"Where the East ends” is the Dallas response to Fort Worth’s slogan “Where the West begins.” The Dallas slogan is usually not used by itself, without Fort Worth’s slogan.
“Where the East peters out” is a similar saying, from Fort Worth’s Amon G. Carter in 1940.
“The East ends at St. Paul; the West begins at Minneapolis” was said about Minnesota’s Twin Cities in 1898.
Other Dallas slogans include “Live Large, Think Big” (since 2004) and “Big Things Happen Here” (since 2012).
23 February 1932, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Regional Planning,” section II, pg. 2:
A carefully planned metropolitan system, combined with a larger regional plan, will bring into an orderly union the city where the west begins and the city where the east ends, making the joint city the center of industrial and commercial energy.
Google Books
Inside U.S.A.
by John Gunther
New York, NY: Harper & Brothers
1947
Pg. 830:
Dallas is where the east ends, and Fort Worth is notoriously “where the west begins.” Dallas is a baby Manhattan; Fort Worth is a cattle annex. Dallas has the suave and glittering clothes of Neiman-Marcus; Fort Worth has dust and stockyards.
11 May 1951, Dallas (TX) Morning News, part II, pg. 8:
Then there is Fort Worth “where the West begins” dating with the arrival of Amon Carter. Dallas is also Texas and Dallas is “where the East ends.”
Google Books
Lone-Star Land:
Twentieth-Century Texas in Perspective
by Frank Goodwyn
New York, NY: Knopf
1955
Pg. 225:
While Dallas might be called “out where the east ends,” Fort Worth has long vaunted the slogan: “out where the west begins.”
James C. Work’s Amazon Blog
Who Are You Calling “Western”?
7:17 AM PDT, August 7, 2007
(...)
I once saw a sign in Fort Worth, Texas. It said “where the West begins.” And on the backside, some wag had added “where the East ends.”
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
This site is edited by Barry Popik.