Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Grand Prairie and Arlington to dedicate “Trail of Two Cities”

By Chad Jones

Celebrating their first city-to-city trail connection, the cities of Grand Prairie and Arlington will hold a dedication ceremony for the recently-created Fish Creek Trail this Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Guests should meet at the trail at 9:40 a.m. and park along the street of the 4400 block of Allegro Lane or the 2900 block of Largo Drive. Once there, golf carts will transport guests down Grand Prairie’s section of the trail and to the city line where mayors, city council and park board members from both cities will convene, possibly with a picnic basket or two (but don't count on it), to officially opening Fish Creek Trail to the public.

Fish Creek, dubbed as a “Trail of Two Cities” by some clever book-loving loser, provides both cities access to seven miles of a continuous and flowing concrete trail, and marks the Grand Prairie-Arlington city line underneath State Highway 360 near Green Oaks Boulevard.

After the ceremony, the official marker that will serve as the city boundary line for all of perpetuity will be a christened: a large metal medallion featuring Arlington and Grand Prairie city logos embedded under a metal archway.

Grand Prairie’s section of the trail--which includes four playgrounds, a group pavilion, 1 and 1/2 basketball courts, picnic tables and rest stops--stretches from the city line east nearly to Matthew Road. Arlington’s section, which probably has neat things too, runs from the city line west to Silo Road where it connects to Cravens Park trail, ending at the corner of Matlock Road and Cravens Park Drive.

Map of Fish Creek. Get your own.

According to Tim Shinogle, GP's park planning manager, “this trail has the potential of eventually extending into Dallas."

That's swell, but surely they realize they'll have to come up with some other, less-clever name when and if that happens.

For directions, visit www.GrandFunGP.com.

See more stories in:

• Parks and Trails
• Politics and Government > City Government > Arlington
• Politics and Government > City Government > Grand Prairie

Comments

ch0 Anonymous

Excellent article, Chad Jones. The Arlington terminus of the trail is mere feet from my home. I am looking forward to riding my bicycle along the entire length of this amalgated dual-city trail.

4 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )