It is over 10 per cent bigger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan. Its top seven cities—Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso and Arlington—are spread far and wide. The longest straight-line distance in the north-south direction is 1,289 km and the widest east-west distance is over 1,219 km. Also, Texas was among the more prosperous states within the USA back then too.
