All of the dry-weather flow
of the San Antonio River in the downtown area used to come from two major
groupings of Edwards Aquifer springs, both with their own separate pages
on this site: San
Antonio Springs and another nearby grouping of springs, the San
Pedro Springs. For over 11,000 years native
American hunter-gatherers utilized the lush and varied ecosystems of the Olmos
Creek basin, these springs, and the rivers they created. They were favorite meeting places and campsites.
In both locations, their stone and flint tools attest to
thousands of years of use, and their burials have been found in caves and rock
shelters.
For over 100 years, many historians and scholars believed it likely that Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to encounter the Springs in the 1530s, but recent research has provided strong support for an opposing interpretation that most of de Vaca's escape route to Panuco was through Mexico, not Central Texas (Chipman, 1987 and Olson et al, 1997). The first Spaniards known to have visited the Springs were members of a 1691 expedition led by Domingo Teran de los Rios and Father Damian Massanet. On June 13 of that year they pitched camp alongside a group of friendly Payaya Indians at the River's headwaters. It happened to be the day of Saint Anthony of Padua, and they named the spot San Antonio de Padua.
By 1680 the Spanish had begun to fear French
expansion into lands claimed by Spain, and between 1709 and 1722 several Spanish
entradas, or formal expeditions, made their way across Texas. These
explorers realized the gentle plain below San Antonio Springs was a strategic spot for a permanent stronghold against French incursion. |
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Franciscan missionary
Antonio de San Buenaventuara y Olivares arrived with one of these expeditions at
the San Antonio River on April 13, 1709 and was so pleased with the river site
that he began a nine year
campaign to build a mission on the banks. On May 1, 1718 Olivares broke
ground, built a hut of brush and grapevines, offered Mass, and named his
mission San Antonio de Valero. The mission later became known as the
Alamo and the shrine of Texas liberty. Originally, the mission was
west of San Pedro Springs, not on the San Antonio River. It was
moved to the east side of the San Pedro Springs in 1719 where farmland was
better, and then was moved to the location now occupied by St. Joseph's
church. Hurricane floods destroyed it in 1724 and the mission was
then moved to its final location on the banks of the San Antonio River (Noonan-Guerra, 1987).
When the Spanish arrived for good in 1718, they
immediately began constructing a system of irrigation ditches, or acequias, to
divert water from the San Antonio River and San Pedro Creek to
farmlands. At first the work was carried out by the missionairies
themselves and settlers, but most building was eventually carried out using forced labor of Indian converts.
Eventually five mission complexes were established, linked by seven
acequia systems, between the headwaters of the
San Antonio River and its confluence with the Medina River. The acequias served as San Antonio's water system for almost two
hundred years and were the first municipal water distribution system in the area that became the lower 48 United States. They were remarkable
engineering feats for their time, and some are still in use.
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Image from On a Mexican Mustang, Through Texas, from the Gulf to the Rio Grande, by Alex E. Sweet and J. Armoy Knox, 1883. Notice the armed Spanish guards posted to keep the Indian laborers from abandoning their duty. |
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A portion of the Espada acequia over Piedras Creek. There were two additional such structures in San Antonio, both now destroyed and buried. One was at the intersection of South St. Mary's and South Alamo streets, and another was near Fredericksburg Road and North Flores Street, just northwest of downtown (Cox, 2005). |
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A very rare early 20th century postcard showing the acequia over Piedras Creek. Mailed on January 7, 1913. Ella wrote to Miss Martha Whittier in Muscatah, Kansas:
Dear Martha - I will at last try and send you a card. I am gaming every day and am outdoors in the sun a good deal. This is the land of "cotton and cactus." Let me hear from you - Ella |
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This canal flows atop the structure in the photo and postcard above. It is still in
good repair and in use more than 250 years after it was built. |
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The oldest continuously used Spanish diversion dam in Texas. It raises the
level of the River so water can enter the acequia. |
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This, the oldest continuously used Spanish built diversion dam in Texas,
has provided irrigation water since it's construction sometime between
1731 and 1745. The dam, originally 270 feet long, is built on a natural
rock foundation. A portion of the east wing is now covered by the nearby
flood control levee. Despite a unique reverse buttress making an angular
turn at the center of the channel, the dam has withstood many years of
destructive floods with only minor repairs required to maintain its sound
condition. The 8 foot tall structure diverts approximately 4500 gallons of
water per minute into the 4 mile long irrigation ditch known as "Acequia
de Espada". By gravity flow the acequia provides irrigation water for 400
acres of land in the vicinity of Mission San Francisco de la Espada. The
mouth of the acequia may be seen on the opposite bank of the river just
upstream from the dam. The dam and irrigation system was engineered by
Franciscan Missionaries and constructed by Indian converts, a remarkable
feat at that time. |
By all accounts, the San Antonio River before Edwards Aquifer wells were drilled
was a large, crystal-pure, reliable stream, much unlike the murky trickle it
became later on. George W. Bonnell described the situation in 1840:
The San Antonio River is
formed by about one hundred large springs in a beautiful
valley four miles above the city. Many of these springs would
singly form a river; and when they unite in San Antonio, they
form a bold and rapid stream of two hundred feet in width,
and about four feet deep over the shoals.
Few cities have had such an
intense love affair
or such an intimate
relationship with their river as San Antonio. Year round bathing in the
River was a San
Antonio tradition and was described by Frederick Marryat in 1843:
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The temperature of the water is the same throughout the year, neither too
warm nor too cold for bathing, and not a single day passes without the
inhabitants indulging in the favourite and healthy exercise of swimming,
which is practised by everybody, from morning till evening; and the
traveller along the shores of this beautiful river will constantly see
hundreds of children, of all ages and colour, swimming and diving like so
many ducks.
