American Society of Civil Engineers
Texas Section | Fort Worth Branch
Texas Spring Palace
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: June 2024
The late 1800’s was defined by the frantic construction of monumental structures and extravagant exhibitions the world over. Just to name a few, the Eifel Tower which topped out in 1889 at 1,083ft as the grand center piece for the World’s Fair, retained the title of tallest man-made structure ever for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City surpassed it in 1930. Furthermore, the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn across New York City’s East River and opening to traffic in 1883, achieved the title of longest suspension bridge ever at the time with a main span of 1,595ft.
Fort Worth was no stranger to this fervent desire to build bigger. Completed in 1889 in an astonishing 31 days and cost of $35,000 (almost $1.2 million in 2024 dollars), the massive, all-timber Texas Spring Palace, pictured above, dominated the landscape with its 8 towers and enormous 155ft tall dome. This was second in size only to the dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. The Palace served as a fairground and exhibition space with the intent of enhancing tourism, immigration, and investment across Texas and to show the world all that Texas had to offer. The Palace was located along the Texas and Pacific Railway tracks just south of what is now W Lancaster Ave in downtown Fort Worth. It was approximately on the footprint of the modern T&P Train Station and US Post Office (pictured below right). The allure of the Palace brought international recognition and visitors from all over the world to North Texas.
This fame and fortune would not last however. On the evening of May 30th, 1890, in the midst of only the Palace’s 2nd season in business, the entire structure was consumed by a raging inferno that reduced the structure to a smoldering pile of debris in a mere 11 minutes. Upwards of 7,000 people were enjoying their evening at the Palace when calamity struck, but miraculously, only a single life was lost in the blaze. This life, however, was valiantly given, unselfish and brave, so that others might live.
Alfred S. Hayne, an English-born civil engineer aged 41 years, remained on the upper floors of the Palace even as hellfire erupted all around him, shepherding women and children to a window where he lowered them safely to the ground via a rope. Hayne would later succumb to his burns and injuries suffered when he plummeted from the upper level of The Palace after the monstrous conflagration finally forced him to abandon the doomed building. The people of Fort Worth would not let Hayne’s bravery and sacrifice go unrecognized. A memorial was dedicated to him in 1893, a rebuilt version of which (pictured below left) still stands in Hayne Memorial Triangle Park along W Lancaster Ave between N Main Street and Houston Street. This is directly adjacent to the T&P Train Station, just feet from the spot where Hayne performed his heroic act.
Hayne’s tombstone remains in Oakwood Cemetery north of downtown Fort Worth to this very day. In addition to this, the destruction of the Texas Spring Palace would be the catalyst for the formation of a professional fire department in the city in 1893 to replace the existing all-volunteer force whose capabilities were very dramatically proven to be woefully inadequate.
Despite a great desire and effort to see the Palace rebuilt, it would never come to pass largely due to the economic turmoil attributed to the Panic of 1893. Upon the writing of this article, 134 years to the day after the disaster, little evidence of what transpired that fateful evening remains. The citizens of Fort Worth now only have the memory and historical archives of this place that exuded such enthusiasm and bustling creative energy amid the quiet, rural landscape of late 19th century North Texas.
And for those who have chosen civil engineering as their profession, we have the privilege of holding Hayne in the highest esteem of our ranks and doing our best to live up to his legacy of selflessness and strength of character to do the right thing.
Photo courtesy of the Fort Worth Public Library
“Most noble is that fame which rests upon heroic deeds of love and sacrifice”
-Inscribed on the Alfred S. Hayne Memorial
Approximate location of the Texas Spring Palace and modern Alfred S. Hayne Memorial
Photos by Cody D. Wright
May 31st, 2024
Tornado in Fort Worth
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: February 2024
Tuesday, March 28th, 2000, started off as just another unseasonably warm spring day in downtown Fort Worth. Despite this, it would be a day no one living and working in downtown would ever forget. Just before 3:00pm, a tornado watch was issued encompassing downtown Fort Worth. By 5:30pm, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for a supercell headed straight for Fort Worth. Ten minutes after 6 o’clock, an unmistakable rotating wall cloud was seen 5 miles west of Meacham Field airport heading east.
Photos courtesy of the Fort Worth Star Telegram
Above: Bank One Tower (now “The Tower”) in the foreground and 777 Main in the background with severe window and interior damage. Bank One narrowly escaped being condemned and subsequently demolished but was later converted into the gleaming blue condominiums we know today. It remains the tallest residential building in the city at 488ft.
