard, St Paul, and Pearl stations.

The Dallas CBD Vertiport, located at the south end of the Convention Center, is claimed to be the world's largest elevated heliport/vertiport.

[29] The facility has two 60 x 60 ft. (18 x 18 m) concrete helipads[30] and 169,000 square feet (15,700 m2) of flight deck, and is capable of handling tiltrotor aircraft such as the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey.

[32] The United States Postal Service operates the Downtown Dallas Post Office at 400 North Ervay Street.

[37][38] City Park Elementary School in Cedars served southern parts of Downtown until it closed in 2012.

[39][40] Other elementary schools that formerly served Downtown include Martin Luther King Jr.,[40] Sam Houston,[41] and Esperanza "Hope" Medrano.

The University of North Texas, located 40 miles (64 km) to the northwest in Denton, opened a law school downtown.

Sharon Grigsby of The Dallas Morning News stated that the park replaced a "no-man's land".