(Image from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 15, 1859.) |
By 1850, San Antonio had made a servant of
its River. It powered waterworks and mills, fed irrigation
ditches, provided drinking water, put out fires, and carried
sewage downstream (McLemore, 1980). In
1877 Harriet Prescott Spofford, writing for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, rode
on one of the first trains to San Antonio and declared "On a more
enchanting spot the eye of poet never rested. There is probably nothing like it in America." Spofford wrote:
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In and out among these houses slips the San Antonio River, clear as
crystal, swifter than a mill-race; now narrow and foaming along between
steep banks with luxuriant semi-tropical growth, and with the tall pecans
on either side meeting above them in vaulting shadows; now spreading in
sunny shallows between long grassy swards starred with flowers, twisting
and turning and doubling on itself, so tortuous that the three miles of
the straight line from its head to the market-place it makes only in
fourteen miles of caprices and surprises, rapids and eddies and falls and
narrow curves, reach after reach of soft green and flickering sunshine,
each more exquisitely beautiful than the other. Around every lane it takes
a loop; here it is just a pebbly ford, there, although so perfectly
transparent that you can see every flint in its bed, it is of a profound
depth, and every where it is of a color whose loveliness is past belief.
It flows by the Mexican jacal, and through the wealthy garden, around the
churches, across the business streets with its delightful glimpses. You
can not escape it; you think you have left it behind you, and there it is
before you, hurrying along to the forests on its two hundred miles to the
Gulf. |
| In the 1800's the River permeated daily life for almost all citizens of
San Antonio, and many homes had private bath houses bobbing in the River.
This engraving entitled "Street Scene in San Antonio" helped illustrate an
article called Through Texas by Frank H. Taylor in the October 1879
edition of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The depiction of the River as a
"street" points up the reliable stream's importance for 19th century
commerce and transportation in San Antonio. |
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This print entitled Bowen's Bend, San Antonio River was published in Rand McNally's Southern and Western Texas Guide for 1878. |
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This is one half of a stereoview card showing the same location as above. It is of course much more spectacular through the stereoscope, but even in 2D it still offers a great view of what the River was like in the mid 1870s. |
By 1890, numerous artesian wells had been drilled into the Edwards Aquifer
around San Antonio and in 1891 the city began to rely on wells rather than
acequias for its water supply. Flows in the River began to decline
seriously. In 1896, the first geologists to accurately describe the
Edwards recognized that wells were the culprits impacting springflows that were
the origin of the River (Hill & Vaughan,
1896). In most years the River was just a trickle. By 1900 the bath houses were gone, swimming
holes were too shallow, and there was not enough flow to carry off
garbage. Still, residents loved and protected their River. In 1904
city workers cut down two magnificent willow trees and an Express-News article
on August 18th was titled "Rivercleaning Gang Ruins Beauty
Spots". A public uproar resulted, and on August 20th a follow-up article
entitled "Citizens Stop Ruin of Cherished River" outlined the promises
of city officials to "beautify the stream and protect it in every manner
possible." The city did its first riverbank landscaping shortly
thereafter.
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Public sentiment
in favor of saving and beautifying the River continued to grow. On
February 10, 1910 the Express-News headlines announced "Public Wants
River to Receive First Attention". Later that year the Civic
Improvement League began efforts to beautify sections of the River downtown by
planting grasses, flowers, and shrubs.
In
September 1911 a small group of River-loving citizens formed the San Antonio
River Improvement Association, and declared that a way to revive the River must be
found. Mayor Bryan Callaghan, loathe to spend any public money on the
River, grudgingly approved installation of a pump on an abandoned well in
Brackenridge Park to provide the River some flow. Mayor Callaghan died
suddenly in office in 1912 and was succeeded by reform-minded Augustus H. Jones,
who immediately established a City Plan Committee and made River beautification
his top priority. A flurry of plans followed. San Antonio architect
Harvey L. Page devised a plan to line the River for 13 miles with reinforced
concrete slabs, add decorative concrete bridges, and have numerous benches turn
the banks into "a vast park". Using city money, River
Commissioner George Surkey began building a modified version of Page's plan that
established a uniform width for the downtown River channel with low concrete
covered rock walls dubbed "Surkey's Sea Walls". Sodding and
planting followed, and Surkey sought another artesian well to double the River's
flow (Fisher, 1997).
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This postcard mailed in 1916 shows
"Surkey's Sea Walls" and the type of beautification work that had been
completed in the Great Bend section prior to the great
flood of 1921. This is now the busiest section of the
River Walk. The view is looking north towards the
Commerce Street bridge. The photo below of Casa Rio
restaurant was taken from
underneath an arched stone bridge that was built about
where the boat is in the postcard. Casa Rio is on the
left bank just before the bridge; the photo was taken
from the right bank. |
Even as momentum toward River improvements was growing, six major
floods occurred in the nine years between 1914-1921. City officials gave
serious consideration to concreting over the River and turning it
into a sewer. Other proposals involved deepening and
straightening and removing major landmarks and all vegetation,
including carefully planted cypress trees from the beautification projects. Though
many realized the danger, San
Antonians also loved their River. When news leaked on March 31,
1921 that it might be destroyed it hit the citizens like a
bombshell. City Hall was immediately besieged with irate visitors
and contemptuous phone calls. The River was saved, but engineers
warned of ruinous loss that could be caused by a 100-year flood. Such a flood occurred a few months later, before a flood
prevention program was started. During the early morning hours of
September 10 1921, most of downtown was covered by 2-10 feet of
water. More than 50 people lost their lives and downtown San
Antonio looked like a war zone. San
Antonians realized that before beautification projects could proceed much
further, the city had to be made safe from its River.
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Mailed on September 13, 1921 by a witness to the flooding, the back of the
card says:
Dear Folks:
We are safe after water rushing through our street 2 feet deep. The
business part is at a stand still. This is one of the business streets.
Elmer gone all week at the washouts. I sure thought our apartment would be
flooded but only up to porch.
Lovingly, Maude
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After the great flood of 1921, it took almost three years for San Antonians
to reach consensus about what should be done to control flooding. The two
largest projects were construction of Olmos Dam in a narrow gorge above the
River's headwaters, and creation of a "cutoff channel" so that floodwaters
could bypass the Great Bend in the downtown area.
