Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring, 1991 Page: 8
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Dallas, passed under it. The Harvey was slowed
again when it tried to pass under the MKT bridge,
but was 1 1/2 inches too tall. This time the crowd at
the bridge used crowbars to raise it the necessary
distance to allow the Harvey to pass. Finally, on
May 21, the Harvey tied up at the Oak Cliff Railway
Bridge to await the celebration planned for her
arrival.2'
And what a celebration it was! The Dallas
Morning News called it a "Red Letter Day" and
emphasized the occasion by printing its first page in
red ink, for the only time in its history. A parade of
dignitaries, bands, bicylists, and floats, followed by
all the school children who wanted to participate,
wound through the town. An enormous picnic at the
water's edge was mobbed with men, women, and
children who gathered to view the boat that was
going to make Dallas a riverboat city and thereby
free it from unfair railroad freight rates.21 It had
taken fifty years for Bryan's vision to materialize.
The river navigation backers stoutly maintained
that "the navigation of the Trinity is not a
possibility, it is an accomplished fact. With the
$35,000 due on subscriptions we can build locks and
dams for 75 miles below Dallas.... The good work
will be prosecuted until a line of steamers shall make
regular trips all the year around between Galveston
and the gulf.""2
Despite its promoters' optimism, the
Harvey did not immediately begin transporting Dallas
goods to the Gulf. Keeping the river's water level
constant was a problem, partially solved when the
Trinity River Navigation Company constructed a
temporary 12-foot earthen dam at McCommas Bluff,
twelve miles south of town. The dam stabilized the
water level and alleviated the dramatic variations
that usually occurred after rain storms, which could
be two or three feet overnight.
Since there was no lock, however, the dam
also confined the Harvey to the brief stretch between
McCommas Bluff and Dallas. It was used to transport
lumber from the bluff to the city, but its greatest
popularity was as an excursion vessel, leaving
Dallas at 9:30 a.m. and returning at 6 p.m. The fare
was 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children, and
people were advised to bring their own lunches.24
By the end of 1896 the novelty had worn off and the
Harvey was tied up alongside Snag Boat Dallas,
then sold in 1898 to be used as a merchant
trading vessel out of Lake Charles, Louisiana.:5
8Trinity River navigation supporters were
not despondent over the demise of the Harvey, for
they had finally succeeded in interesting the U. S.
Congress in re-considering the Trinity River for
possible improvements.26 In 1899 $7000 was appropriated
for a survey which concluded that by
building dams and using artesian water to supplement
the natural flow, the Trinity could be navigated
"almost year round" for an estimated cost of $5
million. This favorable survey resulted in a first year
appropriation of $750,000 for construction of locks
and dams. The president of the Trinity River Navigation
Company declared this action"... the biggest
single thing that has happened to Texas since its
admission into the Union." Dallas citizens invested
again, this time $66,000 to build a dam at Parson's
Slough at about the time the U. S. Army Engineers
were building Lock No. 1 thirteen miles south of
Dallas. It was, according to The Dallas Morning
News, "a people's movement. All classes having
contributed freely, the list of names is a very long
one."27 Between 1900 and 1909 Congress appropriated
funds for four locks and dams in the upper
Trinity River, but by 1909 only Lock and Dam No.
1 was completed, with the dam at Parson's Slough
under construction.2
UT OTHER VISIONS IN DALLAS WERE taking
shape that would affect the Trinity River.
These were prompted, in part, by a massive flood in
May 1908 which was the worst in Dallas's collective
memory. All of west Dallas was submerged, basements
of downtown buildings flooded, railroad
tracks were under water, the central power plant
flooded, rendering lights and street cars useless, and
the Texas & Pacific rail bridge across the Trinity
collapsed. The losses exceeded $700,000.29 Some
4,000 people were homeless, and access to Oak
Cliff, which was normally by a road through the
Trinity floodplain, was possible only by a small
steamlaunch.
Dallas Morning News publisher G. B.
Dealey, a member of the Citizens Relief Committee,
was aboard the launch when it made its first
crossing ten days after the flood began. That trip
inspired him to call for detailed plans to avert such
disasters in the future. Dallas needed a system of
river levees that could contain the waters of the
Trinity when the rains came again, along with a
high-water causeway. These projects would require
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Dallas County Heritage Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring, 1991, periodical, 1991; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth35118/m1/10/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.