Historically Marking A Visit To Fort Worth's West 7th Bridge With Signature Irony

I think I already may have mentioned that on Monday I found myself in downtown Fort Worth. At that point in time I decided to check out some of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's "Products".

One of The Boondoggle's "Products" is three bridges being built over nothing. Prior to it causing an epidemic of eye rolling The Boondoggle referred to these three simple bridges as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth.

No, that is not an artist's rendering of one of The Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing you are looking at here.

When I was in downtown Fort Worth on Monday I decided to head west out of downtown, on West 7th Street on my way to Uncle Julios. I parked at the north end of Trinity Park and proceeded to get an up close look at the new West 7th bridge across the Trinity River.

As you can see this is a visually interesting, futuristic looking bridge. With a wide pedestrian path, outside the lanes of traffic, on both sides of the bridge.

A close up look at the West 7th Bridge had me thinking that it would not cause giggling to refer to this bridge as a signature bridge, with it being a one of a kind type deal. I also thought that this bridge had the potential to become a sort of iconic image of Fort Worth, as the connector between its downtown and the town's fabled Cultural District.

From the location from which I took the above picture I then proceeded under the bridge to find myself soon making an amusingly ironic discovery in the form of a historical marker.

I will copy the information one sees on the above West 7th Bridge Historical Marker....

One hundred years after the initial W. 7th Street bridge opened, the world's first pre-cast network arch bridge was dedicated on November 15, 2013. The innovative design by Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Engineer Dean Van Landuyt and progressive construction techniques allowed the bridge to open in only four months.

The $26 million signature bridge connects motorists and pedestrians with downtown Fort Worth and the Cultural District, offering a scenic view of the Clear Fork Trinity River, and was a successful partnership between the community, TxDOT, Sundt Construction and the City of Fort Worth.

Progressive construction techniques allowed this bridge to open in only four months?

While downstream a short distance, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is building three simple bridges over nothing, with a 48 month construction timeline. Not four months.

The re-built West 7th Bridge cost $26 million? How much are The Boondoggle's plain, simple bridges supposedly going to cost? I may be remembering wrong, but it seems like $27 million is an amount I have read.

I like how this historical marker accurately refers to the West 7th Bridge as a "signature bridge".

Are the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers aware of this feat of bridge engineering, completed in four months, a short distance upstream from where The Boondoggle has currently made a big mess?

All Aboard For The Fort Worth Bridge Boondoggle Ground Breaking Boycott

This morning I was thinking about yesterday's blogging about Mary Kelleher boycotting tomorrow's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's ground breaking ceremony for its Three Bridges Over Nothing.

Thinking about the Three Bridges Over Nothing led to me once again wondering why no one but me seems to be baffled as to why The Boondoggle's construction of these bridges is scheduled to take four years.

Four years when bridges far more ambitious have been built over water in less than four years.

The only explanation my limited imagination can come up with for the four year project timeline is the bridges are being built in slow motion in the hope that by the time four years pass The Boondoggle may have found the money to build the ditch under the bridges to be filled with water, finally creating a pseudo island, which is currently called Panther Island, even though there is no island.

The bridge to my next thoughts led to thinking about Fort Worth's newly re-built West 7th Bridge. To my eyes this is a good looking bridge.

The Boondoggle claims its Three Bridges Over Nothing are signature bridges which will become iconic images representing the entry to the vaunted imaginary Panther Island.

Why did The Boondoggle not mirror the look of the West 7th Bridge for its Three Bridges Over Nothing? The West 7th Bridge is visually interesting. The artist's renderings I have seen of the Three Bridges Over Nothing indicate those bridges are not going to be even remotely visually interesting.

As I did all this bridge thinking I decided to blog about it. That had me looking for a picture of the West 7th Bridge. That led me to a Dallas Observer article, part of which is screencapped above, with the title Sorry, Fort Worth, But Your New "Signature" Bridge Is Pathetic.

Now that seems a bit rude. I've not heard the West 7th Bridge referred to as a "Signature" bridge. I certainly don't think the bridge is pathetic.

The first three paragraphs in the Dallas Observer article amused me, with the amusement due to the fact that that which is being written about happened way back in October of 2013, but could also describe what is happening, bridge-wise, in Fort Worth tomorrow...

This afternoon in Fort Worth, a "parade of dignitaries" will mark the opening of the new West 7th Street, and good for them. It's a fully competent work of civil engineering and a pleasant enough way to get to downtown Fort Worth, if get to downtown Fort Worth you must.

It's just that the level of excitement -- and remember that we say this as a friend and neighbor -- has grown unseemly. People are dropping adjectives like "signature" and "one-of-a-kind" as if no one's ever built a bridge before.

We urge the people of Fort Worth put down their celebratory bottles of Andre, pause for a moment, and cast their gaze eastward. There on the horizon, if their eyes can penetrate 35 miles through the smog, they'll notice a majestic -- nay, heavenly -- glow. Closer inspection will reveal the source as a span that truly deserves superlatives, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

I vaguely remember reading and possibly blogging about this Dallas Observer article back when it was published. If you read the entire article you will find that the writer does have some fun making fun of Fort Worth, but, the writer is also having fun making fun of Dallas and its "Signature" bridge. And by the end of the article the writer sort of back handedly compliments Fort Worth, advising Fort Worthers to stop embarrassing themselves giddily parading down their mediocre bridge, but to instead slink back into their "vibrant downtown and human-scale developments and bikeable neighborhoods and think long and hard about what truly makes a great city."

Sounds like good advice to me, good advice that Fort Worth would be very wise to heed.....