Fort Worth writer credits Dallas first Turnpike with prosperity & spinoffs in Arlington TX
Posted Thu, 2007-08-30 08:31
Ft Worth Star-Telegram writer OK Carter has a nice column on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Dallas Fort Worth Turnpike. We asked him if we could reprint it and he said he couldn't really refuse since he'd researched the thing using our SEARCH bar. He's exaggerating. He got most of it elsewhere.
I-30 though now tax-supported is still locally known as the Dallas Fort Worth Turnpike.
Incidentally we discover separately that it was firm editorial policy at the Star-Telegram in the early days to refer to the
Turnpike as the Fort Worth Dallas Turnpike. Their standards have slipped. TOLLROADSnews.
Here:
The biggest reason for Arlington's decades-long boom
by O.K. CARTER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
If economic and residential development starts with access -- and it does -- it's easy enough to determine the most significant event in Arlington's history.
It's not the coming of the railroad. Not the appearance of General Motors. Not the Great Southwest Industrial District, Six Flags or the Texas Rangers. Maybe not even the spectacular 26-year reign of Arlington patriarch and former Mayor Tom Vandergriff.
Give up?
On this very week 50 years ago, the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike opened its turnstiles.
Instead of an agonizing 82-stoplight gantlet along U.S. 80 – Division Street in Arlington – it became possible to zip from downtown Fort Worth to downtown Dallas in 30 minutes or less for less than a penny for every skipped stoplight. The turnpike, now that section of Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, was Texas' introduction to limited-access, put-the-pedal-down, European-style autobahns.
In 1957, Arlington's estimated population was all of 34,000. Three years later, it was 49,000, from there to reign among the fastest-growing cities in the country for the next two decades. During a good part of that, Arlington's population exploded faster than Dallas' or Fort Worth's. During one decade, Arlington's populace increased faster than New York City's.
That couldn't have happened without access, and Arlington, at long last, had access via the turnpike. (In 1957, the construction of I-20 through the city was more than 20 years away.)
Virtually all those new Arlington residents showed up via the turnpike, buying homes and putting in lawns as an endless procession of rooftops knifed through what used to be cotton farms and dairy ranches.
The payoff for Arlington – or at least for developers, investors and real estate people who built and sold Arlington – was enormous.
Without the turnpike, there would have been no Six Flags, no Great Southwest Industrial District, no Texas Rangers. There simply wouldn't have been adequate access.
Though the turnpike was good for Arlington's overall economy, the effect of diminished traffic on U.S. 80/Division Street was severe and continues today. It produced a steady litany of disappearing auto dealerships, stores and restaurants. It's a decline that resists turnaround, perhaps more proof that no good deed – in this case the turnpike – goes unpunished.
"It was like somebody turned off the water spigot," recollects Sam Lester, 80, whose family has operated a popular Division Street eatery, now called
Catfish Sam's, since 1952. "One month we had traffic; the next month we didn't."
Lester's may well be the last surviving pre-1957 Division Street location with a still-functioning business. The toll road took no prisoners on Division Street.
What happened to the turnpike?
The original premise was that it would become a free road when it was paid off, that event taking place in 1977 – 17 years ahead of schedule. When the Texas Turnpike Authority, now the North Texas Tollway Authority, tried to extend the tolls, Vandergriff – once a leading advocate for the toll road – protested. Fort Worth sued. And won. The roadway went free in 1977.
Resultant rancor established a rift between the authority and Fort Worth that has cooled only in the last few years. Most of the authority's toll road building has taken place in Dallas County. But that'll change. Like it or not, a lot of new toll roads are in this region's future.
"The fact that so much collaboration is taking place about new toll roads is a healthy sign of regional cooperation," says Vandergriff's son, Victor Vandergriff, who on Saturday will become the authority's newest board member. "The reality is that if we want our road building to keep up with growth and needs in a timely way, we're going to see more toll activity in the NTTA's four-county area."
The effect of such new roads can be enormous.
Just consider the impact of the old turnpike as proof.