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Completed in 1926, Olmos Dam was built to protect downtown San Antonio from flooding. The
back of this postcard from the 40's says the dam was constructed at a cost
of $1,571,000. Prior to construction, there was an archaeological site here that was probably the largest and most important in Bexar county (see the San Antonio Springs page for more on the prehistory of the Olmos Basin.
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When the "cutoff channel"
was proposed betwen points A and B in the graphic above, some believed it
would be a waste to let it sit empty while the "Great Bend" that meanders
close to the Alamo carried the River's normal flow. The Great Bend took up
seven acres of prime commercial territory, and real estate promoters thought
it should be filled in and the new cutoff channel allowed to carry the
River's flow at all times. San Antonians once again had to come to the
rescue of their River, and numerous civic clubs formed such a well-defined
counter-movement that city politicians clamored over each other to roundly
condemn the idea of filling the bend. Citizens also organized to defeat a
roadway that would have run parallel to the River near La Villita and
completely overhang the River in some locations. After the cutoff channel
was finally completed in 1929, attention could once again be turned to
beautification of the River, and beautiful it did become!
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This is Robert H. H. Hugman, visionary architect of the San Antonio River
Walk. His genius and determination resulted in the transformation of what
might have been a drainage culvert into an astonishing linear park. Hugman
knew that if floodgates were constructed at each end of the Great Bend, it
could be completely isolated from flooding and commercial development
could proceed at River level. In 1929, at the age of 27, he offered an
imaginative plan for development he called "Shops of Aragon and Romula".
It was patterned after old cities in Spain, where narrow winding streets
that were barred to vehicular traffic contained the best shops and
restaurants. |
Hugman's plan was heartily
endorsed by Mayor C.M. Chambers, so he began presenting it to civic and
community leaders, stressing the great commercial value it would impart to
the River. However, a prime objective of civic reformers who controlled city
hall was the hiring of a professional city planning firm to develop a master
plan for the entire city, including the River. The City Plan Committee hired
Harland Bartholomew and Associates of St. Louis, a national leader in
comprehensive city planning. Bartholomew's plan for the Great Bend area of
the River was very different from Hugman's. It was to be completely natural
and pastoral....a greenway with no commercial development at River level.
However, by the time the plan was finally finished and formally recommended
to city commissioners, the Great Depression was in full force. No action was
taken on either the Bartholomew or Hugman plan, although the city did
continue to enhance the River with new plantings and flowerbeds.
In 1936 Texas celebrated
the 100th anniversary of the Republic, and the Daughters of the Republic of
Texas made beautifying and preserving the natural charm of the River one of
their centennial projects. It sparked an affirmation of public interest in
the River. During Fiesta week, Plaza Hotel manager Jack White sponsored a
River boat parade and more than 10,000 people crowded the banks,
demonstrating that San Antonians had not lost enthusiasm for their River.
White also saw that Hugman's commercially-oriented plan presented many more
business opportunities than Bartholomew's. White organized the San Antonio
River Beautification Committee, which hired Hugman and Edwin P. Arneson to
prepare drawings for a project to submit for Works Project Administration
(WPA) funding. The plan was estimated to cost almost $400,000. The Committee
collected $40,000 from businesses along the River, secured some additional
funding from the City, and got WPA funding for the remainder in place by the
end of 1938. In 1939, after a full decade of debate and delays, work began
on Hugman's San Antonio River Walk under the Work Projects Administration.
Hugman supervised the
project for less than one year before he was fired. The Great Bend of the
River had always been mostly natural and pastoral, and powerful members of
the Conservation Society were concerned about the new look. The fresh white
limestone of the arched bridges, the concrete walkways, and the new theater
stood in sharp contrast to the natural setting that existed before.
Plantings had been temporarily removed and the channel drained, so there was
an overall barren and disheveled appearance. In January 1940 the Society
passed a resolution condemning Hugman's work as a "desecration of the
beauties of San Antonio" and sent him a letter criticizing the "excessive
stone work." Mayor Maury Maverick agreed with the critics and thought he
would force Hugman to concentrate more on landscaping by cutting his supply
of stone. When Hugman learned that materials for his project were being
diverted to another WPA project, La Villita, he collected documentation and
presented it to a judge who also sat on the River Project Board. Instead of
supporting him, the Board unanimously dismissed him. Many of the elements
Hugman intended, such as a curtain of water to screen the Arneson theater
stage, were never built.
On March 13, 1941 the Works
Progress Administration formally turned over the River Walk to the City of
San Antonio. There were 17,000 feet of new sidewalks, 31 stairways, 3 dams,
4,000 trees, shrubs, and plants, and numerous benches of stone, cement, and
cedar. An estimated 50,000 people lined the River Walk on April 21 to
dedicate the project and watch the first of what became an annual parade of
boats. Even so, Hugman's work was highly under-appreciated and mostly
deserted for several decades. Military personnel were banned from going
there, and locals believed it to be seedy and dangerous after dark. Finally,
during the HemisFair in 1968, the image of the River Walk began to be
transformed and it became an international sensation.
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A photo postcard of the River Walk shortly after it opened, showing the famous floating sidewalk and the canoes that were available for visitors in the early days. |
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The Arneson River Theatre offers a delightful setting for many colorful
events on the downtown River Walk. The audience sits on grassy terraces
carved into the opposite bank. Originally, architect Robert H. H. Hugman
intended there would be a water curtain in front of the stage. Hugman was
fired after supervising the River Walk project for less than a year and
many of his intended elements were never constructed. |
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The arched stone bridge and the "floating sidewalk" in front of La Mansion
Del Rio are two of Hugman's most famous and distinctive features. On the
opposite bank is a long row of stone arches that Hugman designed, but they
were not included in the original River Walk construction. They were
finally built in 1988 using Hugman's original plans. A project completed in 2006 involved digging underneath Crockett Street and opening up
the arches to shops and restaurants in newly dug basements of two
buildings on the other side. This created a River level entrance to the historic Aztec theatre. The flowering tree is a redbud, earliest harbinger
of spring in San Antonio. |
Today the world-famous San Antonio River Walk is
the crown jewel of Texas and a major tourist attraction. Beautifully
landscaped along its winding course through downtown, it is still most beloved
by residents of the city. For decades, the entire dry weather flow was
derived from wells in Brackenridge
Park. But in June 2000 the San Antonio Water System began augmenting
the River's flow with recycled water, allowing the wells to be cut off and
reducing potable Edwards Aquifer water use (see
Newsflash). Today the River flows stronger and cleaner than it has in decades.
