Washington's Deception Pass Bridge Took A Deceptively Short Time To Build

Continuing on with my extremely popular series of bloggings looking at bridges which took around four years, or less, to build, in my continuing quest to get an answer as to why it is projected to take four years for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build Three Bridges Over Nothing, today we are going to take a look at one of the most iconic bridges of the Pacific Northwest, Deception Pass Bridge.

Deception Pass Bridge is a short distance from where I lived  in Washington. Deception Pass State Park has some of my all time favorite hiking trails. It is a place I frequented frequently and a bridge I've crossed countless times.

A couple blurbs from the Wikipedia Deception Pass Bridge article, along with Wikipedia's bulleted list of facts about this bridge.

In the spring of 1792, Joseph Whidbey, master of HMS Discovery and Captain Vancouver's chief navigator proved that it was not really a small bay as charted by the Spaniards (hence the name "Deception"), but a deep and turbulent channel that connects the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Saratoga Passage, which separates the mainland from what they believed was a peninsula (actually Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island). Thomas Coupe, a sea captain and founder of Coupeville, was the only man ever to sail a full-rigged ship through the strait discovered by Whidbey.

The bridge, one of the scenic wonders of the Pacific Northwest, is actually two spans, one over Canoe Pass to the north, and another over Deception Pass to the south. The Wallace Bridge and Structural Co. of Seattle, Washington provided 460 tons of steel for the 511-foot Canoe Pass arch and 1130 tons for the 976-foot Deception Pass span. The cost of the New Deal-era construction was $482,000, made possible through the Public Works Administration and county funds.

Bridge Facts

• Height from water to roadway: about 180 feet, depending on the tide
• Roadway: two 11-foot lanes, one in each direction
• Sidewalks: 3 foot sidewalk on each side
• Width of bridge deck: 28 feet
• Total length: 1487 feet (more than a quarter mile)
• Canoe Pass: one 350-ft arch and three concrete T-beam approach spans
• Deception Pass: two 175-ft cantilever spans, one 200-ft suspended span, and four concrete T-beam approach spans
• Vehicle crossings: 20,000 per day, average
• Maximum speed of current in Deception Pass at flood/ebb tide: 9 kts
• Maximum speed of current in Canoe Pass at flood/ebb tide: 10 kts
• Suicides from jumping from the bridge total 12 in 2009 and 15 in 2010

I really do not think that suicide count can possibly be correct. Over the years there have been bridge jumpers, but 25 in a two year period? I think this would have been something I'd heard about.

A couple things from the Wikipedia article stood out to me. One was the mention made of the bridge being one of the scenic wonders of the Pacific Northwest. Do you think a Wikipedia article in the future will be referring to Fort Worth's Bridges Over Nothing as one of the scenic wonders of North Texas?

Did you notice that the Deception Pass Bridge was not built over nothing? But built high above extremely fast moving water.

When there is an extreme tide level differential the water moving through Deception Pass is an amazing display of hydraulic force.

So, you must be wondering how long it took to build this feat of bridge engineering.

Well.

Construction began in August of 1934.

And was completed and opened to traffic on July 31, 1935.

The Deception Pass Bridge took less than a year to build.

On the left you are looking at a postcard showing Deception Pass Bridge under construction.

I took this picture postcard from a blogging I blogged years ago on my Washington blog about Deception Pass Bridge.

Now I ask, yet again, how in the world can Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing take four years to build?  The Bridges Over Nothing are simple, relatively small bridges. There is no feat of engineering involved in the Boondoggle's bridges.

Four years? How can it take four years to build these vitally important bridges which are key to building the un-needed flood diversion channel which may, someday, flow under the bridges, giving them, finally, a reason for being?

Looking Forward To Celebrating Indigenous People's Day Possibly With The Texas Kickapoo Tribe

Every once in awhile, well, actually, almost every day, I'll be reading one the online versions of one of the newspapers in my old home zone of Washington and find myself thinking, well, that is a headline that will likely never been seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Like the headline above.

Can you imagine the Fort Worth City Council causing natives to get celebratory by replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day? I don't know if there are any Indigenous People still in Fort Worth to do any celebrating. Most were moved via a primitive form of eminent domain abuse, a long, long time ago, with most who survived being slaughtered ending up in Oklahoma, like Quanah Parker.