Less than 10 minutes later, the adrenaline spiking, ear splitting wail of downtown’s warning sirens echoed across the city. This was not a drill. A large, violent tornado was on the ground and tracking directly towards the dense urban core of one of the largest cities in the country. The destructive tornado first barreled through the West 7th Street area, damaged the old Montgomery Ward building before crossing the Trinity River, and then shredded the Central Business District. Above is a picture of the tornado approximately when it was at its most powerful.
The towers of First United Methodist Church can be seen on the left. Center, with the massive, 250-yard-wide funnel looming over it, the Cash America building is taking a direct hit which would result in some of the most extreme damage from the tornado’s rampage (F-3 damage indicators). The structure had every one of its windows blown out allowing wind and rain to wreak havoc on the building’s interior.
Below: A National Weather Service graphic showing the path the tornado took and regions of F-1 through F-3 damage.
The Cash America building was not alone. Practically every skyscraper in downtown had its glass façade shattered by the shear force of the winds or by flying debris, causing shards to blanket the streets below.
After only a few minutes of terrorizing the city, an eerie silence descended across the land as the tornado dissipated just east of downtown around 6:30pm. The twister would leave 2 fatalities and $450 million in property damage in its wake. Parts of downtown were closed for over a week while damage was repaired and the streets made safe again.
There were no direct anemometer measurements of the tornado’s windspeeds, so damage surveys and calculations had to be performed to ascertain them. Highlighting the importance of engineers in forensic damage analysis, a team of Engineers from the Wind Science and Engineering Program at Texas Tech University conducted a tour of the damage path and with guidelines found in ASCE 7-98, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, they calculated the maximum wind speeds at 157mph. The tornado was officially declared an F-3 on the damage-based Fujita Scale (The Enhanced Fujita Scale in use today had not been implemented yet).
There is no doubt that thousands of Fort Worth locals gained a greater respect for the raw power of nature that day. Roughly a quarter century on from this event, the scars on the city have long since healed but this event serves as a reminder that anything can happen!
Marking Our 85th Anniversary
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: November 2023
In a world that is constantly in flux, that perhaps being the only true constant, our Fort Worth Branch of the Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers has surpassed its 85th year of continuous operation as of Fall 2023.
National ASCE officially recognized the Fort Worth Branch in 1938, but records show Texas Section meetings taking place in Fort Worth as far back as Fall 1915! For over a century now, Fort Worth has been a gathering place for some of Texas’ brightest and most influential civil engineers and a hub from which innovation and progress emanate.
In that time, the City of Fort Worth has grown in population from just under 30,000 to around 950,000 per US Census estimates for July 2022 making our city the 13th most populous in the United States. Not to be outdone by this robust growth, our branch has grown tremendously as well.
In the 1940’s, the Fort Worth Branch Constitution defined Quorum as “the presence of one officer and at least five members.” These days, branch membership is nearly 5,300 made up of all Grades. Monthly Branch meetings consistently see maximum capacity gatherings of over 100 members, a statistic that has proudly continued for decades on end.
1988 saw the grand celebration of our Branch’s 50th anniversary at the Petroleum Club atop the 777 Main tower (which remains among the tallest buildings in Fort Worth at 525 feet) symbolizing the rise to prominence up to that point, when our annual operating budget was just approaching $7,000. In 2023 it has grown to over $55,000 allowing the continued fostering of all manner of meetings, special events, social gatherings, scholarships, and Student Chapter support for our ever-growing membership.
Fort Worth’s Blackstone Hotel as it would have looked in the 1930’s.
Building off our branch’s close ties with The University of Texas at Arlington and the creation of the Student Chapter there in 1965 spearheaded by Charles M. Moore, Joe J. Rady, Marvin Nichols, John H. Haynes, and W.H. Nedderman (names UTA alumni and branch members alike will no doubt recognize to this day), we now also act as stewards for the talented Student Chapters at Abilene Christian University and Tarleton State University.
Our Branch has come a long way from meetings in the old Blackstone Hotel on the corner of Fifth and Main in the 1930’s. A pivotal part in the success and perseverance of North Texas and beyond has been played by past members and continues to be played by all who read this now. As we march onto our centennial in the not-so-distant future, let this be a call for reflection upon a storied history that is still being made every day.
