River Oaks is a small city in Tarrant County, Texas, on the west side of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It sits about five miles west of downtown Fort Worth and entirely inside Loop 820, the ring highway that circles the larger city. With roughly 7,600 residents packed into about 1.9 square miles, River Oaks is a compact, well-established suburb surrounded on most sides by Fort Worth. The city's growth is tied to the military. River Oaks developed as a bedroom community for workers at nearby Carswell Air Force Base, which became Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in 1994. That heritage gave the city its residential character: modest single-family homes on a tight grid, built to house service members, civil servants, and Fort Worth workers. The city has grown steadily from its early days into a settled suburban community. Education and recreation anchor local life. River Oaks is served by the Castleberry Independent School District, a small district headquartered about five miles west of downtown Fort Worth that covers the city and the surrounding area. River Oaks Community Park, with its lighted ball fields, playground, basketball court, and picnic shelter, sits at the heart of the community and hosts youth sports and gatherings. Transportation keeps the city closely tied to the metroplex. River Oaks Boulevard and State Highways 183 and 199 run along its edges, linking residents to Fort Worth, the Naval Air Station, and the broader region, with commutes averaging around 28 minutes. For residents, River Oaks offers the convenience of an inner-ring Fort Worth suburb with the familiarity of a small, self-contained city.