Even so, the
River we stroll along now hardly resembles the tremendous flow of crystal pure
spring water that used to be here instead. The Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission and others have identified high fecal coliform bacteria
counts as a water quality concern, so contact recreation is not supported in the
San Antonio River (see TNRCC,
1996). There are many possible sources for bacteria, including sewer line leaks, agriculture, urban runoff, and wildlife. The regulatory levels for bacteria are based on risks to human health, but they are lower than what is often found in nature, so meeting them may not really be possible or desireable, unless we are going to get rid of all the birds and raccoons. For the San Antonio River, the primary source of bacteria is well known: the San Antonio Zoo. For many decades the Zoo has discharged up to five million gallons a day of water that first was used in exhibits or for washing enclosures. The very heart of the Clean Water Act is that every single discharge of water must be treated to acceptable standards and permitted before release, and no one has ever really been able to explain why the Zoo seems to be the nation's only exception. A Watershed Protection Plan completed in 2006 for the San Antonio River Authority determined that treatment of the Zoo's discharge would bring most of the upper San Antonio River into compliance with state criteria, except under periods of prolonged wet weather when bacteria loads are more influenced by urban runoff (Miertschen, et al, 2006).
Many tourists and even most local San Antonians are
unaware of the River Walk's complete extent through downtown. Most think
of the River Walk as just the "Great Bend" area where the floodgates
have allowed hotels and restaurants to develop right along the River's
banks. But the River Walk actually extends much farther. If you are
visiting San Antonio or you are a local going downtown, you owe it to yourself
to wander past the floodgates and see the rest of the River Walk. The
north section extends past the floodgate up to the Pearl Brewery, past office towers and attractions like the Southwest Craft
Center and the Museum of Art. The southern portion winds through the historic King William
district where you can stroll past many graceful 19th century mansions.
When the River
Tunnel was completed in 1997, it was thought the main channel outside the
Great Bend area would be afforded enough protection from flooding that
development could begin at River level. However, 100 year rains in October
'98 caused major flooding along the main channel and it became clear that new development right at River level along these stretches would probably not be possible.
In 2001 a long-standing property dispute between
the City and River Walk tenants appeared to be headed for a very interesting
court battle. A portion of the funds the City uses to maintain the River
Walk comes from rents charged to restaurants and bars who place tables along the
walkways and kiosks near the water's edge. Several businesses, claiming
that rates were too high and inequitable and that funds were not used for River
Walk maintenance, had not been paying rent for as long as 12 years.
Moreover, the businesses claimed they owned the land in question and they had
deeds dating back to Spanish colonial times to prove it. The City claimed
the businesses only owned land up to the edge of their buildings, since the
walkways and kiosks weren't created until the River Walk was built in
1939. There did not appear to be any way for the businesses to win, even
if they won in court, because in any event the City could simply condemn and
take any land that a jury decided belonged to the restaurants. And any
money the businesses might receive as compensation could be recovered by the
City through even higher rents. In August 2001, just before the trial was
to begin, the parties reached a deal in which the City obtained clear title to
the lands, and tenants got more equitable rents, long-term leases, and seats on
an advisory panel that would have a say in how revenues would be spent.
While it is likely the San Antonio River will
never again resemble the crystal torrent that early explorers found, significant
water quality improvements have been documented in recent years. In June of 2002
scientists from the San Antonio River Authority discovered a log perch, a darter
that is highly sensitive to pollution, in the San Antonio River below Loop
410. In this area the River is almost completely water that started as raw
sewage and was cleaned up at SAWS' Dos Rios Water Recycling
Center. Up until the late 1980s poor treatment plant operations, poor
stormwater quality, and influxes of dumped toxic materials resulted in a
"dead zone" here that extended for many miles downstream.
Officials said that finding a sensitive fish species such as the log perch
indicates SAWS' treatment plant operations have been vastly improved and
stabilized, the City's stormwater control program has been effective, and
residents have done their part by ending their dumping of anti-freeze, oil, and
household chemicals that kill fish. In recent years, in addition to the
log perch, biologists have found other sensitive species such as stonerollers
and long-eared sunfish. The River is now rated relatively highly on a
scientific index that measures biotic integrity, and biologists expect the
sensitive species to continue migrating toward the downtown area.
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This is the northern floodgate located at point "A" in the graphic above.
Closing this gate and another one at point "B" completely isolates the
Great Bend area from flooding. The bypass channel is seen beyond the gate.
