NAVAGATION
The prospect of a Trinity River navigable from its mouth in the
Gulf of Mexico to Dallas has long been a cherished dream in Texas,
and numerous proposals for making that dream a reality have been
put forth.
Between 1852 and 1874 some fifty boats plied the Trinity, going
as far north as Trinidad in Kaufman County and Porter's Bluff in
Navarro County. Navigation fell off during the Civil War, but in
1868 a boat reached Dallas with a cargo, after a voyage of a year
and four days from Galveston.
In 1891 a group of prominent Dallas citizens formed the Trinity
River Navigation Company to promote river traffic. To deepen the
Trinity's upper reaches, the company constructed a dam at McCommas
Bluff thirteen miles south of Dallas. In 1893 the city welcomed
with a gala celebration the H. A. Harvey, Jr., a 113-foot
boat with a capacity of 600 bales of cotton. The boat, owned by the
Trinity River Navigation Company, had come up from Galveston in two
months and ten days.
Beginning in 1902 with an appropriation of $400,000, the federal
government over the next twenty years spent more than $2,000,000
building locks and dams on the Trinity. World War I halted this
work, however, and in 1921 the project was abandoned as too
costly.
In 1963 the plan for making the Trinity River navigable by
barges was approved by the United States Army Corps of Engineers,
and in 1965, Congress, with President Lyndon Baines Johnson's
backing, passed legislation authorizing the Trinity River Project,
a package of flood-control and navigation projects that included a
barge canal more than 300 miles long connecting the Dallas-Fort
Worth area with the Gulf of Mexico. But growing budget problems,
and criticism from many quarters that the Trinity canal was nothing
more than a huge pork-barrel project and a potential ecological
disaster, eventually doomed the idea.
FLOODING
Major flooding occurred on the Trinity River in the years 1844,
1866, 1871, and 1890, but a major event in the spring of 1908 set
in motion the harnessing of the river. On 26 May 1908, the Trinity
River reached a depth of 52.6 feet and a width of 1.5 miles. Five
people died, 4,000 were left homeless, and property damages were
estimated at $2.5 million. Everything, from what is now the river
behind the Lew Sterrett Justice Center to the steps of the Old Red
Courthouse was wiped out.
Dallas was without power for three days, all telephone and
telegraph service was down, and rail service was canceled. The only
way to reach Oak Cliff was by boat. West Dallas was hit harder than
any other part of the city. Much to the horror of residents,
thousands of livestock drowned in the flood and some became lodged
in the tops of trees - the stench of their decay hung over the city
as the water subsided.
After the disastrous flood, the city wanted to find a way to
control the reckless Trinity and to build a bridge linking Oak
Cliff and Dallas. The immediate reaction was citizens and the city
clamoring to build an indestructible, all-weather crossing over the
Trinity. This had already been tried following the 1890 flood, but
the resulting unstable bridge was easily washed away by the 1908
flood. George B. Dealey, publisher of the Dallas Morning
News, proposed a 1.5 miles concrete bridge based on a bridge
crossing the Missouri River in Kansas City. Ultimately a $650,000
bond election was approved and in 1912, the Oak Cliff viaduct (now
the Houston Street viaduct) was opened among festivities drawing
58,000 spectators. The bridge, at the time, was the longest
concrete structure in the world.
In 1911, George Kessler developed a plan for the city calling
for levees to be built to hold the Trinity in, and in 1917,
approval of the levees for the protection of property was given by
the state. The plan was updated in 1919 and in 1926, the City of
Dallas and Dallas County form the Dallas Levee Improvement District
with the goal to build levees. In 1930, the levee project was
completed.
POLLUTION
Over the past century the waters of the Trinity have become
increasingly polluted. Runoff containing pesticides and herbicides
and dumping of industrial and human waste, particularly in the
Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, have combined to cause serious
deterioration of water quality. The most severely affected area is
the 250-mile-long stretch that extends from Dallas-Fort Worth to
the headwaters of Lake Livingston. By the early 1960s the river
below Dallas for 100 miles was so polluted that the United States
Public Health Service described it as "septic." Since that time
efforts have been made to clean up the river. A water quality
management plan was adopted in the 1970s, but in the early 1990s
pollution problems continued.
CURRENTLY
The Trinity River Project is a public works project undertaken
by the city of Dallas. Its goal is to redevelop the Trinity River.
The project aims to turn the river's path into a collection of
sports fields, trails, nature centers, and recreational
opportunities. At 10,000 acres (including the Great Trinity Forest,
which at 6,000 acres is the largest urban bottomland forest in the
world), it has been billed as the largest urban park in the United
States.
However, the project has been inundated with lawsuits,
restraining orders, feasability and environmental studies, cost
concerns, voter referendums and general contentious debates between
North and South Dallas and business leaders and citizens. The
project is slated to be completed by 2014, but that will probably
never happen.
The nano cache (initials only please) is located at an
overlook built by the city to give residents an idea of what the
project is supposed to look like. Good Luck!