DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official Bankhead Highway marker has to say, standing right here in Tarrant County. Now, before Arlington was Arlington — before it was platted, before it had a name worth puttin' on a map — there was already a road cutting through. Wagon wheels had worn that route down long before anybody got around to making it official.
They called it the Old Dallas-Fort Worth Road, and depending on which direction you were headed, folks around here knew it as the Dallas Pike east of Center Street or the Fort Worth Pike to the west. Same road, two names, and a whole lot of mud between them. The Texas Highway Department came along in 1917 — formed specifically to bring some order to the chaos of getting from one place to another in this state — and they designated that stretch the busiest highway in all of Texas as State Highway 1.
The busiest in Texas. Think about that for a moment. Then came 1920, and with it something called the Good Roads Project.
Out of that effort, the Bankhead Highway System was born — named for John Willis Bankhead — and it was designed as part of the new national auto trail system, a road meant to connect Washington, D.C. all the way out to San Diego, California. Coast to corner of the country, more or less. Now, the highway mostly followed State Highway 1, but through Arlington they chose to build along Division Street instead.
And here's where the story gets interesting. The chosen route was entirely new construction — twenty-five feet wide, eight inches thick, covering five point eight four miles from the Dallas County line to the west side of Arlington. They weren't patchin' something old.
They were layin' something new. And by design — by actual intention — they eliminated the rail crossings along the route. Including one that locals had taken to calling Death Crossing, sitting just west of town.
That name alone tells you everything you need to know about what that intersection had seen. The planners decided it would not see any more. In November of 1922, the highway was declared open to traffic.
Over time, the road grew and changed. Some of its early features didn't survive — the decorative handrail on the Johnson Creek Bridge, gone. A pedestrian underpass at the Masonic Home, gone.
In 1926, State Highway 1 was redesignated as U.S. Highway 80. Then again in 1991 as State Highway 180.
Roads, it turns out, get renamed about as often as they get repaved. But what that road did for Arlington — and for the smaller towns stretched along its route — that part stuck. The Bankhead Highway opened up business opportunities, increased commerce between east and west Texas, got automobiles moving, and brought in tourists who might otherwise have had no reason to stop.
Arlington was a small town. The marker says so plainly. And then the highway came through, and Arlington became something else entirely — a thriving community.
Sometimes all a place needs is a road that actually goes somewhere.
What the marker says
THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY, OFTEN REFERRED TO LOCALLY AS THE “DALLAS PIKE” EAST OF CENTER STREET AND THE “FORT WORTH PIKE” WEST OF THAT ROAD, PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN ARLINGTON’S FUTURE BY CONNECTING IT TO DALLAS, FORT WORTH, AND THE REST OF THE U.S. THE PIKE, FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE OLD DALLAS-FORT WORTH ROAD, WAS ACTUALLY IN USE AS A WAGON ROAD LONG BEFORE ARLINGTON WAS PLATTED. THE ROAD, NOW ABRAM STREET, BEING THE BUSIEST STRETCH OF HIGHWAY IN TEXAS, WAS DESIGNATED AS STATE HIGHWAY 1 BY THE TEXAS HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT, WHICH WAS FORMED IN 1917 TO CREATE A STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. IN 1920, AS PART OF THE “GOOD ROADS” PROJECT, THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY SYSTEM, NAMED FOR JOHN WILLIS BANKHEAD, WAS DESIGNED AS A PORTION OF THE NEW NATIONAL AUTO TRAIL SYSTEM, RUNNING FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. TO SAN DIEGO. THE ROAD MOSTLY FOLLOWED STATE HIGHWAY 1, AND WOULD BE BUILT ALONG DIVISION STREET IN ARLINGTON. THE CHOSEN SAFER ROUTE WAS ENTIRELY NEW CONSTRUCTION, 25 FEET WIDE AND EIGHT INCHES THICK, COVERING 5.84 MILES FROM THE DALLAS COUNTY LINE TO THE WEST SIDE OF ARLINGTON. BY DESIGN, RAIL CROSSINGS WERE ELIMINATED INCLUDING “DEATH CROSSING” WEST OF TOWN. THE HIGHWAY WAS DECLARED OPEN TO TRAFFIC IN NOV. 1922. OVER TIME, THE HIGHWAY HAS EXPANDED AND SOME OF ITS EARLY FEATURES NO LONGER EXIST INCLUDING JOHNSON CREEK BRIDGE’S DECORATIVE HANDRAIL AND A PEDESTRIAN UNDERPASS AT THE MASONIC HOME. IN 1926, STATE HIGHWAY 1 WAS REDESIGNATED AS U.S. HWY 80 AND AGAIN AS STATE HWY 180 IN 1991. THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY OPENED UP BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES TO MANY SMALLER TOWNS ALONG ITS ROUTE, INCREASED COMMERCE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST TEXAS, STIMULATED AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTATION, AND INCREASED TOURISM. OVERALL, THE HIGHWAY WAS A MAJOR FACTOR IN TRANSFORMING ARLINGTON FROM A SMALL TOWN TO A THRIVING COMMUNITY.