Friday, January 13, 2023

Fort Worth's Bridgey McBridgeface Bridge Name Nonsense Boondoggle


Yesterday a blog comment from Fort Worth's renowned Stenotrophomonas which pointed me to some fresh Fort Worth embarrassing nonsense I had not previously known about...

Stenotrophomonas has left a new comment on your post "Mark K's Make Me Homesick Mount Baker Photo":

Meanwhile, in the wannabe city

Fort Worth appears ready to move ahead on naming Panther Island bridges. White Settlement Road, though, still stalled.

Not much imagination here.
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Excerpt from the article about the stalled bridge naming...

From the names of notable Fort Worthians to the classic “Bridgey McBridgeface,” Fort Worth residents submitted over 1,700 suggestions to rename the three bridges connected to the Panther Island Project.

Henderson Street bridge, North Main Street bridge and White Settlement bridge are all unofficial names. The city solicited suggestions to rename the bridges in February 2022. Submissions closed in March.

Residents submit over 1,700 suggestions to rename three Panther Island bridges

The renaming on Panther Island bridges presents an opportunity to elevate notable figures of Fort Worth’s past, said Peter Martínez, a history professor at Tarrant County College. 

“I think that would be huge,” Martínez said. 
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For those not familiar with Fort Worth's multi-year bridge building embarrassment. Fort Worth has had an ongoing pseudo public works project limping in slow motion for most of this century. Originally called the Trinity River Vision, eventually to be referred by most as The Boondoggle, whilst adding names to the original official name til it became the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Part of that myopic vision was the building of three simple little bridges, over dry land. The building of these three little bridges took over seven years, way longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge over actual deep, swift moving water.

One day it is hoped that cement lined ditches will be dug under the three bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, creating an imaginary island, already named Panther Island.

Nope, not making this up. Google "Panther Island" and you will find a lot of documentation about Fort Worth's ongoing embarrassment. 

Why would any sane city waste time and money on soliciting name suggestions for something like these three simple bridges, currently crossing dry land, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island?

Here is a look at one of the simple little bridges, and the dry land under it, awaiting a cement lined ditch...


Isn't that a stunning feat of bridge engineering you are looking at here? Those buildings you see in the background make up the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Yeah, it is easy to see why naming these bridges would be huge, just like that Tarrant County College professor suggested...

1 comment:

Steve A said...

How about "The Montlake Bridge Would be Green with Envy" as a name for one of the bridges. In Seattle, they weren't as clever as Fort Worth. In Seattle, they dug the ditch (called the Montlake Cut) for the ship canal and THEN built the bridge. Just the reverse of what Fort Worth did. Hence, my proposed name. We could call it MBWBGWE for short.