Why DALLAS Was Almost a PORT | [TX]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Over 200 miles inland, Dallas, Texas is an unlikely port city. Nonetheless, for a hundred years of the city’s history, on and off efforts to make the Trinity River navigable resulted in what is today six abandoned dams and locks intended to be part of a network leading from Dallas to Trinity Bay. Let’s explore them!
SOURCES | FURTHER READING
1. www.dmagazine.com/publication...
2. dfwurbanwildlife.com/2014/04/...
3. www.dmagazine.com/nature-envi... About paddling the Trinity
4. www.tshaonline.org/handbook/e...
5. americancanalsociety.org/wp-c... historic map of seven locks and dams
6. 99percentinvisible.org/episod... 99PI episode
7.www.texasmonthly.com/news-pol...
8. digitalcollections.smu.edu/di... photo of HA Harvey
9. www.swf.usace.army.mil/Portal...
10. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity...)
11. trinityrivercorridor.com/floo...
12. scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/vi... ETHJ Trinity Lock and Dam Article
TOPICS COVERED:
Dallas, dallas texas, dallastx, texas, trinity river, trinity river texas, abandoned, infrastructure, abandoned infrastructure, abandoned texas, texashistory, texas history, environmentalism, government waste, aquatic ecosystems - บันเทิง
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Dallas was an engineering town back in the 1950s and 1960s. The fully integrated circuit, the handheld calculator, and the ATM were patented in the Dallas area. Ross Perot started Electronic Data Systems. The Collins Radio engineers provided the telecom equipment used for the 1969 moon launch. All this created wealth and jobs.
And also oil
Now it’s a destination for the dregs of society.
Good to hear my company, Collins Aerospace, mentioned 😆. Glad we are remembered
Omg yes! This used to be one of my personal obsessions. I tracked down and visited all the remaining locks about ten years ago. Awesome.
This is awesome! Share pics if you have them!
Same!
nothing ese to do in Dallas lol
@@lithium25693 theres a lot more to do in Dallas, you're likely just boring/lazy/depressive
I remember reading this in our weekly reader as kid in 70’s! I’m 64 and grew up in Lancaster just outside Dallas!
This is a well researched video. Dallas is a unique city, it has almost no geographical assets at all, like cities half its size do, except the Trinity “non” River. Over the years, so many attempts have been made, like the video discusses, to give it significance but failed. It is, in fact, the story of Dallas. It’s a sad story but yet Dallas has grown anyway, thanks to unusual socio-economic factors that are unique to Dallas only.
I think they wanted it that way bc one you get out of downtown the river banks open up tremendously
@@Yalllame07 No other city in the nation tires to minimize their river. Only Dallas. It’s stupid because Dallas’ only geographical asset is its little river…and it ain’t much. 😆
It’s the true capital of Texas
@@adams8132Look at what San Antonio did with their little river. From the Pearl to the Missions, it's a really nice place to walk, outside the few blocks of tourist trap.
But just south of the Arneson River Theatre, the Riverwalk is a great oasis in the middle of downtown.
It's Dallas I'd say it's geographical asset would be the living highway
I work on modern day towboats. I live in nacogdoches. I have wondered this as well. I have been working on the water for 20 years now and i had no clue they had ever even attempted to make the trinity navigable. Boy she is angry right now with all the rain we have had. She was up over highway 59 last week. When i drove across on 146 in liberty on my way to work this time she was at the bottom of the railroad bridge. It would be cool if someday they made it happen. But i doubt i will see it in my life. Our grandparents absolutely got down building stuff back in the early 1900’s. Much of it is still in use today on the upper mississippi river. That entire system was built between 1933-1939 excepting keokuk… lock 19. The first hydro electric dam in america and the biggest one in the world at the time, was conceived in the mid 1800’s so steam boats could get over the only waterfall on the mississippi river. I think construction was complete in the early 1900’s. Still in use to this day. In contrast there is a lock and dam they started building on the ohio river in the 70’s, allocated funds for it, and with all the modern tools at our disposal we have now our grandparents couldnt dream of, there isnt much more there than a lock house on the bank, no dam, no chambers, 50 years later thanks to crooked politicians, and their good buddies that run “construction” companies. Im sure there are other factors but there is zero reason it should not have been completed decades ago. It is literally rotting faster than they are building it. Its sad.
