River as Bridge
The River as Bridge
At the beginning of the new millennium urban populations outnumbered that of rural populations for the first time in history. Urban areas have long had connotations of being harmful to our environment and the people living in them are often seen as either careless or oblivious in regards to maintaining their surrounding environment; most notably the rivers that flow through their cities. The Trinity River begins in North Texas and flows all the way to the Gulf of Mexico; it flows straight through the largest metropolitan area in the southern United States, Dallas-Fort Worth. The Trinity River along with many other rivers still flowing undeterred through large cities all across the world represent a growing change in the way our culture views nature. Urban cultures around the world have fought to preserve and save the rivers that flow through their cities from being dammed or canalized. Fort Worth is one of these proud cities that stood up to the big businesses and lobbyists to preserve the natural state of their river, the Trinity. Many more major cities such as Los Angeles, California have created urban renewal projects that not only revitalize a dilapidated area of their city but also restore the heavily polluted or channelized rivers near them. In this post-modern era urban rivers like the Trinity are finding common ground between the expansion of urban areas and the preservation of our environment as how it should be; untamed and unpolluted.
The treatment of rivers over the past hundred years by human beings has been appalling, and the Trinity is no exception. The Trinity River has been heavily polluted and in the eyes of the citizens inhabiting DFW its notorious for being rather repulsive. The Trinity is also well known for its tendency to flood, and since Fort Worth and Dallas were built directly in the Trinity’s flood plains it was merely human nature to begin a project that would relocate the river away from Dallas in 1928. As
At the beginning of the new millennium urban populations outnumbered that of rural populations for the first time in history. Urban areas have long had connotations of being harmful to our environment and the people living in them are often seen as either careless or oblivious in regards to maintaining their surrounding environment; most notably the rivers that flow through their cities. The Trinity River begins in North Texas and flows all the way to the Gulf of Mexico; it flows straight through the largest metropolitan area in the southern United States, Dallas-Fort Worth. The Trinity River along with many other rivers still flowing undeterred through large cities all across the world represent a growing change in the way our culture views nature. Urban cultures around the world have fought to preserve and save the rivers that flow through their cities from being dammed or canalized. Fort Worth is one of these proud cities that stood up to the big businesses and lobbyists to preserve the natural state of their river, the Trinity. Many more major cities such as Los Angeles, California have created urban renewal projects that not only revitalize a dilapidated area of their city but also restore the heavily polluted or channelized rivers near them. In this post-modern era urban rivers like the Trinity are finding common ground between the expansion of urban areas and the preservation of our environment as how it should be; untamed and unpolluted.
The treatment of rivers over the past hundred years by human beings has been appalling, and the Trinity is no exception. The Trinity River has been heavily polluted and in the eyes of the citizens inhabiting DFW its notorious for being rather repulsive. The Trinity is also well known for its tendency to flood, and since Fort Worth and Dallas were built directly in the Trinity’s flood plains it was merely human nature to begin a project that would relocate the river away from Dallas in 1928. As
Citations: Kibel, Paul Stanton. 2007. Rivertown. Rethinking Urban Rivers. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA Irene J. Klaver “Placing Water and Culture” From: Johnston, R. B., Klaver, I. J., Castillo-Ramos, A., Strang, M., Niles, N. & Hiwasaki, L. (Eds.) (2011 forthcoming). Water, cultural diversity & global environmental change: Emerging trends, sustainable futures? Jakarta: UNESCO International Hydrological Programme and The Hague: Springer Press. http://www.trinityrivervision.org/Home.aspx Documentary: Living With the Trinity