O.K. Carter's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Republished from Fort Worth Star Telegraph
TOLLROADSnews 2007-08-30
Â
Ft Worth Star-Telegram writer OK Carter has a nice column on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Dallas Fort Worth Turnpike. We asked him if we could reprint it and he said he couldn't really refuse since he'd researched the thing using our SEARCH bar. He's exaggerating. He got most of it elsewhere.I-30 though now tax-supported is still locally known as the Dallas Fort Worth Turnpike.
Incidentally we discover separately that it was firm editorial policy at the Star-Telegram in the early days to refer to the
Turnpike as the Fort Worth Dallas Turnpike. Their standards have slipped. TOLLROADSnews.Here:
The biggest reason for Arlington's decades-long boomby O.K. CARTER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
If economic and residential development starts with access -- and it does -- it's easy enough to determine the most significant event in Arlington's history.
It's not the coming of the railroad. Not the appearance of General Motors. Not the Great Southwest Industrial District, Six Flags or the Texas Rangers. Maybe not even the spectacular 26-year reign of Arlington patriarch and former Mayor Tom Vandergriff.
Give up?
On this very week 50 years ago, the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike opened its turnstiles.
Instead of an agonizing 82-stoplight gantlet along U.S. 80 – Division Street in Arlington – it became possible to zip from downtown Fort Worth to downtown Dallas in 30 minutes or less for less than a penny for every skipped stoplight. The turnpike, now that section of Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth, was Texas' introduction to limited-access, put-the-pedal-down, European-style autobahns.
In 1957, Arlington's estimated population was all of 34,000. Three years later, it was 49,000, from there to reign among the fastest-growing cities in the country for the next two decades. During a good part of that, Arlington's population exploded faster than Dallas' or Fort Worth's. During one decade, Arlington's populace increased faster than New York City's.
That couldn't have happened without access, and Arlington, at long last, had access via the turnpike. (In 1957, the construction of I-20 through the city was more than 20 years away.)
Virtually all those new Arlington residents showed up via the turnpike, buying homes and putting in lawns as an endless procession of rooftops knifed through what used to be cotton farms and dairy ranches.
The payoff for Arlington – or at least for developers, investors and real estate people who built and sold Arlington – was enormous.
Without the turnpike, there would have been no Six Flags, no Great Southwest Industrial District, no Texas Rangers. There simply wouldn't have been adequate access.
Though the turnpike was good for Arlington's overall economy, the effect of diminished traffic on U.S. 80/Division Street was severe and continues today. It produced a steady litany of disappearing auto dealerships, stores and restaurants. It's a decline that resists turnaround, perhaps more proof that no good deed – in this case the turnpike – goes unpunished.
"It was like somebody turned off the water spigot," recollects Sam Lester, 80, whose family has operated a popular Division Street eatery, now called
Catfish Sam's, since 1952. "One month we had traffic; the next month we didn't."Lester's may well be the last surviving pre-1957 Division Street location with a still-functioning business. The toll road took no prisoners on Division Street.
What happened to the turnpike?
The original premise was that it would become a free road when it was paid off, that event taking place in 1977 – 17 years ahead of schedule. When the Texas Turnpike Authority, now the North Texas Tollway Authority, tried to extend the tolls, Vandergriff – once a leading advocate for the toll road – protested. Fort Worth sued. And won. The roadway went free in 1977.
Resultant rancor established a rift between the authority and Fort Worth that has cooled only in the last few years. Most of the authority's toll road building has taken place in Dallas County. But that'll change. Like it or not, a lot of new toll roads are in this region's future."The fact that so much collaboration is taking place about new toll roads is a healthy sign of regional cooperation," says Vandergriff's son, Victor Vandergriff, who on Saturday will become the authority's newest board member. "The reality is that if we want our road building to keep up with growth and needs in a timely way, we're going to see more toll activity in the NTTA's four-county area."
The effect of such new roads can be enormous.
Just consider the impact of the old turnpike as proof.
O.K. Carter's column appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Republished from Fort Worth Star Telegraph
TOLLROADSnews 2007-08-30
Â