Biohazard Cleanup Near Turtle Lake Houston, TX

Houston was founded on August 30, 1836, by brothers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen on the banks of Buffalo Bayou, was named for General Sam Houston, and was incorporated on June 5, 1837.

Houston served as the capital of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839, and it remains the seat of Harris County today.

Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest city in the United States, with a population of 2,304,580 in the 2020 census and an estimated 2,397,315 residents in 2025.

Houston has about 930,404 households averaging 2.46 people each, but only about 42.1% of its homes are owner-occupied, one of the lower homeownership rates among America's biggest cities.

Houston is the only major city in the United States with no formal zoning code, so homes, shops and skyscrapers can rise side by side almost anywhere in the city.

Houston earned its 'Space City' nickname after NASA established its Manned Spacecraft Center there in 1961 - the facility, now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, is home to Mission Control for NASA's human spaceflight program.

'Houston' was the first word spoken from the surface of the Moon, when Neil Armstrong radioed 'Houston, Tranquility Base here - the Eagle has landed' during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.

The opening of the Houston Ship Channel on November 10, 1914, turned an inland bayou city into one of the busiest ports in the United States.

Houston is home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, with more than 60 medical institutions gathered in a single district.

Houston's subtropical climate brings long, hot, humid summers in which July and August game-time temperatures usually exceed 97 degrees, which is exactly why the city built the Astrodome.