Down to the River Walk

You're at North Saint Mary's Street, and just below the traffic, one full level down, the San Antonio River is sliding past in its green loop. Find the stone staircase that takes you down there, and look at the bald cypress trees along the banks. Some of their branches reach up past street level. A few of those trees are several hundred years old. The walkway around them is not even a hundred.

In September 1921, this river flooded downtown San Antonio. Fifty-one people died, and more were reported missing. The city wanted to make sure it never happened again, and the engineers had a tidy answer. Build a dam upstream, cut a bypass channel across this bend of the river, then pave the bend over and turn it into a storm sewer. The water you're looking at would have run in the dark, under concrete.

You've come down off the street near North Saint Mary's Street, and you're now one level below the traffic, beside the San Antonio River. Look up at the big bald cypress trees along the banks. Some of their branches stretch ten stories, high enough to be seen from the street above you. Some of these trees were planted when this walk was built. Others are several hundred years old.

This river has a haunting, though not the kind the ghost tours sell. In September 1921, this quiet green river rose into a flood that took 51 lives. Another 23 people were reported missing.

The city's plan was to build a dam upstream and dig a bypass channel. Then it would take the great bend of the river through downtown, the stretch you're standing on, pave over it, and turn it into a storm sewer.