The Trinity Ship Canal was a literally impossible dream for the same reason Denver isn't a river port. There is inadequate rainfall and upstream water storage to support ship traffic.
Thank you! Learned something new about my city today.
We used to raft down the elm fork of the Trinity, from Lewisville dam to Sandy lake park. One day the river was low, and we were after dark with no lights. Great fun!
Also 25 is under lake Livingston. Not sure if it’s still intact. It was located at White Rock Shoals, which is an old formation currently submerged.
I'm glad someone knew! I assumed it was either submerged or had washed away.
I grew up in Ennis and we use to drive out to lock 6 often in the 80s and 90s. People would fish there and shoot off their guns. So at one time you could get there on several dirt roads.
The last time I was there with a small group of people we were approached by some people living on the river (known at the time as river rats) they lived in an old VW van and had assault rifles. They told us to never come back (while pointing their rifles at us) and so we left and I’ve never been back but I’ve always been fascinated with the trinity and while being at that lock I was pretty amazed at the concrete work and huge iron hooks to tie up barges, being in the middle of nowhere.
#6 was sketchy to record even now!
I have drone footage of Dam #1 from years ago. Had no idea what it was as I was just passing time while I was in the area but this video explains it
For a time, the Trinity was classified by the USACE as a naviagable waterway even though the canal hadn't been built. For that reason, there are three bridges over the Trinity in the Dallas area that were built to accommodate potential barge traffic: the Jefferson Blvd Viaduct by Downtown, the I-20 bridge in South Dallas, and the Loop 12 bridge in West Dallas. The Loop 12 bridge broke ground 4 days before voters rejected the bond issue.
Good info here!
The state highway 31 bridge, between Corsicana and Athens, is built for barges that will never show up as well. I no longer live in Dallas, but when we drive through and cross the river on 20, I tell my wife why the bridge is so tall. Then she reminds me I've told her that dozens of times...
It being classified as navigable may have had nothing to do with the on/off canal projects, it seems most rivers of a certain volume get classified that, even ones smaller than Trinity or ones that there is nothing on the horizon that seems like a boat would ever use it. There also are quirks around if a section of it is navigable, then long parts of the river that are not navigable will still be classified that too.
@@bradleymcwilliams6348 I couldn't remember the highway, just that it was on the far side (for me) of Trinidad. I checked google maps and then saw your comment. Coulda saved myself some time.
Great local history, I have lived here almost my whole life and I never even heard of this. Now I have new places to explore with my drone.
I would like totally watch it
Thanks for exploring the locks and dams, as well as the later Trinity River Corridor Project. I'm glad you were able to visit a few of them and share them with us as I've only been able to see one site. Great video as always, Scott!
So cool to learn about this
Is there room for a greenway?
I live less than a mile from this river. I remember when they were building the bridge across the river for Hwy 31, they made it taller and and the center of the bridge was built with the option to add a drawbridge. Finishing the channel would have removed a lot of contamination and helped with flooding.
Cool, this was one of my recommendations. Neat to see you follow up on it. Told you it'd probably be an interesting video.
So genuinely underrate content here my friend. I would certainly look to see more content diving into the history of Dallas. The Trinity River Corridor Project had one of the most dramatic arcs in the entire history of the city, lasting for well over two decades, it involved much political intrigue, shady backdoor deals and a duel of the press.
When I was a Teenager, we went to Jefferson. The story was told that Jefferson was approached for a railroad before Dallas. The people of Jefferson said we dont need it, we have the river..Dallas allegedly made promises & did not keep them. If Jefferson had agreed to the railroad, boy Dallas may have been seriously different.
This is so cool. Thanks for sharing 😊
Weird to see a place I fished as a kid be mentioned as a part of such a timeline.
Very interesting! I grew up in Dallas but I never heard of this project.