We do have a Quanah Parker Park in Fort Worth, though. So, there is that.

Seattle is not the first American town to celebrate Indigenous People's Day. That honor goes to Berkeley, California and Denver, Colorado.

I have long known that Columbus Day is a federal holiday. I did not know til today that four states opt out of Columbus Day. Those four would be Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota. I don't know if Alaska, Hawaii  and Oregon have a Columbus Day replacement, like Indigenous People's Day, but I do know that South Dakota replaces Columbus Day with Native American Day.

It is fitting that South Dakota celebrates Native American Day. What with the shady way the Black Hills were taken from the Sioux. And what with the last massacre of the Indian Wars taking place in South Dakota at Wounded Knee.

Other American towns have cancelled Columbus Day, such as San Francisco, which celebrates Italian Heritage Day instead, I'm assuming because a lot of San Franciscans are of Italian descent and Christopher Columbus was Italian. I may be assuming incorrectly.

One would think Columbus, Ohio would celebrate Columbus Day. Instead the Columbus, Ohio Columbus Day Parade has been cancelled since the 1990s, due to the revisionist modern view of Christopher Columbus and his "discovery" exploits.

Unlike Texas, Washington has a large population of Native Americans, with some 30 tribes owning tribal land. Below, from Wikipedia, is a list of all the federally recognized reservations in Washington, followed by a list of the federally recognized reservations in Texas....

Name of Reservation	Date Reservation Established	Area of Reservation (acres)	Location of Reservation
Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation	1860	4,225	southeastern Grays Harbor County and southwestern Thurston County
Colville Indian Reservation	1872	1,400,000[2]	primarily southeastern section of Okanogan County and the southern half of Ferry County
Cowlitz			Cowlitz County near Longview, Washington
Hoh Indian Reservation	1893[3]	477	the Pacific Coast of Jefferson County
Jamestown S'Klallam Indian Reservation			near Sequim Bay, in extreme eastern Clallam County
Kalispel Indian Reservation			the town of Cusick, in Pend Oreille County
Lower Elwha Indian Reservation			the mouth of the Elwha River, in Clallam County
Lummi Indian Reservation	1855	13,600	west of Bellingham, in western Whatcom County
Makah Indian Reservation	1855	30,010	on Cape Flattery in Clallam County
Muckleshoot Indian Reservation	1874[3]	3,533	southeast of Auburn in King County.
Nisqually Indian Reservation	1854	5,000 (approx.)[4]	western Pierce County and eastern Thurston County
Nooksack Indian Reservation			town of Deming, Washington in western Whatcom County
Port Gamble Indian Reservation			Port Gamble Bay in Clallam County
Port Madison Reservation (Suquamish Indian Reservation)			western and northern shores of Port Madison, northern Kitsap County
Puyallup Indian Reservation	1854–1856[3]	18,062	primarily northern Pierce County
Quileute Indian Reservation			southwestern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in Clallam County
Quinault Indian Reservation	1856	208,150	primarily the north coast of Grays Harbor County
Samish Indian Reservation			Anacortes, pending outcome of legal claims
Sauk-Suiattle Indian Reservation
Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation
Skokomish Indian Reservation
Snoqualmie Indian Reservation
Spokane Indian Reservation	1881	133,344
Squaxin Island Indian Reservation	1854	1,418 (Squaxin Island) / 1,715 (total)
Stillaguamish Indian Reservation
Swinomish Indian Reservation
Tulalip Indian Reservation	1855	24,300
Upper Skagit Indian Reservation
Yakama Indian Reservation	1890s–1914	1,118,149

Wikipedia's American Indian reservations in Texas article does not have a table listing all the tribe's reservations in Texas, because there are only three tribes to list....

• Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
• Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
• Ysleta del Sur Pueblo

The only one of the three Texas tribes I'd heard of before is the Kickapoo, due to having made a webpage about the town of Eagle Pass, which is near the Kickapoo reservation and their Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino.

I wonder if the Kickapoo celebrate Columbus Day? Or do they opt to celebrate Indigenous People's Day instead?

The Star-Telegram Needs To Be Spanked For Its Unreasonable Endorsement Of Kay Granger

 I returned from a biking inspection of my neighborhood to find an email with a subject line I'd not seen before.

"Spank 'em!".

