The number of bronze beasts in downtown Dallas is growing.

Workers armed with lifting equipment will begin wrangling nine monumental Texas longhorns into place Friday morning at Pioneer Plaza.

When done, a project begun almost 15 years ago will be complete. The herd will be whole -- with three cowboys and 49 steers aimed north from the Dallas Convention Center toward somewhere.

“Now people can just enjoy them,” said Janette Monear, executive director of the Texas Trees Foundation, sponsor of the effort that has given the central city a popular tourist draw and an iconic, larger-than-life link to the state’s trail-driving past.

Three of the 1,200-pound bronze animals, standing at 140 percent of true size, arrived Thursday afternoon on a trailer hauled from their casting site in Lander, Wyo.

“I didn’t quite get the gas mileage I was expecting,” said Michael Kemler, their driver.

The other six were due in later in the day or early tomorrow. And about 8 a.m. Friday, the task of attaching them to concrete pads near the rest of the herd will begin near Young and Griffin streets.