Sunday, May 29, 2016

Walking Over The Wichita River On The Old Ohio Street Bridge

Yesterday I took myself to the Wichita Falls Farmers Market for the first, and likely only time. Suffice to say I bought nothing. I was hoping for a Dallas Farmers Market or Pike Place type experience.

Instead I got a slightly better than Fort Worth Farmers Market experience.

After spending a couple minutes at the Farmers Market I walked around downtown for a bit. Long enough to see that downtown Wichita Falls is in the midst of being re-vitalized, with a lot of re-vitalizing needing to take place.

Last week I visited the nearby Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture. It's nearby but on the other side of the tracks and the Wichita River from the location of the Farmers Market. After visiting the Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture last week I read somewhere that near that sculpture is a trail entry for the well regarded Wee-Chi-Tah Trail, thought, by some, to be the best mountain bike trail in Texas.

On my first visit I saw nothing which looked like a trail near the sculpture. So, since I was in the neighborhood I returned for a second look. This time I think I may have found the trail, but due to it being muddy the trail did not appear to have been rolled on recently.

Looking for the trail took me on a bridge I mentioned the first time I blogged about this location. You can watch video of yesterday's bridge walk below.

In the video I indicate I am wary of walking all the way across the bridge. However, after I finished the video I opted to walk all the way across due to curiosity regarding something I saw at the far end of the bridge. What I saw turned out to be the historical marker you see above.

From that historical marker I learned this river crossing is known at the Ohio Street Bridge, opened to traffic on July 4, 1886. A second span was added in 1911. In 1972 the bridge was closed to traffic and the older span demolished.

The Circle Trail, which circulates all over Wichita Falls, circulates under what remains of the Ohio Street Bridge. The Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture is on the north side of the river. I wonder why a side spur off the Circular Trail does not take bikers and walkers across the river to the sculpture? Currently the Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture is a bit isolated from the downtown zone.

Below you can walk on the Ohio Street Bridge with me and get a good look at the extremely colorful, totally litter free Wichita River....

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