The 'em being referred to is Fort Worth's prolific propaganda purveyor, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the mouthpiece of the good ol' network which runs Fort Worth helping keeping the Fort Worth Way of operating alive and kicking, despite a lot of people alive and kicking trying to bring progressive modern American times to Fort Worth and its surrounding area.

The "Spank 'em!" email in its entirety....

Durango,

The Star-Telegram has issued its non-endorsement in our race today, and we hope that you will help barrage them with Letters-to-the Editor in protest. While these won’t change their decision, it will take them to task for their irresponsibility in filling an important advisory role to the voters, and raise our campaign’s profile in the process.  

Their tepid endorsement of Granger reads:

“Granger, a former Fort Worth mayor, was elected in 1997 to serve House District 12 (western Tarrant County, all of Parker County and the southeastern portion of Wise County). She’s vice chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Democrat Mark Greene has raised the profile of the race, but neither he nor Libertarian Ed Colliver can overcome Granger’s name recognition and leadership.”

Again, Granger voted for the sequester, to shut down the government, twice to default on the debt, against funding CHIP, against equal pay for women, and steamrolled the Trinity River Vision project into being – a huge and irresponsible burden around the necks of her constituents.

We shared our thoughts on our Facebook page this morning:

“We are clearly disappointed that the Star-Telegram sees its role as that of handicapper, rather than as a reasoned evaluator of legislative competence and vision. It is a safe stance to take, but clearly not one helpful to voters seeking more from their elected representatives than they are currently getting...”

While the Star-Telegram’s endorsement/non-endorsement was not unexpected, the fact that they present no grounds on which to support Granger over us – with Congress’ approval ratings near single digits and her party veering badly off the rails, leaves ample room for criticism. Again, letters must be under 200 words, in your own words, accompanied by your contact information, and received timely. Mail to: letters@star-telegram.com.

Thanks for all you do,

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 An Exploding Tube Took Me To Walmart & Slippery Mud With Indian Ghosts

This morning I tried to fix the tire that I discovered flat yesterday when I went to go bike riding with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

All went well with the tube repair, initially. I found a previous patch failed. I replaced it. Tested the new patch under pressure. It passed the test.

I stuck the tube back on the wheel, inside the tire and then began pumping fresh air into the freshly fixed flat.

Suddenly the tube started making a disturbing noise, like the rumbling of a mountain about to erupt or a big elephant with severe flatulence.

And then BOOM. The tube exploded. Dogs started barking, car alarms started alarming. I was knocked backwards.

I may be slightly exaggerating.

So, with a serious need for a new tube I headed east to Walmart, got tubed and then continued on to the aforementioned Village Creek Natural Historical Area to have a longer walk than yesterday's.

I made it to the second dam bridge today. It is totally blocked by a tree. And a thick mud cover was very slippery. That is the mud cover, above, in the foreground. Across the dam bridge we leave the Natural Historical Area with the park zone then becoming known as the Bob Findlay Linear Park.

I warned a lady with two big dogs about the mud danger that lay ahead of her. Behind her came two skateboarders, rolling at high speed. I tried to shout a warning, but they did not hear me. I suspect that when they skated the curving semi-steep slope that leads to the dam bridge that it did not go well for them when they hit the slippery mud.

Anyway, I have a new tube I hope to successfully install without exploding this afternoon.

A Century Ago Fort Worth's Biggest Bridge Was Built Over The Trinity River In Less Than Four Years

Today I continue my quest to find an answer as to why the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are scheduled to take four years to build.

As my quest continues today we will look at a Fort Worth bridge which opened to traffic a century ago, in 1914.

Known as the Paddock Viaduct, this bridge, to my eyes, is quite an attractive structure, particularly when seen up close.

The Paddock Viaduct was the first concrete arch bridge built in the United States using self-supporting re-inforced steel.

According to the Bridgemapper website's article about the Paddock Viaduct "The principal constraints facing Bowen (the builder) in the design of the Main Street Viaduct were related to the unstable soil conditions of the site and to the unpredictable nature of the Trinity River."

I don't know why Mr. Bowen did not use the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's bridge building methodology and build his bridge over dry land and then add the river later.

Now, how long did it take to build the Paddock Viaduct, a bridge which is clearly a more complicated feat of bridge building engineering that the Boondoggle's bridges?

