Why Wasn't The Golden Gate Built Over Dry Land To Save Time & Money?

I saw that which you see above on Facebook. A lady standing on the running board of an old car, in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge, under construction, behind her.

According to the caption the year was 1935, with the new bridge to be completed in two years. It took four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, in total.

Four years..

Over water.

Fast moving, deep water, subject to strong tidal currents.

I don't know why San Francisco did not employ the time and money saving Fort Worth method of bridge building by draining all that water and building the bridge over dry land.

Methinks if Fort Worth tried to build an actual feat of bridge building engineering, such as the Golden Gate, even if Fort Worth began building in 1933, the bridge would still not be completed by 2021.

Fort Worth can't even seem to manage to build simple little bridges over dry land in a reasonable time span.

We blogged about this recently in Another Opportunity To Drone On About Fort Worth's Visionary Bridges To Nowhere, comparing the two town's signature iconic bridges, with one town's bridge being actually iconic, called Golden Gate Bridge, as opposed to the other town's being imaginarily iconic, called Panther Island Bridge...

Did Thousands Celebrate Fort Worth's New Bridge With A Walk Across?

Saw that which you see above, on Facebook, yesterday. An aerial view, looking north, across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, in 1937, on a day in May when people walked across the new bridge whilst planes flew overhead.

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most iconic signature structures in the world. You see a photo of that bridge and you know what and where it is. Like seeing the Statue of Liberty, or the Eiffel Tower.

It took less than four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, back in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. The bridge was built over deep, fast moving saltwater, with widely varying tidal levels. 

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, Texas.

Way back in October of 2014 Fort Worth had a TNT exploding ceremony to mark the start of construction of three simple little bridges, over dry land, intended to one day connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, when water is added under the bridges via a cement lined ditch.

Those three simple little bridges were touted as destined to become iconic signature bridges, recognized world-wide as being in Fort Worth.

The first of the three bridges to be somewhat completed opened to some traffic in March of 2021.

Almost 7 years after that TNT explosion marked the start of construction.

I do not know if San Francisco had a TNT exploding ceremony, or a ceremony of any sort, to mark the start of construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I also do not know if Fort Worth had a celebratory day with its new bridge, where people could walk across the short new bridge, whilst airplanes flew overhead. 

I suspect not.

Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, J.D., was given the job of being the Executive Director of what eventually became known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

The builders of these bridges.

J.D. was given this job to help motivate his mother to secure federal funds for the project, because Fort Worth was too poor, and did not know how to finance public works projects in the way towns do who wear their Big City Pants.

J.D.'s salary eventually went over $200 K a year, plus lots of perks, such as junkets to other towns. 

Eventually, a few years after it became obvious that Fort Worth had become home to America's Biggest Boondoggle, J.D. was removed as Executive Director of the TRV, with an experienced project manager hired to replace him.

J.D. was given a new title, and no pay cut.

A sane town would long ago have demanded J.D. be fired. Particularly after it became widely known he was engaging in an extra-marital affair with a Trinity River Vision subordinate, creating what is known as a hostile work environment.

A sane town would also long ago have replaced J.D.'s mother with a Representative in Congress who actually represented the people they were supposed to represent.

But, that ain't Fort Worth.

An amusing irony of those three pitiful little bridges being touted as one day being iconic signature structures representing Fort Worth to the world, is that that likely is going to be a reality.

Those three bridges will symbolize a town which has trouble getting much done. From installing sidewalks along streets, to installing modern facilities in the town's parks, allowing the removal of the ubiquitous embarrassing outhouses.

Symbolizing a poorly thought out public works project the public never voted for, claiming to be a vitally needed flood control scheme, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century due to flood control measures already in place which the rest of America already paid for.

The un-needed flood control scheme masked a poorly thought out economic development scheme, which was designed to enrich those who owned property in the area which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, property owners such as the Granger Grifter Gang. And others.

Am I erroneous? Was there a celebration with the opening of the first of Fort Worth's pitiful little freeway overpass-like bridges? With the public walking across the new bridges.

If so I saw no photos of such, and would appreciate seeing one if such exists...

Again Hoping To See Fort Worth Boondoggle's Bridge Under Construction

Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before yesterday, an incoming email informed me that Mr. W had mentioned me in Facebook. Or maybe it was that Mr. W had flagged me. I don't remember if it was a mentioning or a flagging. Maybe it was both.

Anyway, when I went to Facebook to see why or what was mentioned or flagged I saw that which you see here.

Mr. and Mrs. W live in a penthouse atop a bluff in downtown Fort Worth overlooking the Trinity River and the area known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

With Mr. and Mrs. W having a Bird's Eye View of America's Biggest Boondoggle in mind, upon first look, I thought I was seeing a photo Mr. W took of America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges once again under construction.