Holly Pump Station & Water Treatment Plant
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: November 2024
Hiding near downtown and right under the noses of many a Fort Worth citizen is perhaps one of the single most historically and functionally significant examples of civil engineering found anywhere in the city.
The construction of the Holly Pump Station in 1892, named after the Holly Manufacturing Company of Lockport, New York which designed the original pumping engines and
boilers, is arguably one of the main indicators of Fort Worth’s growth into a modern metropolis from the sleepy frontier town that earned it the nickname Panther City (due to a panther which one day wandered into the center of town and took a nap since the city was so quiet and deserted).
Original North Holly Water Treatment Plant as viewed from the Lancaster Ave. Bridge looking northeast towards downtown. Location shown on map.
Photo by Cody D. Wright : November 1st, 2024
Prior to this plant, Fort Worth relied on shallow wells, cisterns, and the Trinity Riverbank itself for its water supply needs. However, the remarkable population growth of the city in the late 1800’s which saw population quadruple between 1880-1890, meant that these antiquated means of providing water to the public were not able to keep pace with demand nor adequately combat water borne illness.
The pump station was originally installed with two 8 MGD Holly pumping engines supplying drinking water to the city from the Trinity River. This machinery was the most advanced of its day. Then in 1912, a water treatment plant was constructed on the site. The complex has seen many expansions and upgrades over the decades including a second water treatment plant south of Lancaster Ave designed by Freese & Nichols in 1956, Safe Drinking Water Act compliance disinfecting upgrades in 1995, enhanced flocculation and sedimentation facilities in 2002, and the addition of ozone disinfection technology in 2012.
Looking somewhat out of place amongst the nearby apartment and office towers with it’s original, antique yet still architecturally impressive tan brickwork and terra cotta roofed structures, the Holly Pump and Water Treatment facilities still serve as a critical piece of infrastructure in Fort Worth’s water distribution system.
North Holly Water Treatment Plant’s sedimentation basins with some of the original pump house structures in the background as viewed from the corner of W Tenth St. and Fournier St.
Photo by Cody D. Wright : November 1st, 2024
QUICK FACTS:
The Holly plant contributes to Fort Worth’s combined 497 MGD drinking water and 166 MGD wastewater treating capacity.
Original Holly Pump Station was designed by Major John Hawley who would go on to found Freese & Nichols in 1894
Lake Worth, constructed in 1911-1914 as only Texas’ 8th reservoir and the largest in the country at time of completion, now supplies the Holly plant with its raw water via a 6.5 mile pipeline
Original pump station cost $687,000 (almost $28 million today). Treatment facilities now have a capacity of 80 MGD.
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: February 2025
For the past 35 years, the modestly sized City of Glen Rose, TX about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth has been home to some BIG power. The Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant is the source of this power, harnessing the unbelievable potential of the atomic world to cement itself as one of the most critical components of North Texas’ electricity infrastructure. This mighty power plant derives its name from the nearby Comanche Peak mesa, a prominent location in the culture of the Comanche People of North America who used its high elevation compared to the surrounding landscape as a lookout point and as a gathering place for ceremonies.
Beginning construction in 1974, the first Westinghouse Pressurized Water reactor, known as Comanche Peak 1, came online in August of 1990. The twin to this first reactor, Commanche Peak 2, followed suit 3 years later. Together in 2025, both of these reactors contribute a combined 2,400 megawatts of baseload power to the Texas electric grid, enough to keep the lights on in over 1.2 million homes. This forms a sturdy foundation to our State’s electricity portfolio, staying near constant day after day while other, more flexible means of electricity production are ramped up and down as demand fluctuates.
Front entrance with the containment domes of Comanche Peak 1 and 2 looming in the background. Each is 265ft tall with 4.6ft thick reinforced concrete walls lined on their interior faces with continuously welded steel plate up to 1/2 inch thick. Combined, this is thick and dense enough to prevent any ionizing radiation from escaping the reactor cores and to shield the reactors from any outside hazards like severe weather. Location shown on map.
Photo by Cody D. Wright : February 1st, 2025
To put this amount of power into perspective, Comanche Peak along with its companion nuclear plant near Bay City, TX, together provide on average 10% of all of Texas’ electricity. In short, a significant portion of the built and engineered environment in North Texas owes its functionality to the amazing combination of engineering and science that is Comanche Peak.
