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.
@@JMoney07-s3h 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. 😆
@@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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Here in Minnesota we found the Mississippi river was never reliable, low water north of St.Louis and few other spots, and Lake Pepin on the river sometimes would stay frozen till early summer. The railroad just is better in many ways. For pleasure I boat the river including down in Texas but if I had a business a 1 day truck ride is tempting vs having to arrange a truck ride to a port to dump stuff in a boat and then get a 2nd truck to pickup in 2 weeks. . . . . . There once was a plan to connect the Twin Cities to Duluth up the St. Croix and then blast thru the hills on Lake Superior, but again the railroads were a bit cheaper. . . Farmers do hate the railroad corps for periods of price gouging. . .. .The US is sorta blessed with lots of areas with rainfall for crops, and areas with existing rivers, so sometimes one should just put a business in such places before imaging some complex govt scheme to access the few places without much going for it.. . .. . Keokuk is the northern port that won't freeze too much for tows to keep moving, but I've been on the river in backwater by St. Louis and heard the ice forming and crinkling around me....... When I talk to engineers they talk about vegetation and environmental crap and they've sorta been brainwashed to just 10x the price of any project with these side issues, so its not just corrupt politicians that make it hard to build.. . .. .
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!
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)
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.
I stuffed envelopes as a kid to defeat the 1973 vote to turn the Trinity River into a concrete trough. Unfortunately, my own hometown adjoining county (Henderson) voted FOR it, but I learned it's all about winning the war - not the battle. It was my first foray into the political / environmental world. Excellent video by the way 💯%
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.
Ahhh The Grand Old Trinity. Greetings! I grew up in Oak Cliff. We lived on Woodlawn Ave near Canty St. in a big two-story house. About 2.5 blocks from Kidd Springs Park. Sadly, It was torn down quite a few years ago. After that we moved into an even bigger house on Montclair Ave, the old "Oak Cliff Ladies Club" house sat behind us on Rosemont and Davis/80 was about a hundred feet to the north. The house on Montclair had some small hidden rooms that could be accessed from trap doors located in two obscure locations. I loved growing up in Oak Cliff. There were places worthy of exploring in those days all over the nearby neighborhoods. There was a group of horn players from Trinity Pres. Church on Zang Blvd called "The Trinity River Bottoms" because they all had big behinds. Any way I think we need RFK Jr. and his Riverkeepers group to clean up the Trinity. It stunk to high heaven. I was told that a meat packing plant dumped waste in there every night. Does anybody know if they ever stopped the polluters and cleaned the river up. I went fishing there a few times but we couldn't eat the fish. It was not very welcoming down there with a century's worth of brambles and sticker plants of every kind. Oops. I sort of rambled on too much. Sorry.
Yeah the Columbia Meat Packing House on 11th St in North Oak Cliff released blood and waste into Cedar Creek which entered the Trinity. The packing house has been closed for several years now and I believe they were given the option to close or be fined millions of dollars.
Dallas was a shipping hub in the early day. Our grandparents came here on a wagon train from up north for business. Opened several businesses and generations later we are well established! Well done info well sought out!
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.
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
A couple of years ago I moved off of Beltline road near Seagoville and just drove one day down Beltline to see where it would leave and it crosses over a part of the Trinity River where you can see these concrete structures in the river. I always wondered why they were there and just assumed maybe Dallas had a Ferry system back in the early 1900’s I had no idea that these are remnants of Lock and Dam system. Thank you for this history lesson as a history buff I am always amazed to find out things like this about our city.
Wow, thanks for sharing this history. I saw the second lock while mountain biking at Goat Island Preserve a few years back, and I had no idea what it's purpose was until now.
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.
Actually the River threw Dallas from Corinth St Bridge is a canal check out the Kessler Plan. The original path of the river was below the Old Red Courthouse where Grassy Knoll is located aka where Kennedy was shot. Parts of the original channel exist still but its called the Trinity strand trail now.
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.
You can see evidence of this history where Hwy 31 goes over the Trinity River in Trinidad, TX. The west-bound side is high to allow barges underneath the east-bound side was built later and is at normal height. Visible on Google earth & street view.
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 did end up getting port status and it's been getting larger. The International Inland Port of Dallas or IIPOD. The port district is over 7,000 acres of major warehousing and manufacturing. It's Intermodal, trucks, trains, and airport. Shipping containers are constantly moving in and out from the Gulf ports to IIPOD. Containers come in from trucks and trains across the country to get sent to the sea. It's very impressive. It's located in 5 different municipalities in southern Dallas county. Wilmer area
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.
I think if it could have been pulled off it would bigger than it is today which is hard to imagine since Dallas stretches pretty far and only keeps growing
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
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
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.
