I found myself in Forth Worth for the weekend. Fort Worth has invested in a nifty web site which has lots of cool photos and a modern layout but is devoid of information. Very disappointed. Annoyed too.
First stop on my wandering trek through Fort Worth was the Water Gardens – close by and free! Open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. The Water Gardens has 3 different significant water features: Aerated Pool, Quiet Pool, and Active Water Pool around a Central Square on 4+ acres in the middle of Fort Worth.
The Aerated Pool has “white noise” feeling of 871 gallons of water per minute being pumped through 40 nozzles. I was there during the day – most web articles talk about the light show at night being impressive.
The Quiet Pool is the extreme opposite: it has a library’s level of noise. It is surrounded by cypress trees with pronounced knees at their bases. The water is calm and reflective.
In between in noise level is the Active Pool – it is more of an architectural sculpture.
The movie “Logan’s Run” had a significant scene filmed at the Fort Worth Water Gardens in 1974. I have included a link to a website that has photos of the cast climbing down these steps and a refresher on the plot. I am not a fan of SciFi – but I did see this movie when it first came out. The only famous cast member was Farrah Fawcett.
Beyond the Water Park, I decided to go investigate the rather imposing large building in the picture of the Aerated Pool. The building was originally an administration building for the train station but now has been converted to “lofts” – essentially condos.
A website mentioned that the lobby has mostly original walls, ceiling, and flooring.
I then found a tour group looking at a statue so I went to look also. I struck upon the idea of following the tour group. A fire broke out in a Fort Worth building during a smaller scale exposition: only one person died, the hero who ran back in and rescued other people. The statue is of that man.
Next “my” tour group went to the old train depot of the Santa Fe Railroad. On our way, I took this picture of the modern road interchange of I-30 and I-35 – which has a train traveling through it as we passed. This drove home the point: Fort Worth has been a major hub for people and cattle in our history.
The majority of the original Santa Fe buildings are occupied by UT-Fort Worth which is right across the street from Texas A&M Law School. I thought this picture was fun to include.