One of San Antonio's best kept secrets is that walkers may turn right at
this gate and continue along the River Walk all the way to the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Pearl Brewery. Even when the Great Bend area is wall
to wall with people, the areas past both floodgates are usually very quiet and
serene and offer a peaceful stroll. |
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Tourists and residents begin lining the banks of the San Antonio River for
the annual Fiesta River Parade, a unique and dazzling event that only San
Antonio can offer. Dozens of illuminated barges wind their way down the
River past 300,000 onlookers. One of the old gondolas that used to ply the
River in the 40's is shown here. They are only brought out now for special
occasions. The gondolas are one reason San Antonio came to be known as the
"Venice of America". |
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Each Christmas season San Antonio offers its residents and visitors a
spectacular display of millions of lights along the length of the River
Walk through downtown. The lights are turned on each year the Friday after
Thanksgiving. |
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A quiet Sunday morning on the River Walk near the Casa Rio restaurant. It
was opened in 1946 by Alfred Beyer and was the first commercial
establishment at River level. It was inspired more by necessity than
devotion to the River. Beyer had an appliance store at street level, but
was losing sales to department stores. So he excavated the basement of his
store, built stairs down to the River, and opened what has remained a very
popular Mexican eatery. During excavation he discovered remnants of a
Spanish-era home which were preserved as part of the restaurant. |
In the 1960s, an ambitious plan was advanced by the San Antonio River Authority to turn the River into a barge canal. SARA was originally formed by the Legislature in 1937 as the San Antonio River Canal & Conservancy District, and their primary purpose was development of a navigable waterway connecting San Antonio with the Intracoastal Canal. To that end, they developed a visionary plan for a 150-mile straightened and deepened channel with a series of locks and dams. In the 1940s, floods forced SARA to adopt other priorities, and in the 1950s droughts brought into question whether the canal would have sufficient water. The plan languished until 1961 when SARA and powerful legislators like Henry B. Gonzalez became convinced that wastewater return flows were the answer. A US Study Commission report in 1962 concluded that San Antonio's growing population "could justify construction of a barge navigation canal", and it projected that by 2010 San Antonio would be discharging a staggering 380,000 acre-feet of water per year, more than enough to make the project viable.
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A newspaper feature on the River Canal from 1962. |
By the mid 1960s, newly completed interstate highways vastly improved transportation and made the River Canal idea seem wacky. There would be little need for trucks to offload in south Bexar county and send their cargo on a slow float to the coast when they could simply keep driving and be there in two hours. The River Canal would also have been unusable during floods, and a nationwide awakening to the environmental impacts of such projects was underway. The plan was abandoned and largely forgotten. The wastewater return flows envisioned in 1962 by the Study Commission report never materialized. Because of conservation, reuse, and limits on Edwards Aquifer pumping, San Antonio's actual 2010 discharges will likely be 120,000 - 140,000 acre-feet, only a third of the volume projected in the 1960s.
Urban development in the watersheds above
Olmos Dam has led to larger, more frequent floods in the Olmos
basin area. With more impervious cover, stream straightening, and
stream channelization, waterways are able to deliver more water
downstream faster. The Olmos Dam and the "Great Bend"
cutoff channel can no longer ensure that floodwaters won't
threaten downtown San Antonio. The San Antonio River Tunnel is
the larger and longer of two tunnels designed to protect the
downtown area by diverting floodflows 150 feet underneath the
City. It took ten years to build and was completed in December
1997 at a cost of $111 million. The tunnel is about three miles
long and passes almost directly underneath the Alamo! The inlet
shaft is 24 feet in diameter, and water enters by overflowing
from the San Antonio River. The outlet shaft is 35 feet in
diameter and is at a lower elevation than the inlet, so the
pressure of water coming in forces water out the other end, where
it reenters the San Antonio River. When not being used for flood
control, water can be recirculated through the tunnel and used to
augment the flow of the San Antonio River in the River Walk area.
The tunnel was put to the test during
record floods in October 1998, and it functioned beautifully. After the floods subsided, divers found lots of beer cans and
5" crawfish, but no damage to the tunnel.
The inlet structure is visible from Hwy 281
S. just before the Josephine St. exit at the southern tip of Brackenridge Park. The outlet structure is an engineering marvel that
is an attraction in itself! San Antonio has a second flood
control tunnel that handles floodwaters from San Pedro Creek.
By the late 1990s, the fabulous River Walk was almost 60 years old and in need of many structural repairs and improvements. An organized effort to revitalize the River began in 1998 when Bexar County, the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio River Authority created the San Antonio River Oversight Committee. Civic and neighborhood leaders were appointed to the Committee and given the responsibility of overseeing the planning, design, project management, construction, and funding necessary to complete improvement projects.
The Committee produced a bold new vision for the San Antonio River that proposed major improvements in three separate areas:
- Repairs and additions to the River Walk along the existing Downtown Reach
- A new "Museum Reach" - a vast expansion northward of the existing River Walk, from Lexington St. to the River's headwaters at Hildebrand Avenue
- Environmental restoration of a nine mile segment south of downtown to connect all the San Antonio missions with a linear park
Together, these three projects will create a River that is much more than a tourist attraction in the city's center. The vision is for a 15-mile long corridor that will serve residents with hiking and biking trails, natural retreats, new bank-level urban development, and new links to existing communities.
On January 31, 2000 a $12.5 million
project to make numerous major repairs and improvements between Houston St. and
Lexington Ave. was launched. Work involved installation of a reinforced concrete bottom in
the River, improved access from nearby streets, flood control measures, and new lighting and
landscaping. Mayor Howard Peak said "Even when this project is completed,
all the work needed on the River won't be close to being done."
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The photo at left, taken in February 2001, shows crews installing a
temporary cofferdam at McCullough Ave. to divert flows around the section
where work took place. |
September 2001: The River Link Park opens
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The River Link Park shortly after completion in 2001. |
March
2002: Refurbished Downtown Reach reopens
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The River Link Park shortly after completion in 2001 |
In the Museum Reach, 1.3 miles of overgrown and inaccessible River bottom was transformed into a vast extension of the existing River Walk. On May 30 2009, the Museum Reach officially opened. There are 25 new River access points along 3.4 miles of new walkways, along with four rest stop/overlook locations and numerous public art installations. It is hoped these improvements will be a catalyst for a vibrant urban renewal in an area of town that has traditionally been rather stark and industrial.
Previously, the River Walk ended near the Municipal Auditorium at Lexington Street, where the water ends in the above left photo. A structure across the River in that location is called the Hugman Dam. It was built as part of the original River Walk to create a constant water level elevation through town. In the construction photo above, the large black pipes were being used to deliver water to the downtown section while the upstream reach was drained for construction.
