Driving down Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth is like flipping through the pages of an old photo album, each brick a snapshot of the past century—a sentiment echoed by locals passionate about preserving the historic thoroughfare. According to the City of Fort Worth, Lydia Guajardo Rickard, executive director of Camp Bowie District, remarked on the complexity of maintaining a road that’s both a slice of history and a modern-day essential, saying, “It’s a balance of preserving our past while planning for our future.”
The nostalgia-inducing 3-mile stretch, famously known as ‘The Bricks’, has withstood weather extremes from heavy rains to tornadoes and even a tornado in March 2000, but the most challenging feat is the everyday wear and tear from increasing traffic this artery faces handling overflow from congested Interstate 30 on one hand, it’s no easy task to keep up with maintenance without losing the heart and soul of what makes this street special, the question of whether to maintain the original bricks or replace them still hangs in the air.
The thoroughfare isn’t just an ordinary street; it’s embedded with secrets like the hidden rails of the Camp Bowie Streetcar under its center medians—remnants of a former trolley system that once shuttled residents between Camp Bowie and downtown Fort Worth. Rickard revealed in an interview with the City of Fort Worth, “In the Ridglea area by Horne Street to Bryant Irvin Road, there’s [Thurber] brick under the concrete,” which spells potential trouble for road integrity as the Texas Department of Transportation gears up for future construction projects…