In Fort Worth Looking At The Incredibly Shrinking Trinity River & Its Litter

You are looking at the former Trinity Falls, now Dry Trinity Falls, standing on the Trinity Trail near the bridge that leads from Gateway Park. There were 10 or more guys fishing from the location of the now dry falls today. It seems just a few weeks ago Hurricane Hermine dumped so much water in North Texas that the Trinity River was flooding higher than I'd seen since I've been in Texas, delivering litter where litter had seldom been delivered. And a lot of water.

Above are some of the fishing guys, with their lines in the water where the Trinity River discharges from  the other side. I can't imagine there being fish in this location.

Above we are looking north across the Trinity River Dam Bridge, where just a few days ago the water was quite a bit higher and I showed you a scary looking whirlpool that was sucking water under the dam bridge. The whirlpool is still swirling, though not as constant and not as big. You can see the dock, used by boaters to launch their boats, is sitting high and dry and boat-free, on the north side of the dam bridge.

In the above picture we are above the whirlpool, above where the Trinity flows under the dam. Those are not some of J.D. Granger's lost inner tubes at the base of the dam. Those are tires. There were several of them. And a rusty bed spring.

Above is the best picture I managed to get of the whirlpool. I watched a few pieces of floating litter get flushed down the whirlpool. I should have thought to take video. That would have captured the strange sucking noise.

Above is another view from the top of the dam bridge of the newly shrunken Trinity River, looking west at the Beach Street Bridge and downtown Fort Worth. The riverbank sort of looks like the tide is out.

Speaking of litter, there is still quite a lot of debris piled up around the exit from Gateway Park on to the Trinity Trail. About half the mountain of litter, that was piled up soon after the flood receded, has been removed.

Above is a look at the reduced Litter Mountain. I would think it was shrinking due to decomposition, except for the fact I could tell some mechanical device had been scraping away at it. You can see the fumes coming from the mountain of litter.

So, that was my exciting adventure at noon today. Escaping for a very short time to take a very short bike ride to take a few pictures of a very shrunken river. And some litter remnants.