Nuclear power plants in general obtain their incredible energy density from the process of nuclear fission. Uranium-235 in the cores of Comanche Peak 1 and 2 is constantly radioactively decaying, throwing neutrons around that impact nuclei of atoms around them, splitting them apart. This generates huge amounts of heat which, just as in most any type of powerplant, is used to boil water into steam and turn a turbine to produce electricity.
Comanche Peak has been in operation for over 3 decades and as of 2025, there are more decades yet to come. Last year the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Comanche Peak to continue production until 2053. An application to construct 2 additional 1,700 megawatt each nuclear reactors at Comanche Peak was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008. However, factors including natural gas booms in Texas in the early 2010’s, exorbitant construction costs, and the partial meltdown of reactors at the Fukushima Power Plant in Japan following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami acted to delay the construction of Comanche Peak 3 and 4 indefinitely.
Despite this, the building of 2 more reactors at Comanche Peak in the future cannot be ruled out. Years to come may see Comanche Peak become even more of a juggernaut on the Texas grid.
Sign near front entrance of Comanche Peak
Photo by Cody D. Wright : February 1st, 2025
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Comanche Peak 1 and 2 were among the last nuclear reactors to be constructed in the United States to date. Only 4 reactors have been built since then across the country. 2 went online at Watts Bar in Tennessee in 1996 and 2016 and most recently 2 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia in 2023 and 2024.
Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: June 2025
Nestled in the quiet woods of rural North Texas is a vista that will transport the viewer in a time machine to the what feels like the wild west, or to a future post-apocalyptic wasteland strewn with the rusted-out husks of long since abandoned infrastructure, whichever the reader’s imagination might prefer. Located about 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth down County Road 149 off U.S. 377 in the small town of Bluff Dale, Erath County, Texas is the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge.
Technically a cable-stayed bridge, it was constructed in 1890 by the Runyon Bridge Company of Weatherford, Texas making it the oldest surviving bridge of any type in Texas and perhaps the entire country. Designed by an apparently self-taught empirical engineer by the name of Edwin Elijah Runyon, the bridge spans a total of 200ft across the Paluxy River and has a main span between the towers of 140ft. The towers themselves are formed by 8 ½” wrought iron pipes which reach 14ft above deck level and act as saddles for numerous 1” diameter iron wire ropes which support the 12ft wide, originally wooden bridge deck. As implied by Runyon’s many patents for suspension and cable bridges, the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge was an advanced design for its day that came along right when the town needed it.
Left: One of the piers of the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge. Location shown on map.
Photo by Cody D. Wright : February 1st, 2025
The year 1889 saw the Rio Grande Railroad reach Bluff Dale which had become an important travel stop for mail, cargo, and travelers alike making their way to and from Fort Worth and points southwest. Erath County saw a need for a crossing across the Paluxy and so commissioned Runyon and his company for 3 bridges, one of which being the Bluff Dale Suspension bridge. The total bid was $4,200, equivalent to almost $150,000 today. The bridge ensured safe passage for North Texans for decades while the world changed and grew around it. Even with its wooden deck replaced with metal in 1983 and its obviously sturdy design and construction, the bridge could not remain in service forever and was closed to traffic in the early 1990’s, a full century after its construction. It has since been bypassed by a concrete girder bridge directly adjacent which is still in service today.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge remains standing as of February 2025, albeit in clear disrepair. Rust covers the iron work and an ominous sag in the deck around midspan warns any potential user to admire but dare not risk a crossing. The longevity of this structure mirrors the staying power of cable-stayed bridges as a whole. The design as seen a surge in popularity in recent decades across the globe and in Texas due to the advent of more modern structural analysis computational techniques. No other bridge design for exceedingly long spans (500ft-1,500ft) combines the efficiency, stability, cost-effectiveness, maintainability, aesthetics, and constructability of cable-stayed bridges.
Noteworthy examples of this in Texas include the Fred Hartman Bridge with a main span of 1,250ft over the Houston Ship Channel, The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge with a main span of 603ft over the Trinity River in Dallas, and the New Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge with a man span of 1,661ft, scheduled to open to traffic in May of 2025 as the 2nd longest cable-stayed bridge in the United States. Further illustrating the growing popularity of the cable-stayed configuration, the Gordie Howe Bridge spanning the Detroit River in Michigan will become the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America when it opens to traffic sometime in 2025. Additionally, Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge which suffered a catastrophic collapse in March 2024 is already confirmed to be replaced by a massive cable-stayed bridge.