Keep your eye out for Marge Schindigler down at the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge. She was George Dunham's swim coach in HS. Drives a red mobility scooter.
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!
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’ve wanted to know the depths of this story my whole life. I live in Dallas now but I’m from Corsicana and if you drive from Corsicana to Tyler you’ll go over a bridge where one direction of travel was raised for ships and the other direction of travel has not been raised
Ive heard from numerous people that there are gators in the trinity. And big ones. Ive seen quite a few boar on the fortworth side by Euless. Not sure if their healthy drinking that water though.
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
It would never be giant cargo ships. How that would bother you I have no clue by the way it would only be barges anyway. How would cargo ships bother you? Regardless, there would be no cargo ships there would be tugs and barges.
History: In May 2015, Dallas experienced the 500 year flood. The Trinity River swelled high enough to touch the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. There were proposals from city council to develop commercial businesses on the Trinity River flood plain prior. Without the engineering corp levies and flood planning, downtown Dallas would have been underwater as well as the real estate on the flood plain.
I always wish Dallas formed a life around the river and embraced it. It has so much to offer. I feel like it may not be in our lifetimes, but one day, when real estate becomes thin, we will use every bit of it. There will be homes condos and apts l on stilts over the Trinity River I feel.
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
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.
It should've been done. It would've been great for Texas and Dallas even today. As fuel prices increase it certainly would be important to have. It's a shame that it didn't get completed.
Lately I had been wondering if there were any projects like this as inland penetrating waterways would’ve been an economic boon to the state. Unfortunately just about all of Texas’ many rivers are just too small for meaningful navigation and prob too small (and expensive) for real modification into major waterways. I wonder if San Antonio ever postulated something similar.
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
I live east of dallas andI didn't know this. I remember when there was a plan to do it again with a closed hiway to the coast and back. Taking the land with eminent domain and letting the king of Spain run it..down voted by the state .😅
I love rooting for ambitious infrastructure projects, but this one would have made no sense. The Erie canal worked because it connected two giant bodies of water: Lake Erie & the Atlantic ocean (via the Hudson River). This Trinity canal, by contrast, is a canal to nowhere, i.e. to no other body of water. Moreover, while the Erie canal made an enormous impact in the 19th century, look at its irrelevance today. Such would have been the fate of the Trinity canal.
😬😬😬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. !!
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
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.
Great video! The project isn't worth it imo. That river has too many issues to overcome. The flooding issues, silt and debris alone would scare me off from funding anything dealing with the Trinity. Cool idea still.
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
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
@@JMoney07-s3h 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
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
Yes, and I think Preston State Bank invented the first credit/debit/atm cards branded "PrestoCharge."
@@TotalDrganMania Started out as Collins Radio. Then along came the great TI and Raytheon
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!
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.
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.
Here's the coordinates of it.
30.9, -95.308861
There's a 1958 aerial map taken before the lake covered it, that's shows it.
@@ScottDaileyTH-camThe railroad bridge at Riverside, alongside Hwy 19, is a pivot bridge that could open to allow river traffic to pass.
So cool to learn about this
Is there room for a greenway?
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
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
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.
The trinity in dfw would basically be dry 70% of the year if they didn’t dump treated wastewater into it
Here in Minnesota we found the Mississippi river was never reliable, low water north of St.Louis and few other spots, and Lake Pepin on the river sometimes would stay frozen till early summer. The railroad just is better in many ways. For pleasure I boat the river including down in Texas but if I had a business a 1 day truck ride is tempting vs having to arrange a truck ride to a port to dump stuff in a boat and then get a 2nd truck to pickup in 2 weeks. . . . . . There once was a plan to connect the Twin Cities to Duluth up the St. Croix and then blast thru the hills on Lake Superior, but again the railroads were a bit cheaper. . . Farmers do hate the railroad corps for periods of price gouging. . .. .The US is sorta blessed with lots of areas with rainfall for crops, and areas with existing rivers, so sometimes one should just put a business in such places before imaging some complex govt scheme to access the few places without much going for it.. . .. . Keokuk is the northern port that won't freeze too much for tows to keep moving, but I've been on the river in backwater by St. Louis and heard the ice forming and crinkling around me....... When I talk to engineers they talk about vegetation and environmental crap and they've sorta been brainwashed to just 10x the price of any project with these side issues, so its not just corrupt politicians that make it hard to build.. . .. .
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!
Thank you! Learned something new about my city today.
I remember reading this in our weekly reader as kid in 70’s! I’m 64 and grew up in Lancaster just outside Dallas!
lol I currently stay in Lancaster I graduated from the high school 2006
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)
It is still brought up every few years (inland port).
