Austin, Texas, is one of the nation's most entertaining cities. The population is fairly young, and the city is known for its quirky vibe and major arts and music scenes. Here are some facts about Austin you might not know.
1. Austin has the world’s largest urban bat colony living under the Congress Avenue Bridge. About 1.5 million bats take up residence there during the summer, eating up to 20,000 pounds of insects each night,
according to Bat Conservation International.
2. There are two major U.S. cities whose slogans are known to encourage keeping it weird, and Austin is one of them. Portland, Oregon, is the other, but the Austin Independent Business Alliance began in 2002, adopting the phrase, and Portland followed about a year later.
3. Austin welcomes nearly 20 million tourists each year,
according to the Austin Business Journal. That number exceeds Disneyland, which had 16.2 million visitors in 2013; the Eiffel Tower, which has about 7 million visitors annually, three-quarters of which are foreigners; and Niagara Falls, which sees about 12 million people. Austin tourists aren’t stingy with their money either: Visitors spend more than $4 billion each year.
4. Texas has no laws that stop women from going topless in public, but Austin may be the only city where one might get away with it:
GoTopless.org says Austin has been "topless tested." While original topless laws were struck down in the 1970s to promote gender equality, topless females may still be arrested for disorderly conduct. Austin is home to state's only government-backed nude beach.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.