ONE of the reason why they wanted the project was (and I do not know the vitality of this claim but...) they said Dallas was a yuge landlocked city with no port. The nah sayers were saying that they 😂 were worried about the amount of crime it would bring to Dallas ... that was already here. (Dallas resident since about 1956. YES I have lived here that long)
I read about two guys that rafted the Trinity River from somewhere around downtown Fort Worth all the way to downtown Dallas - it took them 3 days and they found a number of dead animals and snakes.
That’s crazy interesting! sometimes I’ll drive by it and see bits of concrete and stuff poke out the water. I always thought it was bits of an old highway. Cool
This is fascinating. I grew up in Crocket and my family owned land right on the river in Grapeland. I never knew what the concrete blocks in the River were. I just assumed it was an older bridge.
Cool last name btw
Thanks for your work on this project.
Around 1968 I paddled the Trinity from Arlington to Dallas.
It was on the rise and smelled of volatile fatty acids.
Lots of little Styrofoam cups. It seemed kinda small
for navigation.
Sad but not unexpected!
I feel like these videos are popping up after everyone just moved to Dallas and they are trying to find history in the Dallas area.
This is so freaky. How insane would it have been.
As a Fort Worth native I don’t even really want them to do panther island but i definitely couldn’t imagine if I had giant cargo ships going thru here
This is so cool! I recently discovered that there was an attempt to make a canal across the middle of Florida, and this project is very reminiscent of what I see in the Trinity River in your video. There are abandoned dams and locks all across the state, I really want to go explore them. Maybe one day there will be a resurgence in interest towards these projects, once both political parties realize that it is commercially and environmentally friendly to use barges to ship stuff around the states. Very cool video
Looking up the florida one now! this is cool
There isn't anything about increasing the length of a canal that makes it increasingly more cost prohibitive other than the inherent nature of any sort of larger scale project. Considering we've blanketed the country dozens and dozens of times over with much larger networks of highway and road infrastructure, a canal this size frankly seems relatively small in comparison
Let's get it! Love the videos.
Awesome local history video for me!
Very good stuff
Should do this now
Great video 👍🏿
In the Dallas museum is a 12 foot alligator that was caught there in Dallas. Certainly came up the river.
I knew there was a push since Dallas was first built to make it a river port. I never knew about the dams and locks being constructed.
I'm not sure about straightening the river... but it would have a huge impact on flooding issues in the upper Trinity basin.
It would be interesting... but all in all, the Trinity river is for the most part just like it was since the 1700/1800's.
I read that there are still families of alligators present in the Trinity river around Dallas and a few lakes in the northwest of Dallas. There have been many sightings!
@@stanislavchernobayev8016 I saw a video of a big one below the dam at Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth. I was stationed in Houston when I was young and in the Coast Guard. Alligators were supposedly virtually extinct and on the protected species list. We would occasionally go down South of Morgan's Point out into Galveston bay, THE ALLIGATORS were not close to extinction on the East Side of the bay!
One time, a lady in Seabrook called me at the station and reported a big one in her yard that ate her dog! She demanded we go there and apprehend the offending Alligator!
It was on a Sunday morning, I had to advise her to stay indoors and call Texas Parks and Wildlife because alligators were not something the Coast Guard was able to address.😂
Lesson to all... never mess with ANYTHING over a foot long with TEETH unless you want to be bitten or have some kind of death wish.
Dallas IS a port. Dallas Fort Worth International airport makes it a port, complete with customs and international flights in and out of the country. So yes, Dallas is a port.
technically correct is the best kind ;D
Not that it would be a great return on investment, but river transport might be an option for tourism, like they have done with some of the old railways and trains.
I run quite a bit and one of my favorite routes is at White Rock Lake. I always found it odd, that that lake has a levee system. This system feeds into the Trinity River. Also, random fact, while running I noticed plaques placed around certain locations at White Rock Lake, and did you know that the Americans used that area to imprison German captives during WW2?
#TheMoreYouKnow
I think a port would work about as well as a ski resort.
That's some awesome drone footage. I really enjoyed the history lesson. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing project 👌 👏 🎉
This is kinda like the unfinished locks and dams on the Brazos river headed up to Waco. If you drive to Hearne on the 485 from Temple, if you look on the left when crossing the river, there is a giant concrete lock all on its own. If you look at it on Apple Maps, you can see where the gates would sit. It’s really interesting
Very similar and that one is fascinating!