That's why the I20 bridge over the river is arched; so boats can pass under.
The bridge on SH31 was the same way until they needed to widen the highway and new bridge was not built to the same standard
@@justinpetitt335 Hated it that they took down the iron suspension bridge on the northbound lanes...
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.
I stuffed envelopes as a kid to defeat the 1973 vote to turn the Trinity River into a concrete trough. Unfortunately, my own hometown adjoining county (Henderson) voted FOR it, but I learned it's all about winning the war - not the battle. It was my first foray into the political / environmental world. Excellent video by the way 💯%
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!
Ahhh The Grand Old Trinity. Greetings! I grew up in Oak Cliff. We lived on Woodlawn Ave near Canty St. in a big two-story house. About 2.5 blocks from Kidd Springs Park. Sadly, It was torn down quite a few years ago. After that we moved into an even bigger house on Montclair Ave, the old "Oak Cliff Ladies Club" house sat behind us on Rosemont and Davis/80 was about a hundred feet to the north. The house on Montclair had some small hidden rooms that could be accessed from trap doors located in two obscure locations. I loved growing up in Oak Cliff. There were places worthy of exploring in those days all over the nearby neighborhoods. There was a group of horn players from Trinity Pres. Church on Zang Blvd called "The Trinity River Bottoms" because they all had big behinds. Any way I think we need RFK Jr. and his Riverkeepers group to clean up the Trinity. It stunk to high heaven. I was told that a meat packing plant dumped waste in there every night. Does anybody know if they ever stopped the polluters and cleaned the river up. I went fishing there a few times but we couldn't eat the fish. It was not very welcoming down there with a century's worth of brambles and sticker plants of every kind. Oops. I sort of rambled on too much. Sorry.
This is some good first hand local knowledge here!
Yeah the Columbia Meat Packing House on 11th St in North Oak Cliff released blood and waste into Cedar Creek which entered the Trinity. The packing house has been closed for several years now and I believe they were given the option to close or be fined millions of dollars.
Dallas was a shipping hub in the early day. Our grandparents came here on a wagon train from up north for business. Opened several businesses and generations later we are well established! Well done info well sought out!
Very interesting! I grew up in Dallas but I never heard of this project.
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.
This is so cool. Thanks for sharing 😊
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
A couple of years ago I moved off of Beltline road near Seagoville and just drove one day down Beltline to see where it would leave and it crosses over a part of the Trinity River where you can see these concrete structures in the river. I always wondered why they were there and just assumed maybe Dallas had a Ferry system back in the early 1900’s I had no idea that these are remnants of Lock and Dam system. Thank you for this history lesson as a history buff I am always amazed to find out things like this about our city.
Let's get it! Love the videos.
Wow, thanks for sharing this history. I saw the second lock while mountain biking at Goat Island Preserve a few years back, and I had no idea what it's purpose was until now.
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!
Actually the River threw Dallas from Corinth St Bridge is a canal check out the Kessler Plan. The original path of the river was below the Old Red Courthouse where Grassy Knoll is located aka where Kennedy was shot. Parts of the original channel exist still but its called the Trinity strand trail now.
This is so freaky. How insane would it have been.
That's some awesome drone footage. I really enjoyed the history lesson. Thanks for sharing.
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.
Awesome local history video for me!
Great video 👍🏿
You can see evidence of this history where Hwy 31 goes over the Trinity River in Trinidad, TX. The west-bound side is high to allow barges underneath the east-bound side was built later and is at normal height. Visible on Google earth & street view.
Amazing project 👌 👏 🎉
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.
No the Trinity is definitely not the same the Kessler Plan changed the whole course of the river through Dallas.
Very good stuff
Dallas did end up getting port status and it's been getting larger. The International Inland Port of Dallas or IIPOD. The port district is over 7,000 acres of major warehousing and manufacturing. It's Intermodal, trucks, trains, and airport. Shipping containers are constantly moving in and out from the Gulf ports to IIPOD. Containers come in from trucks and trains across the country to get sent to the sea. It's very impressive. It's located in 5 different municipalities in southern Dallas county. Wilmer area
Great vid
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.
Yeah poor Jefferson they never thought the river would move.
The trinity in the dfw area would basically be dry 70% of the year with out treated waste water being dumped into it
I think if it could have been pulled off it would bigger than it is today which is hard to imagine since Dallas stretches pretty far and only keeps growing
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
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!
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
The Airport is closer to FW right?
You stated that the river would be dredged to 6'...how big were the locks built as or planned? Great content!
Keep your eye out for Marge Schindigler down at the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge. She was George Dunham's swim coach in HS. Drives a red mobility scooter.
