A View Of Deception Pass Takes Us To Fort Worth's Boondoggle

I saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook. A bird's eye view of Deception Pass in my former home zone of Washington state.

That straight line you see connecting the land mass on the right with the land mass on the left is Deception Pass Bridge. 

Deception Pass Bridge was built almost a century ago, in less than one year, over deep, swift moving saltwater.

All the land masses you see above are islands. The large land mass on the right is Fidalgo Island, connected to Whidbey Island by the Deception Pass Bridge.

I think being familiar with the concept of actual islands may be why I have long found Fort Worth's imaginary island to be so idiotically annoying. For years now a desolate chunk of land north of Fort Worth's downtown has been referred to as Panther Island.

Where there is no island.

This chunk of desolate land is referred to as Panther Island because of a ridiculous slow motion project which has been limping along since the current century began, known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Referred to by many Fort Worth locals as The Boondoggle.

Many years ago Fort Worth had itself a TNT explosion celebrating the start of construction of three simple freeway overpass type bridges, over dry land, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to the imaginary island.

It took over seven years for Fort Worth to build those three simple little bridges. Over dry land.

The Trinity River Vision hopes to one day see a cement lined ditch under those three bridges. Ditches in which Trinity River water will be diverted, thus creating that imaginary island, which will never be an actual island in the rational meaning of the island word.

Fort Worth has a long history of this type of hyperbole. Starting with the town's name. There is no fort in Fort Worth. There once was a Camp Worth, back in the early days when the native population was still in the neighborhood.

When I first moved to the D/FW zone, myself and my fellow transplants, were perplexed by directional signage in downtown Fort Worth pointing to Sundance Square. There was no square in Sundance Square, confusing the town's few tourists.

And then, after confusing those few tourists for a few decades, an actual square was added to Sundance Square, called Sundance Square Plaza.

And now, in 2023, Fort Worth's few tourists are confused by signage pointing to Panther Island, where there is no island...