I would’ve thought the people of Houston would’ve been extremely against it?
It all comes down to money to get that Trinity River project in DT done! I’m not originally from here, but I’ve heard about the decades of trying to get something done there. To me, this absolutely needs to get done at some point and I’m talking about a full blown river for two to 2 miles near downtown. Not the creek that’s there now!
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, this would have been both fantastic for even more growth.
It should be made a port and every effort should be made to make it happen
You stated that the river would be dredged to 6'...how big were the locks built as or planned? Great content!
I never realized Dallas doesn't have a port. I always assumed that if Shreveport could have one, Dallas must
I live in DFW and it would be nice if they dammed up the section near downtown so we have a pretty lake like Austin has.
Only issue is, the Trinity is highly contaminated, and not pretty at all.
@@Noot279 it would still be pretty, just won’t smell pretty 😆
@@Noot279Contaminated with what?
No idea how flood control works ...
@@Noot279you could say the same thing about most lakes
I would imagine the booming oil & gas industry and eventually air freight an the Interstate highway system helped make the riverway archaic . Waterways lack speed
Similar plans were made for the Brazos river. The plan was to make the river navigatable up to Waco. Work started but was also halted due to WWI.
a couple of them are visible from some bridges and if the water level is low enough you can walk right up to it
@@rustyredneck6781 I used to fish across the river from one of the locks at a place called Smiths. At the time I never knew what it was.
no doubt what they didn’t acquire through navigable rivers they definitely made up for in highways and freeways toll roads!😂
You have Ned Fritz to thank for that.
The trinity should be much bigger but it’s got a lot of dams along it for water reservoirs
What would've been the tangible reason to do that. In the Great Lakes there was a reason for the St. Lawrence Seaway. I just don't see it.
I am old enough to remember when they tried bringing Houston and Dallas together. There was at one time a YUGE crane that was to dig the canal. It was between Dallas and Waco. I wish I could remember where. It went as a vote to Dallas and failed.
I think the giant crane you're thinking of was at a coal/lignite mine... I don't think it had anything to do with digging the canal...
Between this and high speed railways we would have no traffic ever again
We might still do this, we did have a bond package before i moved to a sub.
I always know when I'm back in Dallas when I can smell the Trinity from I35
The Trinity is too unpredictable and meanders, they should have built a separate canal from the beginning but it is not needed today.
6:42 better off or worse? i meannnnnnn…. it’s what, third or fourth largest city in the nation. Soooo yah. so, yah.
In many ways it is a port. Containers make their way from China to Dallas and the customs work is done in Dallas rather than the coast
I mean it's cool but it was never gonna work the Trinity gets real narrow and shallow throughout many parts of the river if your not careful you'll beach a john boat right in the middle of it now imagine trying to get a commercial barge through it, also projects like lake Livingston make it just outright impossible the north part of the lake is literally just a a flooded forest and even decades after it's construction those trees are still tearing up boats and the dam at the south end of the lake is a solid 50 foot drop off back into the river and there ain't no way in hell all those rich assholes on the lake would let commercial shipping pass straight through their scenic little paradise even if creating a traversable lock from the lake back to the river was possible the TRA is in the rich folks pockets and does everything possible to accommodate lake side residents above anything else
the lock dams werent rated for 100 year floods, and would have required reworking
they should try again, river cruise
Being a port city might've been cool. But traffic is already shitty enough around Dallas and its surrounding metropolis. And it would suck to not get the ocean view, even the one from Texas' muddy waters.
Those locks and dams were founded....
😬😬😬IT IS ALREADY 50 MILES to get to Port of Houston !!!!! Early 1900’s had a HORRIFIC-HORRIBLE EXPLOSION in Texas City !!
Have to have a LOT of SUPPORT up n back !! What would it be, 5-6 day trip ? BUT I-20 would be a GREAT Big road E.-W. !!
