Wow, thank you for this 'blast from the past'! I remember this all too well. I moved to Phoenix with my family in 1974 and started attending ASU in 1977 until 1982. I was in the school of Broadcasting and Journalism. I remember commuting from East Phoenix every school day with my friends and sometimes alone. This photo looks so familiar! I remember those '100-year' floods now fondly! 😊 Now I'm in Seattle...we'd laugh at this here!
Hi Michael - glad you liked it! Looks like we were there at the same time. A lot has changed in Tempe, and if any young person thinks that I might be making this up, I know that you'll confirm that it really happened. What amazed me as a kid from Minneapolis is how casually people in Arizona seemed to take this, apparently the locals weren't impressed, like the way that people in California seemed to just shrug off earthquakes, or people in Minneapolis shrug off several feet of snowfall!
True that. And it was awful. I lived in the East Valley where we used to drive through the river bottom on Gilbert Road to get to beeline. I worked off Pima Road in Scottsdale. Lol 20 minutes from Usery Pass turned into an hour crossing over the Blue Point bridge. They did also open up passenger rail traffic on the old RR Bridge on Hayden. It was nicknamed the Sardine Express because the people were packed. They've also raised all the dams on the Salt River System since the floods.
Nice! Yeah, it sounds like every generation since the platting of Phoenix in 1870 has had flood stories, and it's only stopped in recent decades - to the point where a lot of young people can't even imagine Phoenix flooding. And as an old Minnesota boy what really surprised me about the people in Phoenix is how casual they were about driving along the bottom of a river, which they called a "river bottom", not "river bed", like people who were used to rivers like the Mississippi, which were always filled with water (my experience).
Yep! And I don't blame people for not believing it, the flooding in Phoenix has been controlled very a very long time, but it used to be awful, just like in Los Angeles
I had classes at ASU and the Mill ave bridge was the only open crossing if the salt river. This meant waiting on Curry road for hours in the dark just to cross the river. That second bridge was also destroyed by rapid water flowing down the salt during its construction in '93?
Yes, I remember this also, but the dates escape me. Definitely early 90’s. When they were building the north-bound (new) bridge, it was swept away during a flood before it was complete. Had to get to ASU via I-10 and that snarled traffic for a while.
Thank you for commenting on this post! If you enjoyed this, please click the "like" button, be sure to subscribe to this RUclips channel, and follow my blog historyadventuring.com
This sounds a bit pedantic but the local term for a river bed is "the river bottom". As a long time resident, I'm sure you know that. Sorry, I can't help myself sometimes!
Thank you for commenting on this post! If you enjoyed this, please click the "like" button, be sure to subscribe to this RUclips channel, and follow my blog historyadventuring.com
Thank you for commenting on this post! If you enjoyed this, please click the "like" button, be sure to subscribe to this RUclips channel, and follow my blog historyadventuring.com
Memory lane. I was in HS during both back to back floods. We went tubing, a bit scary but fun. No I-10 freeway or any other except the black canyon. I miss that AZ.
Glad I took pictures of this. I went to ASU at the time. Great times.
Very cool!
Wow, thank you for this 'blast from the past'! I remember this all too well. I moved to Phoenix with my family in 1974 and started attending ASU in 1977 until 1982. I was in the school of Broadcasting and Journalism. I remember commuting from East Phoenix every school day with my friends and sometimes alone. This photo looks so familiar! I remember those '100-year' floods now fondly! 😊 Now I'm in Seattle...we'd laugh at this here!
Hi Michael - glad you liked it! Looks like we were there at the same time. A lot has changed in Tempe, and if any young person thinks that I might be making this up, I know that you'll confirm that it really happened. What amazed me as a kid from Minneapolis is how casually people in Arizona seemed to take this, apparently the locals weren't impressed, like the way that people in California seemed to just shrug off earthquakes, or people in Minneapolis shrug off several feet of snowfall!
True that.
And it was awful.
I lived in the East Valley where we used to drive through the river bottom on Gilbert Road to get to beeline. I worked off Pima Road in Scottsdale. Lol 20 minutes from Usery Pass turned into an hour crossing over the Blue Point bridge.
They did also open up passenger rail traffic on the old RR Bridge on Hayden.
It was nicknamed the Sardine Express because the people were packed.
They've also raised all the dams on the Salt River System since the floods.
Nice! Yeah, it sounds like every generation since the platting of Phoenix in 1870 has had flood stories, and it's only stopped in recent decades - to the point where a lot of young people can't even imagine Phoenix flooding. And as an old Minnesota boy what really surprised me about the people in Phoenix is how casual they were about driving along the bottom of a river, which they called a "river bottom", not "river bed", like people who were used to rivers like the Mississippi, which were always filled with water (my experience).
Not a Flood. It is water running down the Salt.
Yep! And I don't blame people for not believing it, the flooding in Phoenix has been controlled very a very long time, but it used to be awful, just like in Los Angeles
I had classes at ASU and the Mill ave bridge was the only open crossing if the salt river. This meant waiting on Curry road for hours in the dark just to cross the river. That second bridge was also destroyed by rapid water flowing down the salt during its construction in '93?
Yes, I remember this also, but the dates escape me. Definitely early 90’s. When they were building the north-bound (new) bridge, it was swept away during a flood before it was complete. Had to get to ASU via I-10 and that snarled traffic for a while.
Thank you for commenting on this post! If you enjoyed this, please click the "like" button, be sure to subscribe to this RUclips channel, and follow my blog historyadventuring.com
This sounds a bit pedantic but the local term for a river bed is "the river bottom". As a long time resident, I'm sure you know that. Sorry, I can't help myself sometimes!
Thank you for commenting on this post! If you enjoyed this, please click the "like" button, be sure to subscribe to this RUclips channel, and follow my blog historyadventuring.com
River bottom.
Thank you for commenting on this post! If you enjoyed this, please click the "like" button, be sure to subscribe to this RUclips channel, and follow my blog historyadventuring.com
Memory lane. I was in HS during both back to back floods. We went tubing, a bit scary but fun. No I-10 freeway or any other except the black canyon. I miss that AZ.