October 18. 2014. Harper, Texas. Foresight.

The main street through the center of Fredericksburg is very wide. Four lanes of traffic plus an angled lane for parking on each side allows the traffic to flow. What interest me is that the good folks who laid out the town in the mid 19th century planned for the width. The old buildings on either side of the street have not been moved since they were built. I always wonder what the founding fathers were thinking. Did they think their town would become a city so the wide streets would be needed for heavy traffic? Winnipeg, Manitoba is the only city I have seen that originally, had their downtown streets made wide enough to allow a modern traffic flow. The streets are so wide that you must hustle to walk across with the change of the lights, but it has also allowed the city planners to avoid bulldozing buildings to allow for wider streets. The down town streets were always 8 lanes wide. Their city fathers knew that Winnipeg would one day become a major city and a gateway to the west. Actually, when Fredericksburg was first started in 1846, right in the center of their wide street they built their church so folks coming from either directions would not miss the church. The church stayed in place until the 60's when it was moved to a park area which houses all the festivals. It is still astonishing to me at the foresight of these good folks, all those years ago.