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For decades, the Hugman Dam had been obscured by brush and silt, and no one realized its beauty and craftsmanship. As much as possible was left in place; some had to be removed for boats to pass. No one really knew that in addition to functioning to maintain the water level, it had delightful stone planters built into the top. In the background, there is a tile mural created in 1931 by Ethel Wilson Harris for the private residence of Mayor Maury Maverick. It was saved from destruction by tile historian Susan Toomey Frost when the house was demolished in 1998. |
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A crowd gathers on the Brooklyn Street bridge for opening day ceremonies on May 30 2009. |
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Because of the increasing elevation from Lexington Ave. to Josephine Street, a lock and dam complex was constructed so that barges can travel from the downtown River Walk to the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Pearl Brewery. |
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Early morning on opening day of the Museum Reach. Below this area, the new Reach was constructed using limestone materials to reflect the theme of the original River Walk built by Hugman. In this area, the construction theme transitions to reflect the brick materials used on the Museum of Art. Farther upstream, a third theme uses sandblasted concrete to reflect the industrial aesthetic of the Pearl Brewery. |
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I guess you have to be a true River Walk geek to realize the concrete designs used overhead in this walkway are the same motifs used by Hugman for his sidewalk pavers on the original section. Normal people will probably walk by without noticing... |
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Construction of the Museum Reach included considerations for wildlife. This is a fish lunker, where fish may lay up underneath the sidewalk during flood events. |
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Early in the project, workers uncovered a long-forgotten dam that was built in 1883 by Alamo Flour Mills to divert River water for turning grindstones. Instead of removing it, architects made adjustments to incorporate it into the design. |
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One of the many new public art installations in the Museum Reach is this fantasy grotto by well-known faux concrete artist Carlos Cortes. Mr. Cortes is the third generation in his family to construct stunning public art displays out of solid concrete. Other well-know examples are a bridge in Brackenridge Park and a bus stop in Alamo Heights. |
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The yawning entrance to the Grotto from street level. |
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At dusk on opening night a crowd of about 300 people waited for the lights to come on inside a school of native long-eared sunfish suspended under the I-35 bridge. The art installation is called "F.I.S.H", but San Antonians will probably come up with a local name for it. |
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Above Loop 410, only one small section of the River has survived in its natural state. It is behind Mission San Juan and can be visited via an accessible trail that meanders from the Mission through the forest and down to the River. This section survived because instead of straightening and widening the natural channel, a flood control ditch was dug just to the west. The natural channel carries the normal baseflow and excess flows are diverted into the ditch in the photo below. |
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Almost all the River between downtown and Loop 410 looks like this, but the Mission Trails project will change that. Some work has already been accomplished...several miles of
wide concrete and asphalt walkways connect the San Juan, San Jose, and Espada missions. But take special care if you try to make the walk in
summer! There is little shade and the midday heat is brutal. |
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Restoration work began on a portion of the Mission Reach in 2009, but in May it was learned that costs had been grossly underestimated, and it was unclear where funding would come from. The original price of $127 is now more than $233 million. |
In June of 2009, Bexar county commissioners announced they would use flood control funds to keep work on the Mission Reach going, with the hope that congressional representatives would eventually be able to secure adequate federal funding. By August of 2009, area congressmen had secured a total of $45 million in federal stimulus funds for the project, enough to keep work going for now.
South of Loop 410, the San
Antonio River quickly becomes a wild and dangerous place with steep
banks, thick vegetation, rapids, and endless other hazards like irrigation dams and
debris. In August 2001 four visitors launched a canoe at Interstate 37 and
planned on several hours of paddling to where the River crosses Loop 1604.
Their canoe hit a rock and they ended up stranded on rotting logs and trash,
trapped by steep bluffs, their only company being snakes and clouds of
insects. Rescuers located them about 3 a.m. but the rugged terrain prevented
their rescue until after daybreak.
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This is Otilla dam, one of
many hazards on the River below Loop 410. It was built in the early 20th century to water an adjacent pecan orchard. Good luck trying to go
over it in a canoe. |
When most people think of the San Antonio River, they think of the River Walk and tourists. But below San Antonio, the River meanders across the Gulf Coastal Plain for over 150 additional miles. Along the way it supports diverse ecosystems, provides water for farms and ranches, and links the cities of Floresville, Falls City, and Goliad. It is one of the few rivers in Texas that has no major dams, so no large reservoirs have inundated the channel or adjacent lands.
In this stretch, the channel is mostly characterized by a nearly homogenous U-shape with a sandy bottom and sand or silt banks (Cawthorn and Curran, 2008). An exception is just above Falls City, where a five mile stretch of the River is underlain by a bedrock outcropping that creates a unique area with complex riffle sequences and picturesque waterfalls. Beginning south of Loop 410 and continuing to Goliad, the channel is deeply incised and there are steep banks as high as 40 feet. The depth of the channel in relation to surrounding land is the reason that Spanish missionaries never attempted to build irrigation aqueducts in this stretch as they did in San Antonio. South of Goliad, the River has lower banks and the gradient in land surface elevation lessens, so there are more meanders and a general widening as the River gently approaches the coast.
In any stream, flow is known as the "master" variable, because the timing and magnitude of flows affects everything, including habitats in the river and the riparian zone, the shape of the river channel, and water quality. "Base flow" is the part of the flow regime that represents normal flow conditions between rain events. Very little is known about what the natural flow conditons in the San Antonio River were like before Edwards wells were drilled. We have only a handful of narrative descriptions and no direct flow measurements. We know that in the first few decades after regular measurements began in 1928, flows in the River were characterized by perennial base flows that came from San Antonio and San Pedro springs, and flashy flow conditions during large rainfall events. It seems likely those conditions also prevailed when the River was in its pristine natural state. Some of the base flow volume measured in the early years probably also came from Edwards wells that were allowed to flow at all times. This was a typical practice in decades past.
