Think this Fort Worth intersection is a nightmare now? It’s been dangerous for 100 years.
If you haven't had an accident at this intersection yourself, you probably know or have seen someone who has. Automobile traffic has always been dangerous, in some places more so than others. One intersection that always ends up on the list of the city's most troublesome or dangerous is the complicated confluence of West Seventh Street, Camp Bowie Boulevard, University Drive, and Bailey Avenue.
This cobweb of an intersection came together in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. First was West Seventh Street extending west from downtown and across the Trinity River.
It connected with Arlington Heights Boulevard (parts of which were previously called the Weatherford Road), which linked Fort Worth with the suburb of Arlington Heights, first developed in 1890. An 1892 map shows this east-west road in place.
Arlington Heights Boulevard became known as Camp Bowie Boulevard shortly after the United States entered World War I, and the Army set up a training camp on vacant Arlington Heights land.
The north-south street – now University Drive – was originally a stubby road with two names: Purvis Road to the north (with a bridge that crossed to the North Side as early as the 1880s) and Burleson Avenue to the south. It originally dead-ended at what is now Lancaster, but was extended to its present length in the late 1930s.
Bailey Avenue joined the web in about 1909, when William J. Bailey platted a plot of land south of his home at 3401 White Settlement Road. He connected his home to the larger intersection under discussion by means of a short diagonal road – one that still confuses motorists heading north on University Drive.
Automobiles enter the scene
All of the streets in the intersection were in place by about 1910, before there were a lot of automobiles on the road. That began to change during the teens. Two automobile plants opened in Fort Worth – Chevrolet in 1916 and the Texas Motor Car Co. in 1919. Camp Bowie brought lots of vehicles to transport soldiers and supplies. Still, traffic wasn't extremely heavy.
However, traffic rules hadn't kept up with the times. Entering an intersection with a horse and buggy was far different from driving a car through one. The first mention of "dangerous intersections" in the local newspaper was in 1922. At this point, there were no stop signs or traffic lights. Traffic cops did direct drivers, but almost all of them were downtown.
Also in 1922, the City of Fort Worth turned down an offer for 100 "free" safety signals to be placed at dangerous intersections. The reason? The signs would have carried advertising. One alderman, who wanted to accept the signals, said that signs reduced accidents by as much as 75% when they were used at an intersection.
Accidents abound
A 1938 story featuring Fort Worth's most dangerous intersections highlighted the West Seventh, Camp Bowie, and University Drive intersection, calling it a "death corner." An average of 21,000 vehicles entered the intersection every day, and the reported that there had been 11 major accidents during a nine-month period. The featured the 1938 intersection photograph shown above.
A few years later, the intersection was still called the most dangerous in town. The City of Fort Worth responded in 1940, installing an innovative traffic light suspended from the center of the intersection. Police started issuing regular reports about the deadliest intersections, and they helped raise awareness and save lives.
Still, with more cars on the road, accidents and fatalities increased. In June 1950, police traffic Capt. R. E. Dysart said Fort Worth had one of the worst traffic records in the state and nation, with 21 people killed so far that year. One of the biggest problems at the Camp Bowie and West Seventh intersection was head-in parking at a beloved doughnut shop between Bailey and University, where the post office now stands, and the old Loring Motel.
In 1960, the intersection still placed in the "most dangerous" category, though it only ranked fifth, with 21 reported accidents. So, what do you do if traffic signals, speed limits, and enforcement don't work? You rebuild the intersection. That took place in 1966, and head-in parking was one of the things eliminated.
For a few years, the intersection dropped from the list of most dangerous crossings, but gained another ignominious accolade: longest traffic lights. In 1978, the Bank of Fort Worth put up an 84-word billboard advertising various bank services. Jim Tinkle called it, "the world's wordiest sign for impatient motorists to read while waiting for creation's longest traffic light."
The intersection was redesigned again in 2000, to create a gateway to the Cultural District.
There are still hiccups about which lane to be in to go north on University versus making a left turn onto Bailey. Despite the directional signs, people are confused. Traffic is still heavy, and drivers are sometimes under the influence of either drink or drugs as they head home from the West Seventh entertainment district.
With lots of cars and lots of people, it's still a dangerous place, and may always be so.