Well, I could not find a precise start and finish date for the Paddock Viaduct.

The Wikipedia Paddock Viaduct article said it was built in 1913.

The Texas State Historical Association website's Paddock Viaduct article said it was built in 1914.

The Waymarking website's Paddock Viaduct article also had it built in 1914.

The aforementioned Bridemapper website's Paddock Viaduct article also had it built in 1914.

And then we have the Go Historic website's article about the Paddock Viaduct which simply says 1912 - 1914, which implies to me that construction began in 1912 and was finished two years later, which sounds reasonable.

So, once again, I ask, how can the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing take four years to build?

Getting Around A Yellow Caution In The Village Creek Natural Historical Area

That is not yellow crime scene tape blocking the way to the Village Creek Dam Bridge in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

That is yellow caution scene tape. I walked around the yellow caution scene tape in search of the source of the need for caution.

You'll have to watch the video below to see the only thing I saw that might have caused some need to be cautious.

I drove to Village Creek intending to ride my bike. But, upon arrival and in the removal from the vehicle process I discovered the front tire was flat again.

So I opted to walk.

I was not long into the walking option when I saw that I likely would not have enjoyed riding my bike at this location today. Lots of wind damage from Thursday's storm with a lot of trees down and remnants of trees on the paved trail, which would have prohibited fast wheel rolling.

A tree between the picnic table and the Village Creek Blue Bayou Overlook toppled on to the Overlook.

Today was the first time in a long time I did not get HOT whilst walking in the Village Creek zone. This morning with the temperature of the air being around 60 the pool was not that cool. Even so, it was a bit bracing upon entry, with quick acclimation.

Below is the video of the only thing I saw that might explain yellow caution scene tape...

A Pre-Town Talk Walk Around Fosdick Lake With Dozens Of Wind Damaged Trees

Saturday more often than not my pre-Town Talk go to place is either Gateway Park or the Tandy Hills.

I figured Thursday's storm likely left the Gateway Park mountain bike trail a mess with knocked down trees and mud. I figured the same might be the case for the Tandy Hills.

So, I opted to go to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake in my endless quest to find Oakland Lake.

As soon as Oakland Lake Park came in to view I saw a lot of wind damage, as in lots of tree damage, some totally knocked over, some yanked right out of the ground.

Oakland Lake Park is only four miles west of my abode. Mother Nature was clearly much more ferocious at Oakland Lake Park than she was at my location.

For a couple months now Fosdick Fountain out in the middle of Fosdick Lake has been a burbling shadow of its former full fountain glory. Today I was saddened to see that Fosdick Fountain has now totally died and has been taken over by a gaggle of ducks.

Don't the ducks look all pleased with themselves that they have taken over the fountain?

When I first arrived at Oakland Lake Park and exited my vehicle I walked a few feet to the knocked over tree you see above. I heard musical tweeting coming from the tree. Eventually I found the nest which survived the tree being blown over. It was a big nest. The mama bird was outside the nest with her babies tweeting inside.

I did not think to take video of this til I'd walked around the lake. When I went back to the tree to shoot video of the tweeting birds they were no longer singing. I shot the video anyway, which is YouTubed below.

But before I get to pasting in the video embed code I must make my Town Talk report for former Fort Worth native, MKB, currently held against her will up in Washington.

Today I got two big containers of strawberries, a big bag of a bread product called something like Brioche, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, a long, big tube of Italian sausage, flour tortillas, lobster bisque and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

And now the aforementioned video.....

Fort Worth's Make Believe Multi-Purpose Arena Election Has Me Perplexed

No, this is not another of my ongoing series of bloggings about bridges built in around four years in my continuing quest to understand why Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are projected to take four years to build.

However, since the subject of those Three Bridges Over Nothing has been brought up I might as well mention that the cable stayed bridge you see here, known as the SR 509 Bridge, opened to traffic on January 22, 1997 and took less than four years to build. And, as you can see, this bridge is over water, that being the Theo Foss Waterway.

What this blogging is about is that multi-purpose arena that you see above, looking as if it is sitting on the deck of the SR 509 Bridge.

That multi-purpose arena is known as the Tacoma Dome.

In 1968 King County voters approved a $40 million municipal bond issue to build a new stadium. Construction began in 1972 and opened as the Kingdome in 1976.

