Sunday, April 24, 2016

Anonymous Leads Me To New Bridge Ornamentation Over A Swollen Trinity River

Yesterday, after a visit to Fort Worth's Gateway Park, I blogged about America's Biggest Boondoggle's odd signage which has spread like a virus throughout The Boondoggle's domain.

Someone named Anonymous read that blogging and made a comment which caused my curiosity to take me back to the Gateway Park zone today.

Following is the comment from Anonymous...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "America & Fort Worth's Biggest Boondoggle's Berserk Signage":

Taking a trip back to your former stomping grounds, did you notice the 1st St. bridge over a rather swollen Trinity River? Close enough to finished to have some strange ornamentation on each corner... 

Above you are looking at that to which Anonymous refers.

In that photo you are looking west across the nearly completed new 1st Street Bridge over the Trinity River, with what Anonymous refers to as "strange ornamentation" at the northeast corner of the bridge. Just as Anonymous indicated, one of these strange ornamentations is at each corner of the bridge.

I did not find this particular bridge ornamentation all that strange. I've seen far stranger things in Fort Worth. Such as America's Biggest Boondoggle's Million Dollar Wind Roundabout Ridiculousness.

In the above photo and the photo below you get a glimpse of the rather swollen Triniity River.


Above we are looking south at the old bridge the new bridge is replacing. And the aforementioned swollen Trinity River. I am fairly certain the old bridge will become part of the new paved trail from Gateway Park, connecting to Quanah Parker Park's trails and the east and west sides of Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, if those trails ever dry out.

This new bridge over the Trinity River was built in less than a year. This new bridge is part of a big upgrade to 1st Street and Randol Mill Road. Three bridges, in total, have now been completed, in less than a year, as part of this upgrade. All three of the bridges dealt with water issues during construction, with the bridge over the Trinity River being hit with more than one flood during construction.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Fort Worth, three simple little bridges are slowly being built over dry land with a four year construction timeline. I have not heard if America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges are back under construction after a design error caused a halt to construction last month.

I wonder if whoever it is who engineered the construction of this new bridge over the Trinity River could be hired to get The Boondoggle's three simple little bridges built a bit faster?

Let's change the subject from The Boondoggle back to the new bridge over the Trinity River.


In the above photo you are standing on the middle of the new bridge, looking east towards an empty landscape. Fort Worth has so much open space. This particular open space has been rendered a bit of an industrial wasteland, courtesy of disgraced Chesapeake Energy.

Slightly to the left of the middle of the photo notice that bump sticking up above the horizon? That is an old rusted out water tower. To the right of the middle of the photo notice the limbs of a dead tree. Blending into the limbs of the dead tree is the "strange ornamentation" we saw at the top.

Below is another look at the water tower and tree.


The above looks sort of scenic to me. Not the type of scene one expects to see in a crowded urban zone.

I will miss Gateway Park, the Tandy Hills, River Legacy Park, the Village Creek Natural Historical Area and Oakland Lake Park when they are no longer located in what Anonymous refers to as my stomping grounds.....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would like to see the Airfield Falls C-9 sculpture completed before I pass.