I only thought such for a second or two, then realized that flat area was not flat Fort Worth land, and that that could not be Fort Worth, what with those hills in the background. If such hills existed in the relatively flat Fort Worth area the hills would likely be known as mountains.

What we are actually looking at above is not a bridge being built over dry land. What we are looking at is a bridge being built over one of the Pacific Ocean's bays called San Francisco Bay, which would make that bridge being constructed the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge, built over water, took about four years to build. I have mentioned this a time or two previous, including mentioning it in Spencer Jack Has Me Wondering Why It Will Take Fort Worth Longer To Build 3 Puny Bridges Over Nothing Than It Took To Build The Golden Gate Bridge.

A couple years ago Fort Worth started building three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. That construction  has been halted for over a year, due to the extremely complex engineering problems involved when one builds a bridge over dry land, unlike easy bridge construction, such as the Golden Gate, built over water which moves swiftly due to this phenomenon called tides.

I have blogged about the pitiful Fort Worth bridge building and America's Biggest Boondoggle dozens of times, with one of the most recent times Looking For What Fort Worth's Stalled Boondoggle Needs To Find.

Has anyone seen a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article this month mentioning the one year anniversary of  America's Biggest Boondoggle's stalled bridge construction? How about Fort Worth Weekly?

Fort Worth Weekly used to be the closest thing Fort Worth had to a real newspaper. And then Fort Worth Weekly lost Gayle Reaves with Fort Worth Weekly quickly declining relevance to reality-wise.

Maybe 60 Minutes will come to Fort Worth and do an expose of America's Biggest Boondoggle and the Granger Cartel.

America  deserves  to see the ridiculousness it is helping pay for....

Spencer Jack Has Me Wondering Why It Will Take Fort Worth Longer To Build 3 Puny Bridges Over Nothing Than It Took To Build The Golden Gate Bridge

This morning's email from Spencer Jack's dad confirming that he and Spencer Jack are currently in San Francisco had me motivated to blog about something I'd long intended to blog about regarding the Golden Gate Bridge.

This morning I found a Golden Gate Bridge image I intended to use for illustrative purposes and then, just as I was heading into Blogging World, fresh incoming email from Spencer Jack's dad included three pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, two of which I include here.

From this point on I will now verbalize what I was originally going to say.....

No.

That is not an artist's rendering of tourists crossing one of Fort Worth's supposedly under construction, non-signature, non-iconic bridges you are looking at.

What you are looking at is Spencer Jack on some sort of tourist contraption heading to Marin County via San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

The Golden Gate Bridge is an actual signature bridge. An actual iconic structure recognized world-wide.

The Trinity River Panther Island Vision Boondoggle's three bridges over nothing are promoted by that corrupt agency as being "signature" bridges, which will become "iconic" images of Fort Worth.

Do Fort Worth's propaganda purveyors not actually know what is meant by the word "iconic"?

Fort Worth's three non-signature, never gonna be iconic bridges over nothing are being built over nothing because this is supposedly easier than building over something, such as the un-needed flood diversion channel that some day may flow under Fort Worth's three non-signature, non-iconic bridges over nothing.

The three bridges supposedly began being constructed this month. The three bridges being built over nothing are scheduled  to be completed in four years.

Four years.

I know you are sitting there wondering how long it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge, a bridge which was not built over nothing, but was instead built over the Golden Gate Strait at the entry to San Francisco Bay.

Construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge on January 5, 1933 and was completed on April 19, 1937.

Four years later.

The Golden Gate Bridge is about 1.7 miles long, 90 feet wide, 740 feet tall, and 220 feet, on average, above the saltwater below.

Yes, unlike Fort Worth's non-signature, non-iconic three bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge was built over water, very deep water, water that moves due to this thing called tides.

So, how is it that Fort Worth's relatively puny, relatively simple bridges will take four years to build? How come I've not heard any of the locals asking why it will take so long?

I wonder if the reason it takes Fort Worth so long to build three little bridges has anything to do with how the building of these bridges is financed?

To build the Golden Gate the California Legislature authorized the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District as the official entity charged with the design, construction and financing of the project. But then the Wall Street crash of 1929 came along, followed by the Great Depression, which created a fund raising problem.

So, what did the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District do to get the funds to build the bridge?

Why they did something Fort Worth apparently does not know how to do.

A bond measure was placed before the voters in the counties that would benefit from the new bridge. The voters approved the bond measure in November 1930, with construction beginning less than three years later.

What a concept.

Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has boondoggled along for well over a decade, un-funded, un-voted on.

How bizarre.

Why would you not have the public vote on a public works project that benefits the public by building a much needed flood control upgrade from the levees which have kept downtown Fort Worth flood-free for over a half century?

Oh, I think I just answered my question.

Anyway, below is another picture of Spencer Jack at one of the world's signature iconic bridges....