Four years later.

Whilst a new stadium was being built in Seattle, civic minded sorts in Tacoma had long been campaigning for a multi-purpose arena to be built in Tacoma. This brought about a campaign with the slogan "A Dome of Our Own". In 1980 a $28 million bond proposal passed with 70% approval. And thus the Tacoma Dome came to be. And still exists, unlike the long gone Kingdome.

Meanwhile in the little town of Fort Worth civic minded sorts have put together a scheme to build Fort Worth a new multi-purpose arena. I blogged about this a couple days ago in a blogging titled Betsy Price Thinks A New Arena Is Definitely Fort Worth It after I found an election advertisement in my mailbox.

Now, while the voters of Tacoma were allowed to vote on whether or not to fund and build the Tacoma Dome, what is purported to be a Multi-Purpose Arena Election here in Fort Worth is not an election of the sort that takes places in towns where the voters actually get to vote on things, like public works projects.

In this upcoming arena "election" voters are voting on three propositions, with each of those propositions asking voters to approve a tax, as in a tax of $1 to $2 a day on livestock stalls, a tax of 10% on event tickets and a tax of $5 per vehicle tacked on to the parking fee.

Why would these "taxes" require a vote? And what does voting on these "taxes" have to do with electing to build an arena?

In the aforementioned "election" mailing under the heading ONLY USERS & VISITORS PAY FOR IT we learn "No property taxes will be used to build or maintain the proposed new arena. Instead, voters are being asked to approve three propositions for user fees (referred to as "taxes" in the ballot language) on parking, tickets and use of stalls/pens for livestock. Public funding will also come from other sources generated by tourism within 3 miles around the new arena."

So, why are the voters not being asked to approve of this "public funding" that comes from other sources within 3 miles of the new arena?

You reading this in parts of America where you have voted on something like a new arena, have you ever seen ballot measures this goofy before? It is sort of embarrassing, or so it seems to me.

The locals have a saying for this type goofiness, as in "It's the Fort Worth Way." As in an oligarchy runs this town, which some refer to as the Good Ol' Boy Network. Decisions to foist things on the public like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and this new arena, are made without voter input.

These three ballot propositions having voters vote on three taxes seems sort of insulting to the voters, to me, as if the Good Ol' Boy Network thinks the voters are collectively dumb and thus fooled into thinking they are making a voting choice about the building of a new arena, when that decision to build that new arena has already been made, with no public vote having taken place.

So, what happens if all three of these propositions gets a resounding NO? I suspect nothing will happen. The taxes will get tacked on anyway, somehow altered so as to seem above board and not contradicting the NO vote. Like maybe the "tax" on a livestock stall will be $3 to $4 after the voters said no to a livestock stall "tax" of $1 to $2.

What perplexes me most is why Fort Worth's voters put up with this type stuff?

Nameless Asking About Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Three Bridges Over Nothing

This morning after I yet again blogged about my wonderment regarding why it will take four years for Fort Worth to build Three Bridges Over Nothing someone who shall remain Nameless emailed from his current location in Los Angeles asking me if I had any artist's rendering of what the notorious Three Bridges Over Nothing will look like.

The actual text from Nameless said "You got any pics of what these bridges are gonna look like. There must be something special about them to take so long to build and to have them called signature and iconic."

So, I replied to Nameless, sending him the artist's rendering of one of the Three Bridges Over Nothing that you see above. The artist's rendering includes the un-needed flood diversion channel over which the Three Bridges Over Nothing are currently being built.

After Nameless saw the bridge image he emailed back with...

"You're making this up. How can that bridge in that drawing take 4 years to make? And there is nothing special about it."

To which I replied confirming that that totally ordinary looking little bridge is one of the four years in the making bridges, that are being touted as signature bridges which will give Fort Worth iconic entries to the area of its Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

To which Nameless replied, "I get now why this bridge boondoggle bugs you so."

Yes, it does bug me. Four years to build such simple bridges is absurd. Referring to these plain, ordinary, simple bridges as being signature bridges is also absurd. Saying these plain, ordinary, simple bridges will become iconic symbols of Fort Worth is even more absurd.

Then again, I can see how a scenario could come to be where these Three Bridges Over Nothing do become an iconic symbol of Fort Worth, but not in a way which will make the local propaganda purveyors happy....