I live like an hour away and had no clue. That's pretty cool.
I think a port would work about as well as a ski resort.
It should be made a port and every effort should be made to make it happen
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.
You said dam 20 is a few miles from trinity tx. Yes. Mostly under water but i remember seeing part of the east end.
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!
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’ve wanted to know the depths of this story my whole life. I live in Dallas now but I’m from Corsicana and if you drive from Corsicana to Tyler you’ll go over a bridge where one direction of travel was raised for ships and the other direction of travel has not been raised
Should do this now
Ive heard from numerous people that there are gators in the trinity. And big ones.
Ive seen quite a few boar on the fortworth side by Euless. Not sure if their healthy drinking that water though.
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.
Weird to see a place I fished as a kid be mentioned as a part of such a timeline.
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
ive cycled and walked my dogs around white rock thousands of times and never once stopped to look at any of those plaques lol
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
It would never be giant cargo ships. How that would bother you I have no clue by the way it would only be barges anyway. How would cargo ships bother you? Regardless, there would be no cargo ships there would be tugs and barges.
I would’ve thought the people of Houston would’ve been extremely against it?
History: In May 2015, Dallas experienced the 500 year flood. The Trinity River swelled high enough to touch the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. There were proposals from city council to develop commercial businesses on the Trinity River flood plain prior. Without the engineering corp levies and flood planning, downtown Dallas would have been underwater as well as the real estate on the flood plain.
6:42 better off or worse? i meannnnnnn…. it’s what, third or fourth largest city in the nation. Soooo yah. so, yah.
I always wish Dallas formed a life around the river and embraced it. It has so much to offer. I feel like it may not be in our lifetimes, but one day, when real estate becomes thin, we will use every bit of it. There will be homes condos and apts l on stilts over the Trinity River I feel.
have you ever been there after a large rain? nobody with any common sense would want to live on it.
I never realized Dallas doesn't have a port. I always assumed that if Shreveport could have one, Dallas must
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, this would have been both fantastic for even more growth.
no doubt what they didn’t acquire through navigable rivers they definitely made up for in highways and freeways toll roads!😂
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
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...
The damn that was swallowed is in Crandall tx right before you get into town on the right side coming from seagoville I kayaked it and have pics
It should've been done. It would've been great for Texas and Dallas even today. As fuel prices increase it certainly would be important to have. It's a shame that it didn't get completed.
Lately I had been wondering if there were any projects like this as inland penetrating waterways would’ve been an economic boon to the state. Unfortunately just about all of Texas’ many rivers are just too small for meaningful navigation and prob too small (and expensive) for real modification into major waterways. I wonder if San Antonio ever postulated something similar.
0:23 hey I think that’s my hometown 😃
The trinity should be much bigger but it’s got a lot of dams along it for water reservoirs
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
#20 I think was demolished recently. Latest sat images don't show anything there.
You have Ned Fritz to thank for that.
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
Mike Rhyner told this story once on the original Downbeat 😢
Didn't know this guy, looking him up now!
@@ScottDaileyTH-cam Yeah Dallas native, he's the founder of 1310AM The Ticket, and has been a part of so much Dallas related
Between this and high speed railways we would have no traffic ever again
The Trinity is too unpredictable and meanders, they should have built a separate canal from the beginning but it is not needed today.
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
My 5th Great-Grandfather was Amon McCommas the first Dallas County Commissioner. I wouldn’t b surprised if he was the namesake for that bluff
We might still do this, we did have a bond package before i moved to a sub.
I live east of dallas andI didn't know this. I remember when there was a plan to do it again with a closed hiway to the coast and back. Taking the land with eminent domain and letting the king of Spain run it..down voted by the state .😅
Great video! But I just wanted to point out that it's Corps of Engineers, not Core.
I always know when I'm back in Dallas when I can smell the Trinity from I35
they should try again, river cruise
I love rooting for ambitious infrastructure projects, but this one would have made no sense. The Erie canal worked because it connected two giant bodies of water: Lake Erie & the Atlantic ocean (via the Hudson River). This Trinity canal, by contrast, is a canal to nowhere, i.e. to no other body of water.
Moreover, while the Erie canal made an enormous impact in the 19th century, look at its irrelevance today. Such would have been the fate of the Trinity canal.
😬😬😬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. !!
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
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....
Great video! The project isn't worth it imo. That river has too many issues to overcome. The flooding issues, silt and debris alone would scare me off from funding anything dealing with the Trinity. Cool idea still.
Agreed! Failed thrice!
the lock dams werent rated for 100 year floods, and would have required reworking
woulda been cool