Drivers and other motorists traveling on this segment of U.S. 69 (between Tyler and nearby Lindale) will see brown road signs that read "First Adopt-A-Highway in the World".

[10] As Northeast Texas and Smith County's major economic, educational, financial, medical and cultural hub, Tyler is host to more than 20,000 higher-education students; the University of Texas at Tyler; a university health science center; and regional hospital systems.

The first plat designated a 28-block town site centered by a main square within a 100-acre (40 ha; 0.16 sq mi) tract acquired by Smith County on 6 February 1847.

The new town was named for President John Tyler, who advocated for the annexation of Texas by the United States.

Logging was a second major industry, while complementary manufacturing included metalworking, milling wood, and leather tanning.

[16][17] Ironically, before that 21-mile line to Big Sandy, Texas was completed in 1877, Tyler had already gotten its desired rail connection when the International–Great Northern Railroad built into town in 1874.

[18][19][17] Toward the end of the nineteenth century, fruit orchards emerged as an important business in the regional economy.

Eighty percent of the county's agricultural revenue derived from cotton as it persisted as the dominant crop in the first decades of the twentieth century.

[12] On October 29, 1895, an African American suspect named Robert Henry Hillard was burned at the stake in the Smith County Courthouse Square for the alleged murder of a nineteen-year-old white woman.

[20][21] Denied a trial and due process, Hillard was taken from law enforcement personnel by a white mob.

Later, two entrepreneurs combined photographs from the actual lynching with others staged with actors and sold the 16-image production as a stereographic set.

[21] In 1912, Dan Davis, an African-American man suspected of attacking a sixteen-year-old white girl named Carrie Johnson, was burned at the stake in the Smith County Courthouse Square.

[26] By 1980, the population grew to 70,508 and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tyler and East Texas Islamic Society were established in the following years.

[36] Tyler is the seat of government of Smith County, and is surrounded by many suburban communities, including Whitehouse, Lindale, New Chapel Hill, Bullard, Edom, Brownsboro, Kilgore, Flint, and Chandler.

Downtown architecture features the Art Deco and neoclassical styles, many dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Severe thunderstorms with heavy rain, hail, damaging winds and tornadoes occur in the area during the spring and summer months.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city's ethnic makeup has become increasingly diverse, owing to white flight,[50] immigration and internal migration.

[57] According to a separate 2020 study by the Association of Religion Data Archives, Baptists, non/inter-denominational Protestants, and Roman Catholics constituted the largest share of Christendom for Tyler metropolitan area.

Roughly 13.6% of Tylerites are of another Christian faith including the Eastern Orthodox Church and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The BestPlaces study found that approximately 0.1% of the city's population identified with Judaism (compared to a state average of 0.2%), while 0.4% considered themselves Muslim.

[68] The company's main distribution center is in south Tyler, while SouthWest Foods, a subsidiary that processes dairy products, is just northeast of the city.

The city and metropolitan area also has a growing manufacturing sector including: Tyler Pipe, a subsidiary of McWane Inc. that produces soil and utility pipe products; Trane Technologies, formerly a unit of American Standard Companies, which manufactures air conditioners and heat pumps (this plant was originally built in 1955 by General Electric); Delek Refining, an Israeli-owned oil refinery formerly La Gloria Oil and Gas Co (a Crown Central Petroleum subsidiary); PCSFerguson, an operating company of Dover Corporation that specializes in equipment for the measurement and production of natural gas using the plunger lift method; DYNAenergetics Tyler Distribution Center, part of DYNAenergetics USA, which manufactures perforating equipment and explosives for the oil and gas industry; and Vesuvius USA, a manufacturer of refractory ceramics used in the steel industry.

[70] The festival, which celebrates the role of the rose-growing industry in the local economy, is held in October and features a parade, the coronation of the Rose Queen, and other civic events.

Tyler State Park, a few miles north of the city limits, attracts visitors with opportunities to camp, canoe, and paddle boat on the lake.

Other available pastimes include picnicking, boating (motors have a 5 mph (8.0 km/h) speed limit),[73] boat rentals, fishing, birding, hiking, mountain biking, hiking trails, lake swimming (in an unsupervised swimming area), and nature study.

[75] Harvey Convention Center, the largest building at Tyler's fairgrounds is slated for demolition in August 2021.

[77] Tyler is home to the Cotton Belt Railroad Depot Museum, located near the Chamber of Commerce office.

The society operates a museum and archives in the former Carnegie Public Library building in downtown Tyler.

Permanent museum exhibits include life-size dioramas of Smith County history, with topics ranging from the Caddo Indians to the 20th century.

[78] The park contains a kiosk, paved trail, interpretive signage, a cabin reconstruction, and a picnic area.