Beyond any doubt, the future will see more long-span cable-stayed bridges that would likely make old man Runyon smile with joy and awe.
Above: Looking down the length of the Bridge with the active concrete girder bridge adjacent.
Below: Note the sag in the main span as the bridge continues to deteriorate
Photos by Cody D. Wright : February 1st, 2025
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Unless funds can be secured for the bridge’s restoration, it will likely be demolished in the years to come to avoid a collapse that would damage the adjacent concrete girder bridge
Fort Worth Public Market
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: November 2025
After standing guard over Downtown Fort Worth for nearly an entire century, one of the most iconic structures in the City will soon see it’s next chance to shine in the sun.
In a time before the big box store, internet shopping, and general hyper consumerism, the Fort Worth Public Market was where anyone that needed anything in the City would likely find themselves. That time would be June of 1930 when the Public Market first opened to customers after an incredibly fast and cost-effective raising seemingly typical of every famous early 20th century construction project, only 6 months and $150,000 (around $3 million in 2025).
Left: Original main entrance and 85ft central tower
Photo by Cody D. Wright : November 2nd, 2025
Opening day saw developer John J. Harden’s vision come to life with 145 vendors and 30 permanent retail stores housed across 15,000 square feet. Everything from farm fresh produce to meats and baked goods could be found here. The Public Market had cemented itself as a cornerstone in the foundation of Fort Worth’s community. After a vibrant and bustling beginning however, the Public Market would see decade after decade of hardship and neglect.
The one-two punch of the Great Depression and World War II decimated business and the space closed for its original purpose in 1941. The Market would be used for a variety of transportation and manufacturing ventures in the years that followed but it seemed it would never again be a gathering place for the community. That fate became all the more assured in 2004 when the last tenant parted ways and the structure sat entirely vacant. The dirty, graffitied façade and shattered, boarded up windows looked as if they were inviting the wrecking ball.
Fast forward to today, and things are looking up for the venue. As of the publication of this article, the original Public Market structure has been fully restored and now shares this plot along Henderson St. at I-30 with The Harden, a new, 199-unit active seniors apartment home community bearing the namesake of the original developer. Some of the space in the Market building itself will be used for Harden amenities but most of it will be reserved for commercial tenants that will at long last herald the reintegration of the Fort Worth Public Market back into the community.
Reaching this milestone has certainly not been without its trials though. Restoring a protected structure while also redeveloping the site involved, among others things, painstakingly removing and repairing every pane of glass and every terra-cotta roof tile, cleaning graffiti, utilizing old City records and blueprints that mis-represented underground infrastructure, and perhaps most difficult of all, obtaining all of the necessary permits and approvals from City, State, and National organizations.
Above all, the Public Market stands as a testament to the irreplaceable role that civil engineers play in creating and sustaining community.
Above: Original main entry way detail, post restoration
Below: Original east facade of the market along Henderson Street, post restoration
Photos by Cody D. Wright : November 2nd, 2025
Left: Original marker plaque mounted near the main entrance by the Texas Historical Commission
Photo by Cody D. Wright : November 2nd, 2025
TIMELINE
1930: Original Public Market opens
1941: Markey closes to customers
1944: Property sells to new owners who reopen it as a bus terminal and manufacturing space
1980: Market is designated an official Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission
1984: Market is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
2004: Last remaining tenant vacates
2011: Market is included among Fort Worth’s most endangered places
2014: Wilks Development purchases site
2022: Fire breaks out in the Public Market building itself, damaging the facade and the roof
2023: Ground breaks on the restoration of the Public Market and the construction of The Harden
2025: Project completion with residential leasing and commercial tenant searching ongoing
Cowtown Coliseum
Cody D. Wright, EIT, A.M. ASCE | Fort Worth Branch Historical Chair
Published: August 2024
During the summer of 2024, the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth’s historic Stockyards was finally celebrated for the incredible structure that it is. Visit the ASCE Texas Section website to read more about this event and about many other notable works of civil engineering spanning the entire State of Texas.
Cowtown Coliseum Historic Civil Engineering Landmark Plaque Dedication Ceremony Article