World War II Railroad Remanent Given New Life As Future Fort Worth Trail Connection

Arlington TX

25 May, 2022

3:32 PM

Description

By Sandra Sadek, Fort Worth Report May 24, 2022 An abandoned strip of land that the federal government used as a railroad line to carry bombs during World War II is about to receive a new mission: Joining Fort Worth's growing network of trails. Seven miles of overgrown land running behind homes in the Bomber Heights neighborhood and crossing Interstate 30 and State Highway 183 will become the Bomber Spur trail. It will connect the Clear Fork and West Fork trails of the Trinity River and create connections between Las Vegas Trail, the Joint Reserve Base and Lockheed Martin among other nearby neighborhoods. "It supports access to jobs, connections to schools. It's a multi-faceted project and the connection is made easier because there is that abandoned railroad line that is, for all practical purposes, still extremely visible and impinged by other development," said Stacey Pierce, executive director of Streams & Valleys, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving and advocating for the Trinity River. In the 1940s, the federal government used eminent domain to take the 37 tracts to create a supply chain railroad line from the existing major rail lines. That Bomber Spur railine connected the Convair Bomber Plant and the Carswell Air Force Base. Today, the plant is where Lockheed Martin is located and the base is now the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.