Looking At The Twin Tacoma Narrows Bridges & Mount Rainier

What you see here is known as the Tacoma Narrows Bridges. Twin suspension bridges connecting Tacoma to the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington.

That mountain in the background is the volcano named Mount Rainier.

I was in Tacoma several times earlier this century, during the construction of the new bridge, that being the one on the right.

That bridge was clearly built over water, really deep, fast moving water, when the tide changes.

I was seeing this bridge get built over water at the same time I was seeing the Texas town called Fort Worth struggle to try and build three simple little freeway overpass type bridges, over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Those responsible for building those Fort Worth bridges repeatedly told the gullible Fort Worth public that these three bridges were being built over dry land, to save money, when there was no other option than to build the bridges over dry land, with one day, hopefully, a cement-lined ditch to be dug under the bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, thus creating the imaginary island.

Apparently, Fort Worth's plan to create that imaginary island has run into an engineering snafu regarding the design of the mechanism which would divert river water into that cement-lined ditch.

Back to the Tacoma Narrows bridges. Aesthetically speaking, methinks it would have been visually more appealing if the new bridge looked exactly like the older bridge. But, it is wider. And the towers that support the suspension cables were made to somewhat look like the other bridge's towers, but, for some reason they were not painted green, which would have been so much more aesthetically pleasing.

It has been a few years since I have been in Tacoma and seen the Tacoma Narrows bridges. Maybe those gray towers of the new bridge have now been colored to match the original bridge...

Driving Over The Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridges Looking For Fort Worth's Three Bridges Over Nothing

Today, looking for a photo of my dad, and a video of Spencer Jack, had me coming across the photo you see here, and the video you can watch below.

In the photo we are looking north across a Tacoma Narrows waterfront deck, near the Steamers seafood restaurant, south of the Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridges.

The closest bridge is the newest bridge. The new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge was built this century in less than four years.

Built over water.

Built after the voters in the seven or eight counties most affected by the need for a new bridge approved a bond measure to finance the construction of the bridge.

What a concept.

Fort Worth is currently building Three Bridges Over Nothing. No water in sight. The Fort Worth Three Bridges Over Nothing are scheduled to take four years to build. And the public has never been allowed to vote on this particular public works project.

With those Three Fort Worth Bridges Over Nothing taking so long to build, longer than the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, we can certainly reasonably expect that those Three Fort Worth Bridges Over Nothing are going to be spectacular.

At some point in time, in July of 2008, I drove across the old and the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridges, using my antique camcorder to record the drive.

In the video you get a cloudy look at Tacoma, population much smaller than Fort Worth. But with a road system well designed to handle the traffic it needs to handle. In the video I make mention of The Mountain being out and clearly visible. However, The Mountain does not appear in my inferior quality video.

If I remember right I also made a video of Tacoma's Theo Foss Waterway and its surrounding museums. Theo Foss is a development of the sort the Trinity River Vision wants to be, but likely never will be, due to that boondoggle problem from which it suffers.

Below is the video of a drive over the Tacoma Narrows Bridges, along with my pithy commentary....

Looking At Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridges & Fort Worth's Three Bridges Over Nothing

Last month when Spencer Jack sent me a picture of himself and his dad crossing the Golden Gate Bridge it got me thinking and blogging Wondering Why It Will Take Fort Worth Longer To Build 3 Puny Bridges Over Nothing Than It Took To Build The Golden Gate Bridge.

I have yet to hear any sort of explanation as to why it is projected to take four years to build three puny Bridges Over Nothing in Fort Worth when way back early in the last century San Francisco managed to build a big bridge over water in four years.

Yesterday I was looking for a picture for a blogging about Penitentiary Hollow in Lake Mineral Wells State Park when I came upon pictures I'd forgotten I'd taken back in 2005 of the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge under construction, along with pictures taken in 2008 of the completed bridge.

This got me wondering how long it took to build the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

It did not take long to learn construction began on October 4, 2002, with the bridge open to traffic on July 15, 2007, about four years, nine months later.

Reading the Wikipedia article about the three Tacoma Narrows Bridges I came upon a couple interesting contrasts between the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge project and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing.

As in, in 1998 voters in the Washington counties affected by the need for a new bridge across the Narrows approved a measure to create a second Narrows bridge. Then following that vote came protests and court battles, with construction finally beginning in 2002.

Now, could the reason the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing are being built in slow motion have anything to do with the fact that nothing to do with the Boondoggle has been voted on  by the public? And thus not funded in the way public works projects are usually funded.

And where are the protests and court battles initiated by locals disturbed by various aspects of the Boondoggle? Where is the court case brought by someone appalled at the nepotism involved in hiring a local Congresswoman's unqualified son to be the Executive Director of the Boondoggle, to motivate that Congresswoman to help fund the Boondoggle with earmarked pork, which has never materialized, due to changing times, hence the stalled, slow motion Boondoggle?

The unqualified Executive Director of the Boondoggle has claimed that building the Three Bridges Over Nothing will save money and facilitate ease of construction by not building them over that pesky un-needed flood diversion channel and its shallow water.