Yep I remember it would have been so cool!!!! But they wouldn’t do it😡
❤
woulda been cool
Tamborasos Dallas texas
Elon Musk could pay his own river highway from Hton to Atin. I would trust AI boats confined on waterways more than AI cars.
And all that water, sounds expensive. Maybe we can put down some kind of skids, or metal rails, and slide the boats on those. Sliding could wear through the hulls, so lets put metal wheels under the freight boxes and hook them up to some big electric motors. Maybe we put generators on there too, then we can just one a couple motored ones and push or pull the rest. Then things can go this way and that way on rails, smooth as you like. We'll call it: The Railed Ways
dallas needs water 🥲
Port of Santa Fe.
We’re running out of water. There are to many people. Texas should be investing in desalination plants.
Tamborasos
No way it could be be. Its to far away from the sea
Lol checkout Lewiston, Idaho.. Most of the landlocked states in the Midwest have ports because of rivers.
Wow great video, well researched and thorough. In my view Dallas has totally botched its handling of one of its greatest assets
Dallas sucks tho!! #houstongang
Dallas is unique, it has almost no geographical assets at all, like cities half its size do. It is notorious for that.
@@adams8132it has no history, other than JFK. It has no architecture, or very minimal. It really doesn't have a transit system, though it's trying. It's growing for now.
Barges would've been stranded during periods of droughts.
Its too damn hot right now to try and visit in late June of 23'
They said it might be a port in 2024
They should make it a port
Boat traffic… 😂😂😂 Dallas doesn’t need anymore traffic of any kind
yet the port of Taquisa Oklahoma is a thing
Tulsa has a port but the Arkansas river has a lot more flow than the trinity
Catoosa?
I definitely support completing it along with the Trans-Florida canal which almost made most of Florida the island it no doubt is/was/wants to be...
There is a barge canal across Florida. Why would they need TWO?
You mean Mallas 😂
A few observations:
1) it's the CORPS of Engineers, not the "core." Noob!
2) The canal was NEVER going to work. There's simply not enough rainfall nor upstream water storage for it to be viable for any vessel larger than a kayak.
3) The Trinity Ship Canal is a plot device in the 1974 science fiction novel "The Texas-Israeli War: 1999." This is probably the ONLY instance of the canal ever making a cent for anyone.
Are you always easily triggered by completely innocuous TH-cam videos? Or is it just a one off? I’m guessing it’s the former.
@@mcuthor7831 "Triggered?" What a peculiar word choice. Perhaps you should lay off the cross-sex hormones.
Dead Army engineers?
@@billwilson-es5yn Remedial English classes?
@@mcuthor7831 Have you never been a serious person or is that just a recent development? I'm guessing it's the former.
Its good it wasn't built because it would wreck the ecosystems of E. Texas. If they were to do anything they should connect to Savanna River that goes into the Atlantic because while a few canals would have to be built they would be a fraction of teh length of this canal project. And then they could build this but it would stop short of the ocean on the backside of the ocean port so goods can be loaded off and on bat the port between fresh and salt water ships.
Very interesting and well done. The highway system and airplane made this project completely unnecessary. The criminal LBJ just wanted more funds for Texas.
Well if we didn’t give billions to Ukraine and Israel this canal could be paved with gold and provide Americans with decent jobs. We could also say that regarding high speed rail. It’s obvious that the government does not work for the people but against them.
psssst- the billions are being given to american weapon manufacturers to make new stock while we literally ship aging munitions over there, munitions that would have eventually had to be shot off or demilled and dismantled by contractors at high cost. We are literally paying our own military-industrial complex while sending future liabilities away and building new stock for ourselves. The giant dumpsters full of unmarked and uncounted cash exist only in the fever dreams of a certain truth-optional MAGA political deviancy organization.
Dallas was not here 300 years ago nor will it be here in 300 years
That river always smells like sewer
Wrong. Dallas was never going to be a port. It cost to much.
Disgusting river. Contaminated. Trash, oil, chemicals, dead fish. Signs are posted that say if you fish dont eat the fish. I want the Trinity River cleaned
no republican state will have clean urban waterways. because jezus.
Next up: Why My Aunt Was Almost My Uncle.
dallas Stinks