As San Antonio grew, springflows became greatly reduced and non-existent in most years, flowing Edwards wells were controlled or plugged, yet base flows in the River have notably increased, especially since about 1970. It is often been supposed that higher base flows have resulted from San Antonio's treatment plant discharges. It is not really necessary to speculate about this question, because there are excellent records of treatment plant discharges since San Antonio's plants were first constructed in 1930. A careful examination of the data does not really bear out the assertion that treatment plants have caused an increase in base flow. The discharge volumes are clearly insufficient to account for the observed increase. Today's treatment plant discharges have essentially replaced springflows but have not added much additional volume beyond that. The only other explanation for higher base flows is urbanization. Today, hundreds of square miles of concrete and impervious cover result in runoff where almost none would have occurred previously. Since the urban area is so extensive, it takes days or even weeks for runoff from the upper part of the basin to reach the lower San Antonio river. These pulses of runoff have the effect of elevating base flow.
In addition to higher base flows, urban growth upstream has also meant that peak flows during flood conditions are now higher. The trends toward higher base flows and higher peak flows have both led to a general widening and deepening of the stream channel and more erosion on the banks. In turn, increased erosion has led to more Large Woody Debris (LWD) in the River that is sourced from the banks during failures or high-flow events (Bio-West, 2008). Such debris is not necessarily a detriment to aquatic habitats - it can create diverse in-channel habitats for fish and other aquatic creatures.
While LWD can actually be beneficial, the increase in base flows above natural conditions may be having negative environmental impacts. With higher flows, suspended particles are always in motion and never settle to the bottom, so silt and mud layers don't have a chance to develop. These layers are very important for a large array of organisms that form the base of the aquatic food chain, including worms, mussels, snails, crayfish, and beetles. Even so, biologists believe the San Antonio River is generally faring much better than most other Texas waterways. There has been an increase in the number of non-native species found, but the overall fish assemblage has remained relatively intact (Bonner and Runyan, 2007).
About 10 miles above the Texas coast, the San Antonio River loses its identity when it confluences with the Guadalupe River. Near Tivoli, an inflatable dam know as the Saltwater Barrier was constructed by the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority in 1965. When activated during low-flow conditions, the dam allows river flows to pass through but prevents salt water from encroaching upstream. The structure is essential to safeguarding water supplies for agricultural, industrial and municipal drinking water use.
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Higher base flows and flood flows have widened and deepened the channel and caused more erosion. This ball field in Floresville is in danger of going into the River. |
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Large Woody Debris (LWD) ends up in the River when bank failures occur and during high flow events. |
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Near Conquista Crossing there is an especially unique and sensitive area where the River channel splits into three sections. |
Conquista Bluff overlooks a historic crossing and is located on private property about three miles southwest of Falls City. A sandstone escarpment caps a thick clay layer and rises about 80 feet above River level. Because the River bottom here is bedrock instead of alluvial deposits, flows could not create a deep incision. Instead, the River widened. The flat bedrock substrate and shallow nature of the River created an ideal place for people and goods to cross before bridges were constructed. It was used for thousands of years by native tribes and later by Spanish explorers and early settlers. Current residents report that in decades past, there was a long tradition of swimming and recreation here. The site is now closed to the public. Just upstream around a horseshoe bend, Mays Crossing was another important point for crossing the River.
Old postcards are a valuable link to the everyday images of the past. They tell us a lot about what people enjoyed and valued, what they saw, and what they wanted to share with others. In the late 19th century and through the 1940s, sending and collecting postcards was one of America's most popular hobbies. The images of the San Antonio River below can be roughly divided into several categories:
There are a handful of postcards from before 1915 that show scenes of the River below downtown. These usually feature natural pastoral scenes and bridges.
Another small group of cards shows scenes downtown before any major improvements to the River. These also often feature bridges, and one scene of the Old Mill Crossing was by far the most popular.
A few postcards were produced showing the "first" (pre-Hugman) River Walk, and about this time, postcards begin to focus much more on the "built" environment of downtown, not natural scenes.
A large group of cards show scenes of the early River Walk days, and many of these picturesque scenes have remained popular until the present.
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Berg's Mill was near the San Juan mission, about eight miles south of downtown San Antonio. |
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A nice view of a railroad bridge south of town on the San Antonio River. |
While collecting these cards I have noticed that many times when one
manufacturer produced a new card, others were not to be outdone and would
produce a card of almost the exact same scene. The two below are an example
of this. Postcard manufacturers of the day
would often add or delete things from their images. Notice the postcard on
the left does not show the water tower that is in the other image. This view of the Old Mill Crossing was by far the most popular downtown scene used in postcards of the day.
On the left is yet another version of the Old Mill Crossing scene, and on the right a present-day view. It's not possible to capture exactly the same angle today - the alignment of the River channel was changed during River Walk improvements that eliminated many small curves and bends.
