15 replies to this topic

[John T Roberts]

Scott, you should register if you want to post. Obviously, you found one of the forums that I didn't change when we started requiring registration. Since our tunnels don't have stores like Dallas or Houston, I'm not sure if I should really answer. Most of the tunnels are private and serve only for utilities and service.

[RD Milhollin]

John,

This thread should probably be moved to the "Miscellaneous" section.

Scott, I am not an architect or city planner for Fort Worth, so I don't know of the tunnels you refer to, those that connect buildings, as in public or semi-public corridors (perhaps like in Houston or Toronto) that allow people to move around downtown without being exposed to oppressive climatic conditions. If I remember right, that was a plan back in the late 70's or early 80's to coordinate a similar system for downtown but using skybridges. A few of these were built, but as far as I know the follow-up necessary to tie these in as an integrated walkway network was never accomplished.

That said, I can comment on other tunnels that do exist under the downtown part of the city. One of the things I do when not at my regular gig is to explore caves. Some of you may have seen a few of us practicing vertical caving skills by climbing and rappelling on ropes suspended from certain bridges around town. Several times a group of us has ventured Underground-Cowtown when the weather got too hot to work on ropes. I have heard this activity referred to as "Sewer-lunking". There is an outlet for the storm drains that will allow access to a fairly extensive system of tunnels, some quite old and made of brick like some of the old storm sewers in the East and Midwest. A thru trip can take anywhere from an hour to 3 or 4 hours, and doesn't require any substantial crawling. I hesitate to mention specific locations in the interest of preventing vandalism or accidents. The people who have led these trips, at least the ones I have been on, are very experienced cavers who are aware of potential hazards, and have required participants to be properly equipped (protective clothing, helmets, headlights, etc.) to go along on the tour.

Another place I know of that has extensive tunnels is one of the large, regional shopping malls, although most large, regional shopping malls probably have large tunnels to help drain the acres of surface parking. I suppose I started doing this kind of thing when I was just a kid, exploring the tunnels under Forest Park and Kellis Park with a (single!) hand-held flashlight.

Prairie Pup

[John T Roberts]

Pup, when I responded yesterday, I thought that the thread should be moved. I will do that and then I will leave the link here.

[Bill Sievers]

P. Pup that's really interesting. I'm assuming the "tunnels" you're referring to that you explored under Forest and Kellis Parks were actually storm drains. Are/were these drains large enough under those areas for a person to actually walk through?

Bill Sievers

[normanfd]

Some of the hospitals in the Hospital District are linked by tunnels. It's a more practical way to transport patients from one facility to another rather than wheeling them across streets through traffic.

[RD Milhollin]

Bill,

Yes, the Kellis and Forest Park tunnels were/are storm drains. The Kellis pipes connect the creek running through to other parks at each end, upstream and downstream. As a kid I remember the diameter sufficient to ride a small bike through, but the "floor" was slippery with moss, so you could just run instead, weaving from side to side to stay out of the water. As an adult (but kid at heart) I think I would have to "stoop walk" and would probably be much more careful of contact with the water knowing what I know now. The Forest Park tunnels are at the upstream, and branch frequently, so that the large "entrance" outflow very soon reduces to stoop-walking and then crawling passage. As kids I remember stories about people getting lost down there, usually running out of light. This prompted me to always explore with at least one other flashlight equipped kid, today I would (do) carry multiple sources of light.

Pup

[kenkuhl]

One tunnel I've been in is under 10th St. between City Hall and the Municipal Courts building. It is where the FW Emergency Management office and command center is located.

[RD Milhollin]

Speaking of tunnels...

Has anyone ever been to the North Texas (oops, sorry 360) FEMA offices in Denton County? Back in the 1970s I had the opportunity to tour those facilities as the guest of a student (my father) taking a course in fallout-shelter design at TCU.

The entrance was in a nondescript metal building up a longish drive on a large piece of land out in the country, with a receptionist and the requisite sign-ins and a picture of the US president (Nixon I believe) on the wall. When we were all gathered and briefed it seems we went to another room where there was a huge metal door in the floor operated by pneumatic lifts. Once inside an elevator took us many stories underground where we took a tour of the facilities. The guide said that at one point during the Cold War the contingency plans for a direct attack on Washington included evacuating key members of the three branches of the federal government to extensive shelters located across the US, there were several so the Soviets would not know which one the president was in (sounds sort of like Sadaam Hussein's housing plan). On the tour we saw a room with a desk just like the one in the Oval Office, and rooms designated for the House Speaker, Supreme Court justices, and so on. It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember that the water was from deep wells contained in the complex, air was drawn from inlets many miles away and heavily filtered, and other heavily armored entrances existed. The depth of the facility is a little fuzzy, but I seem to remember 20 stories underground. Does this sound right? Of course, by the time I was able to visit the place was declassified and some other contingency plan was in place (constantly flying Air Force 1?)

I did see a photo of the entrance room with the big door featured in a newspaper article a few years ago. An official group of visiting Russians was being given a tour of the facility. I couldn't help but think of the scene from "Dr. Strangelove" when the president invites the Soviet ambassador down to the basement of the Pentagon to discuss the nuclear strikes in progress, when a fight breaks out between the ambassador (Kissoff?) and a US General. The president is taken aback, and shouts "You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!"

woof!

[polokid]

Ok, now I have registered.
John, I was mainly curious if Ft. worth had underground concourses like I've been in in Houston. I was not referring to utility ones, just ones the general public has access to. Hopefully this not some top secret thing.

[anathan]

There are also tunnels connecting Burnett Plaza to 500 W. 7th St and the parking garage facility above the Bank of America motor bank on the north side of 6th Street. In the little triangular piece of property between 6th, 7th, Burnett, and Cherry, you'll notice a little glass skylight that marks the turning point in the tunnel.

The tunnel is pretty convenient to get to Subway from Burnett Plaza for lunch when its raining...

[m lambert]

A long time ago there was a tunnel from the couty jell to the court house. Some of it is still there. Leonards and Strirplings Department stores had tunnels between their buildings at one time. There is a tunnle betwin the Old Texas Electric building west to the bank; and one from that bank west to the large building west of Burnet Park. Of course there was the M&O railroad tunnel from the parking lot along the Trinity River to Leonards. Two tunnel went under Lancaster to the Will Rodger complex at one time.

[jrace4fun]

Where in the old Texas Electric Building is the tunnel?

[travelbear]

I have heard about a tunnel from the Federal Building at 819 Taylor to the Federal Courthouse. Has anyone else heard of that or know if its true?

[NThomas]

It a good thing Fort Worth doesn't have them. Most of the "tunnel systems" around the country (including Dallas) are just a mix (and not a very good mix at that) of hallways that vary in form and style. I think a tunnel system could be done (very well too) in Fort Worth if there were standards set by the P&Z that were uniform, easy to access, and built without cutting corners. Toronto's has done well because of their harsh winters but in Dallas or Houston, the heat and humidity, respectively, isn't enough to force everyone to become Morlocks, yet.