Why has no one called foul on this claim? When the fact of the matter is the bridges are being built over nothing because there is no money to build the un-needed flood diversion channel.

The new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge was built over water. Deep water. Deep water which moves fast when the tide changes. The total length of the new Tacoma bridge is 5,400 feet. On average the bridge deck is 187.5 feet above the tidal changing water below.

I don't know why the Tacoma bridge builders did not think to make their construction job easier by draining the Tacoma Narrows before doing any bridge building. They should have consulted Fort Worth's premiere project engineer, J.D. Granger, for advice on how to best build a bridge over water.

Below is a picture I took in early August of 2008, looking north at Tacoma's twin suspension bridges.

I was taken to this location to a fish and chips joint the name of which I do not remember. I do remember it was very good fish and chips. With the fish being cod, not catfish, which passes for being seafood at my current location on the planet.

Do you think if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing actually get built they will be as visually interesting as the Tacoma bridges? And why does Tacoma not refer to their bridges as being signature bridges and iconic? Because they sort of are.....

Gazing Into Lake Tandy Thinking About Moving Back To Washington Where Voters Get To Vote

In the picture that is me and my shadow standing today on the Tandy Escarpment, above Dry Tandy Falls, looking down at the crystal clear water of Lake Tandy.

Looking at Dry Tandy Falls and Lake Tandy had me thinking about Dry Falls and crystal clear Sun Lakes in the state from whence I came, Washington.

I've blogged about Dry Falls and Sun Lakes a couple times on my Durango Washington blog in bloggings titled Sun Lakes State Park & Dry Falls and Dry Falls, Sun Lakes, Wind, Riots & Streakers.

I've been thinking about Washington a lot lately. It has been almost 5 years since I've visited the Pacific Northwest.

When I renewed my Texas driver's license, last summer, was the first I realized I'd been in Texas for over 12 years. I was a bit mortified when I realized how quickly 12 years had passed, and how old I will be after the passage of another 12 years.

If I still had a house in Washington I think I'd be moving back. But, my house in Mount Vernon was sold in 2002. There was a house waiting for me when I made the move to Texas, which made moving easy.

When I moved to Texas I knew I was moving to a much more conservative, much less progressive state than  Washington. In the years since I moved to Texas, Washington has become even more progressive and even more liberal. While Texas has sort of regressed.

The depressing, non-progressive, regressive state of being in the state of Texas was brought again to mind a couple minutes ago when I got a blog comment from Dannyboy in response to a blogging I blogged yesterday morning.

Dannyboy has left a new comment on your post "The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit": 

Durango:

You are a bit wrong about Tarrant County mass transit. When it was proposed some decades ago, every city in Tarrant County had the vote to join in. Most did not, including Arlington. So it wasn't that there was "no effort" made to include the whole county, it's just that most of the county said "no" and continues to do so. It is a fact of life in North Texas. Mass transit is considered something that poor people use, and consequently, the funding and improvement of such transportation plans are not seen as important in any way. So it is a conundrum that has no simple fix. People don't use mass transit unless they have to because it is crappy in FW, but they don't want to spend anything to make it better because it is for the crappy poor people. Get it? It will never happen in FW until those attitudes change and I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

If I am understanding Dannyboy correctly, at some point in time individual towns in Tarrant County voted for or against funding mass transit. With only Fort Worth, apparently, voting yes.

Why would this not be a county wide vote, rather than having each town vote regarding its mass transit participation?

The lack of cohesive mass transit in Tarrant County affects the entire county. Why let Arlington vote no and thus make it impossible for Fort Worth residents to take mass transit to Six Flags? Or to watch the Rangers play baseball at The Ballpark in Arlington?

I remember being very perplexed when the Dallas Cowboys were demanding a new football stadium, with how, when it came time to fund the building of a new stadium, the Cowboys ceased being America's Team, the Cowboys were not North Texas' team, not the D/FW Metroplex's team, not the Dallas County team, not the Dallas team, but instead somehow it was the voter's in little Arlington, in Tarrant County, upon whom it fell to help fund a new stadium and proudly engage in one of the worst acts of eminent domain abuse in American history.

By the 1990s congestion had grown into gridlock territory on Washington's Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge. That  infamous bridge connects Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula. I remember shortly before I moved to Texas, in 1998, voters in the Washington counties affected by the congestion voted on whether or not to support building a second suspension bridge. The voters voted yes and have been driving over the new bridge since 2007.

If I remember correctly the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge cost around $1 billion, about the same cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, with key differences being that voters voted on the bridge.

Construction began in 2002, completed 5 years later.

Meanwhile, voters have not voted on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and well over a decade since this incredibly important Fort Worth flood control project was begun, very little can been seen of the vision. And what can be seen ain't at all pretty, visions like the Cowtown Wakeboard Park, the world's pre-eminent urban wake boarding facility.

So, why is it in Texas the voters in a county can not vote on a county-wide project? Why can't all the voters in all the counties that make up the D/FW Metroplex vote in a project that benefits everyone?

Like mass transit for poor people.....