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Not mailed or dated, but typical of the Divided Back era of postcards that lasted from 1907 until about 1915. |
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Another view of the Old Mill Crossing, mailed on April 23, 1917. The White Border period of postcards began around 1915 and lasted until around 1930. During that time, almost all postcards had a white border around the image. |
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A very early view of the Old Mill Crossing. Card is unmailed, but it has an undivided back, which indicates it was probably produced before 1907. Contributed by Jon Mendlovitz. |
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Uses the same image as the colored version at the top of this section, but this time produced in black and white. |
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Yet another version of the popular Old Mill view, this time published by Raphael Tuck and Sons, who claimed to be "art publishers to their majesties the King and Queen" (of England, I suppose). The caption on the back says:
Thirteen miles of this picturesque river are included in its sinuous course within the city of San Antonio. Where it severs street lines, it is crossed by seventeen steel bridges; at these points the myrtle-fringed banks present many charming views. |
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Almost all the best early San Antonio postcards were produced by local bookseller and stationer Nic Tengg. This one is a very rare Real Photo card. |
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Bridges were a particulary popular subject, perhaps because they were rather new and for the first time people could cross the River without getting in it. |
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A nice Nic Tengg postcard of the Navarro St. Bridge around 1907. Buggy drivers would often stop to soak their wheels, thereby expanding the wood tight against the metal outer rim. |
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One of Nic Tengg's competitors, the Paul Koeber Co., also produced a card of the Navarro St. bridge around 1907. |
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A nice engraved card mailed in 1908. Has a sad note written by a poor fellow left alone on the bridge waiting for his love. |
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When the Old Mill Crossing finally got a bridge, postcard makers apparently couldn't help themselves and produced many additional different views of what had already been their most popular postcard subject. This card and the one below use the exact same base image. They were colored and elements added and/or subtracted to create a sunset and a daytime view. |
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The daytime view of the Mill Bridge card. |
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Never mailed. Published expressly for S. H. Kress & Co., a popular downtown drug store throughout the first half of the 20th century. Another version of the same card was published by the Acmegraph Company. |
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Jessie was a man of few words. The back of the card simply says:
Jessie to Maude April 23, 1917. |
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A view of Surkey's Sea Walls and the St. Mary's Street bridge. Mailed on August 17, 1917. |
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Another view of Surkey's Sea Walls and the type of beautification work that had been
completed in the Great Bend section prior to the great
flood of 1921. |
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Removal of the trees was contemplated after the Great
Flood of 1921. This is a rare, hand-tinted card published by Fischer's
Drug Store in San Antonio. |
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Another very rare postcard sold by Fischer's Drug Store in the 1920s. |
On March 13, 1941, the
Works Progress Administration formally turned over the completed River Walk
to the City of San Antonio. There were 17,000 feet of new sidewalks, 31
stairways, 3 dams, 4,000 trees, shrubs, and plants, and numerous benches of
stone, cement, and cedar. An estimated 50,000 people lined the River Walk on
April 21 to dedicate the project and watch the first of what became an
annual parade of boats.
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This card was produced and mailed several months before the River Walk even opened. The River is depicted here much wider than in reality, so it seems doubtful the artist ever even saw the place. |
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The Plaza Hotel itself opened in 1927 as part of large planned develoment called the Bowen Island Skyscrapers. Most of the project was never built because of the onset of the Depression. The Smith-Young Tower was the only other structure that was completed. |
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This 30 story neo-Gothic building opened in 1929 as the centerpiece of the Bowen Island Skyscrapers project. It housed a Sears & Roebuck store and office space overlooking the River. |
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In the 1940's the building was renamed the Transit Tower for the San Antonio Transit Company, which the Smith brothers purchased in 1943. Today it is called the Tower Life Building. |
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When they were new, the wonderful arched stone bridges were roundly
criticized as being too white and stark. There was not much vegetation
around them at the time. Architect Robert H. H. Hugman tried to convince
people that over time the stone would turn grey and trees would become
much bigger and the whole thing would develop an old world charm. He was
fired after supervising the project for less than one year. |
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This card shows several of the covered gondolas that traversed the River
Walk in the early days. |
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Published by the Weiner News Company, San Antonio. Cora wrote to Miss Fanny J. Amsden:
Received cards and letter, certainly was surprised at the news. Sitting on a bench on this unique walk while writing cards. Spent morning at "Alamo" so now resting for a while. |
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Another in the series produced by Weiner News Company in San Antonio. The caption on the back says:
The San Antonio River runs through the business section and is crossed by bridges 42 times. These bridges together with the beautiful landscapeing along the banks, of often called the Venice of Texas. |
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An aerial view of the San Antonio skyline in 1941 showing the River below the Great Bend. |
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The Nix Professional Building is still there and still goes by the same name. |
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US Army Private Carl W. Bingham mailed this card back home on April 14,
1943. During that week, the River Walk was used to publicize local war
bond sales. Crowds gathered below the Houston Street bridge to watch a
race of amphibious jeeps piloted on the River by US Army drivers. After
the war soldiers were welcomed home with their own boat parade. But
shortly thereafter the River Walk became a haven for vagrants and was
declared off-limits for military personnel. |
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Postcard manufacturers could not stand it if their competitors produced a very pleasing view. They would run out and produce a similar one. |
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This card is notable for its view of the old Market Street pumping station in the background, where some of the first Edwards Aquifer wells were drilled. The pump station is the three story building with gold awnings. |
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Once again, another postcard manufacturer felt obligated to produce a similar card. |
The two cards below show how
Hugman incorporated a fountain into the sidewalk, giving the feeling one is
walking across stepping stones over a brook. During a later River Walk
expansion, designers wanted to duplicate the feature but building codes and
safety concerns forced them to make it straight and add metal grates over
the openings in the sidewalk where water flows. Needless to say, the feeling
is not quite the same....
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A colorful illustration of the River during HemisFair 1968, when San Antonio hosted the first officially designated world's fair in the southwestern United States. The publicity and exposure that San Antonio got during HemisFair is widely seen as a turning point for the downtown River Walk. Previously, it was considered sort of seedy and dangerous; afterwards, it was an internationally recognized sensation. |
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Many of the structures built for HemisFair have since been demolished, but this one is still present. |
At the center of the mural above the building, there is a man and a woman and a child, and some authors have interpreted the mural as being about Adam and Eve and the creation of man. I think that interpretation is wrong. I think the mural is about the confluence of cultures that occurred here, and the child is San Antonio itself.
At opposite ends of the mural, ancient cultures in Europe and the New World are depicted, with Greeks and Romans on the right, Mayans and Aztecs on the left. Advancing toward the center of the mural, the cultures become progressively more recent. The center represents the time of contact between New and Old World. The native culture is San Antonio's mother, and Europe is his father. The baby is even holding the city's seal. |
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In the 1970s, you could rent a paddle boat and take it for a run up and down the Great Bend. |
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A 1970s view. By this time, almost all postcards were of the color photgraph type |
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A Plastichrome card mailed in 1974, showing one of the old gondolas. |
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Getting ready for the annual River Parade, an event that only San Antonio can offer. It draws up to 300,000 viewers along the River banks. |
In his 1890 book San Antonio de Bexar, William Corner ended his chapter on the San Antonio River with this engraving. |
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