Hometown By Handlebar Provides Definitive Detail Of How Long It Took To Build Fort Worth's Paddock Viaduct

Earlier today in my quest to find out why the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are projected to take four years to build I looked at Fort Worth's Paddock Viaduct.

I was unable to pin down exact dates as to the start and end of construction of the Paddock Viaduct, yet I was able to determine that it is yet one more much more complicated, much more impressive feat of bridge engineering than the Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing.

And that the Paddock Viaduct was built in less than four years.

In Fort Worth there is this guy, Mike Nichols, who has a website called Hometown by Handlebar, in which he does such a good job of telling the story of the history of Fort Worth that I am regularly amazed at the material he comes up with.

For instance, years ago when I came upon the memorial to Al Haynes and the Texas Spring Palace, at that point in time in run down eyesore condition, since restored, I webpaged what little info I could find about this piece of Fort Worth history.

Recently Hometown by Handlebar told the story of the Texas Spring Palace and Al Haynes in Three Parts. How this information gets discovered at this level of detail by Mr. Nichols is a mystery to me.  The story of the Texas Spring Palace and Al Haynes really needs to be made into a movie.

The Hometown by Handlebar history of the Texas Spring Palace and Al Haynes in Three Parts: Texas Spring Palace (Part 1): Cowtown’s Karporama, Texas Spring Palace (Part 2): A Blaze of Glory and Texas Spring Palace (Part 3): “No Truer Hero Ever Died”

Pointing me to the Hometown by Handlebar Paddock Viaduct information came via a blog comment....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Century Ago Fort Worth's Biggest Bridge Was Built Over The Trinity River In Less Than Four Years": 

The Hometown by Handlebar guy has further info on the Paddock Viaduct:

http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/?p=11828

Today I Learned About The Murder Of Fort Worth's Burwell Christmas Evans

I know I've mentioned what I think is Fort Worth's best blog previously, a time or two, that blog being Hometown by Handlebar.

Almost daily I'm impressed and amazed at the stories this Bloggerman, Mike Nichols, tells.

Mike Nichols is making Fort Worth, past and present, seem so interesting methinks the City of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce should be paying this guy.

Today's Hometown by Handlebar is yet one more instance of yet one more piece of Fort Worth history, unknown to me, til today. A sad tale of a bad crime of the sort that could be in our headlines today, but this happened way back in the same century the Civil War took place in.

Have I mentioned before that one of my majors, in college, was history? History has always been my favorite subject.

The title of today's Hometown by Handlebar blogging is Once Upon a Crime: “Woe, Woe, Woe”

Below is the first paragraph...

Burwell Christmas Evans was born on December 25, 1844, in South Carolina. When the Civil War began he was a student at the Citadel military college. Just sixteen years old, he enlisted. After the war in 1872 he headed west. He settled in Fort Worth and opened a dry goods store downtown. In 1876 he offered customers something new: On the second floor of his store he opened Fort Worth’s first respectable theater. Illuminated by kerosene lamps, such noted entertainers as humorist Josh Billings performed in the theater upstairs. And on its stage Madame Rentz’s Female Minstrels brought the cancan to Cowtown. Ew la la, y’all.

Click here to continued reading to find out all about the woeful crime...

Taken By Anonymous To A Hometown By Handlebar

This morning I got an interesting blog comment from someone named Anonymous. This interesting blog comment led me to a very good blog called Hometown  by Handlebar.

The hometown is Fort Worth and the handlebars are those that you find on a bike...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Making A Prairie Note Of Tandy Hills Prickly Pear Cactus": 

Excellent Fort Worth history website: http://hometownbyhandlebar.com/ Good photography too.

Since this blog is about Fort Worth, and a bike is involved, I can see where someone might suspect that it is my blog. Well, you would be wrong in your suspicion. If you visit Hometown by Handlebar you will quickly see that it is not my blog. This blogger writes way better than I do. And takes way better photographs.

A couple blurbs from Hometown by Handlebar....

Where? (The City)
Fort Worth was established at the confluence of the upper two of four branches of the Trinity River. That confluence—that blending of elements—has served as a metaphor for the city ever since. Fort Worth is a blending of heifers and Heifetz, of pickups and pearls. It is rodeo and Radio Shack, low-riders and high-rollers, sweet tea and tequila, and a museum district where the paintings of Remington and Degas and Picasso stand shoulder to bare breast to unidentifiable body part.

Why? (The Reason)
In the beginning the answer to “Why?” was “exercise.” I began cycling for exercise during the twenty-five years or so I lived in the country, away from my hometown. When I moved back to Fort Worth, I continued to cycle for exercise. And I found that while I had been away, Fort Worth had become more bikable. On the Trinity Trails I can ride from Benbrook Lake in the southwest to Quanah Parker Park on the east or up to Camp Carter and Buck Sansom Park in the north—and with few encounters with vehicular traffic. Several major streets now have bike lanes. City buses have bike racks on front. I can take my bike with me on the Trinity Railway Express.

I think I'll add this blog to my blog list.