The Great Divide: Bonnie and Clyde Bridge(s) of Dallas

Along the West Fork of the Trinity just west of downtown Dallas stand the remains of a once-modern road.

A muggy Summer day's adventure into downtown Dallas revealed what Bonnie Parker, partner in crime to Clyde Barrow, called "the Great Divide."

Up until recently, the west side of Dallas has not seen much love from the city of Dallas. As it stood on the flood plain of the West and Elm Forks of the Trinity River, it often found itself deluged. It was the place where "poor whites" and Mexican immigrants congregated after migrating to the big city in search of work. For a few decades, many of their men labored at the cement company, established along Chalk Hill Road in the early 20th century.

Today, West Dallas is becoming trendy. Across the straightened Trinity River channel, between downtown and the restaurant district called "Trinity Groves," now stands one of the world's collection of Calatrava bridges, marking a beautiful entrance into downtown Dallas.

But that's a more recent development. Since the 1930s, West Dallas has been associated with two infamous inhabitants -- Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Neither was born here, but they grew up in West Dallas with their families. The Barrows lived on Muncie and Eagle Ford Roads (now named Singleton Boulevard), and the Parkers lived on Chalk Hill Road, Fish Trap Road, and Lamar Avenue.

When Bonnie and Clyde paired up and wreaked havoc on the Depression-era Southwest, they still frequented West Dallas to let their kin know what they were up to. And THIS is what has always fascinated me about their story -- I'm not interested in their love affair or their crimes. Instead, I'm interested in the infrastructure they used and abused.

Modern Roads

As very young adults on the fringes of society, they took advantage of the technologies that the 1930s offered them. They stole the most powerful cars at their disposal; used a stolen police radio to circumvent law enforcement; stole military-grade weapons from army arsenals; stayed in the ubiquitous roadside motels that served the automobile-traveling public; and were savvy enough to cut phone lines while leaving the towns they robbed in attempts to avoid the consequences of their actions.

In other words, while we think of Bonnie and Clyde having lived in the past, they were thoroughly in the present when they still walked the earth. History was definitely not on their radars -- what it "old" to us now was completely modern to them. But in Texas (as in the rest of the United States), "modern" quickly becomes "old." Roadside motels become relics; cell phones replace phone lines; the police has their own military-grade weapons; their communications are now hyperlinked. And some of the roads are forgotten.

So on a muggy Summer day, my son and I took the challenge to find the road that Bonnie Parker memorialized in a poem about her and Clyde. She wrote a stanza that has always intrigued me:

From Irving to West Dallas viaduct

Is known as the Great Divide

Where the women are kin, and men are men

And they won’t stool on Bonnie and Clyde.

The "West Dallas viaduct" is now the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava. The Irving road is now part of the Campion Trail network next to the municipal golf course. The "Great Divide" is West Dallas. How did they she know where it started? 

The Bridge over the West Fork

Loop 12 now spans the West Fork of the Trinity River between Dallas and Irving. In the 1930s, an iron truss bridged the West Fork instead, wide enough for two cars to pass each other in the opposite directions. The two pillars that held up this "wire bridge" still stand in the river, and we walked the perimeter road from the end of Singleton Boulevard -- along the Trinity River levee -- to pay them a visit.

The pillars of the former iron truss bridge as seen from the top of the levee.

It was a real treat to see these pillars up close. But look at the surrounding landscape: a levee to its south and, on the north bank of the West Fork, a golf course. The road is no longer visible at the levee. Going north, the road can be still traversed as a walking path and bike trail, but after reaching East Shady Grove Road, the road just kind of disappears after it makes a feeble one-mile stretch of as Singleton Boulevard on the west side of Loop 12.

Where is the road beyond the levee? Where did it go to?

The bridge pillars stand in the West Fork of the Trinity River just east of the Loop 12 bridge between Irving and Dallas.

After returning to the car, we drove back to Singleton Boulevard and Chalk Hill Road. This intersection was the former site of Eagle Ford, a small settlement that began in the 1850s and grew into a sizeable place when the Texas and Pacific Railway came through in the 1870s, and by the 20th century, roughly the location of Cement City, the company-owned town that employed a large swath of West Dallas residents.

We saw a berm arise next to Claiburne Road. We parked, got out, and found the remnant of the road in the trees: a forgotten slice of history in the middle of booming Dallas!

Though now covered by detritus and trees, the beautiful architecture of the once-modern road that bridged the West Fork of the Trinity River in the western portion of West Dallas/ Cement City/ Eagle Ford and connected West Dallas and Oak Cliff to Irving, Sowell, Grapevine, and Denton, is a sight to behold. Just beyond this chunk of wilderness is a busy DART bus station, a community center, a very busy Union Pacific rail line, and Interstate 30.

The old road as seen looking northward towards the West Fork levee.

USGS maps reveal that this road was already in existence by at least 1891, and in the 1940s - 1950s, this portion was designated as Loop 12. By the early 1960s, a modern bridge and roadway replaced the steel truss bridge and concrete alignments, and this relatively "ancient" road way (by American standards) became the relic that it is today.

The old road was a true "Bonnie and Clyde" thoroughfare. At the creek bottoms along this road, the couple met with their families for impromptu reunions. They were ambushed by the Dallas sheriff's office along this road at Sowers, a small farming community northwest of Irving (now, Airport Freeway/TX 183 at Irving Boulevard). It was also the road they took on Easter Sunday of 1934, when they drove to Grapevine and killed two policemen.

To me, the most intriguing aspect of the road is the loss of the river that it once bridged. As Dallas County, Tarrant County, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Trinity River Authority have continued to straighten and diminish the natural route of the river, much of the West and Elm Forks of the Trinity River, over which this road traveled, have become much more narrow and unassuming.

This area, now engineered to oblivion, was the epitome of what Bonnie Parker described as "the Great Divide."

This USGS map from 1927 indicates the road as it bridges the West Fork of the Trinity River in three sections.

The 2025 map layer, superimposed on the 1927 map, shows how much of the Trinity River has been channeled and moved to control its flood plain.

MC Toyer, renowned bridge expert and a good friend, wrote this additional information about the bridge(s)! He also shared a great compilation photo. Thank you, MC!!!

"The extant concrete piers were constructed in 1913 for a 180 foot steel truss span.  It was removed about 1955 when Walton Walker / Loop 12 was completed.  The concrete bridges on the Claibourne Boulevard and Campion Trail (previously Singleton Boulevard) alignment date from about 1915 - 1925.

The original bridge near that site was constructed about 1885-1888.  It was an iron Pratt truss on tubular iron piers (the remains of which can be seen in the channel at low water - see photos)  with an iron stringer approaches  and wooden decks.

Present east-west Singleton Boulevard was known as the Eagle Ford Pike prior to 1940 or 41.  The northwestward leg (present Claibourne / Campion Trail) was the Coppell Pike.

Both bridges were constructed on the original West Fork channel.  After the levees were constructed ca 1928-29, driving up and over the south levee was required.  There was not a levee on the north side."