Chattanooga – Page 7 – Seeing the Scenic City

Walnut Street Bridge

The Walnut Street Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that spans the Tennessee River in Chattanooga.

It starts on one side at Coolidge Park, and ends on the other side near the Bluff View District and Aquarium.

Walking the bridge was one of the local activities I had wanted to do the most, but we waited a while until it got cooler out.

The bridge was completed in 1891 and it is one of the world’s longest pedestrian bridges. It initially was open to vehicle traffic, but then was discontinued in use in the 1970s. It was restored and reopened in 1993.

There is some dark history surrounding the bridge too. In the 1890s, two black men were lynched on the bridge.

When we were on the bridge on a Friday morning, there were lots of people out and about. There were families, couples, tourists and exercisers.

The bridge seems large when it’s looming overhead, but once you’re actually up there walking across, it doesn’t seem so long. Going one way took about maybe 15 minutes, and we stopped to take a bunch of photos.

First impressions of Chattanooga

I have officially been a Chattanooga resident for over two weeks, in addition to the week and a half I spent here throughout August, with one foot in Tennessee, and the other foot in Texas.

I’ve been thinking about the differences between Chattanooga and Houston, and my first impressions of the area, which has grown into a long list.

Even though we moved up north, I feel more in the “south.” Everyone is so friendly, there is a church on every corner, and most everyone I came across in the first few days had an accent.
Grits, grits and more grits! In Houston, I had to make a specific trip to Target when I wanted to stock up, and even then they only had the Quaker Instant kind. At our new local store, Food City, there was a whole shelf dedicated to different kinds of grits, including homemade kinds. Grits are on just about every restaurant menu I’ve seen, and I’ve bought them at the Chattanooga Market too.
The mountains are gorgeous. I don’t think I will ever tire of looking at them. When I left Food City that first morning after we moved in, Signal Mountain loomed over me on the drive home, and I was in awe.
Another Food City related thought: The check out system is different. The cashier takes your cart and unloads it for you on their side. I watched this happening with the customer in front of me and at first I couldn’t figure out who was the cashier and who was the customer. I think my confusion showed because the cashier explained it to me. I told her I was new to the area and then her and the bagger both gave me recommendations for things to do in the area. How friendly!
There isn’t any Chattanooga traffic to speak of, except for some areas that get a little backed up due to construction. We are driving the same amount of miles to get to places (no more than 10-15) but the drive times are shorter.
It is a lot easier to get around in Chattanooga and gain a sense of direction. After three years in Houston we were still largely unfamiliar with the city.
It still feels just as hot as Houston does, but the mornings and evenings are cooler. It is also less humid too, which is doing wonders for my hair, haha.
It is quiet here at night. Almost too quiet. It is strange to not hear the Metro whistle, cars whizzing by, and the occasional loud group of people walking on the sidewalks.
I love the Civil War history everywhere! We have explored a lot of downtown and riverfront areas, and there are plaques everywhere, detailing what happened over 150 years ago.

Sculpture Fields

Derek teaches a night class, and I’m at home for now until I find a job, so we have the morning and the early afternoons together. It’s nice that he has the time to spend with me, instead of when he was a busy student at the University of Houston, so we try to put most mornings to good use.

Last week I looked online for free things to do in Chattanooga, and we found Sculpture Fields at Montague Park.

According to sculpturefields.org, the park is 33 acres, and is the largest sculpture park in the Southeast. There are a couple of paths that go around over 40 large sculptures.

With both of us having art backgrounds, it was a place that we both enjoyed visiting

Sculpture Fields1 — “Anchors” by Peter Lundberg

Sculpture Fields2 — “Red Tree” by Ruth Midgal

Sculpture Fields4 — “Temple Mayan” by Linda Howard

Sculpture Fields5 — A wider view of the park and the paths, with Lookout Mountain in the background.

Sculpture Fields16 — “The Least Amount of Space” by Jason Kimes

Sculpture Fields19 — “Star Center” by Linda Howard

Sculpture Fields25 — “Duke” by John Clement in the foreground, with other scattered sculptures in the background.

Chattanooga Market

Chattanooga has quite a few farmer’s markets. Each one is held on a designated day and location. The Chattanooga Market is held each Sunday from April to November at the Tennessee First Pavilion.

During our previous three years in Houston, I yearned for community type events such as these markets. While living in Pennsylvania, we alternated back and forth from the Mansfield Grower’s Market and the Wellsboro Farmer’s Market. I found one such labeled market in Houston that was each week during lunch time in front of City Hall. We went once, and left disappointed. It was less of a market, and more so food trucks and pop up booths from restaurants set up for downtown workers to grab a quick bite.

The Chattanooga Market exceeded my expectations. It is very large with hundreds of vendors. According to publicmarkets.us, “The Chattanooga Market is a producer-only market. Vendors have made it, baked it, grown it or sewn it themselves.”

The front half of the Market is produce, and the back half of the Market is crafts. Some mainstay purchases of ours have become honey, grits and apple cider. A local apparel store also sets up there, and I picked up a few t-shirts. Not to be missed is the Frios Gourmet Pops cart, which was a hit for everyone in the family. Mom got a coconut popsicle, Dad and Derek got blueberry cheesecake, and I got pink lemonade. We also picked up mini pumpkins and squash to decorate our front walkway. In the back of the market is always some kind of entertainment stage with a bunch of seating.

I have already made note of a lot of things I would like to buy for myself once I am working. Mom and dad also oohed and ahhed at some booths too. You could easily do Christmas shopping for your whole family there.

While the Market season ends in November, it moves indoors for three weeks for a special holiday market. I am looking forward to that!

Bluff View Art District

The Bluff View Art District is a small section of Chattanooga next to the Tennessee River, filled with historic homes.

There are a few inns, art galleries, restaurants, a bakery and a coffee shop, to name a few, and there are sculptures scattered throughout the properties. There is also a sculpture garden as well.

We ended up at Bluff View because I picked out Tony’s Pasta Shop and Trattoria, an Italian restaurant, for my belated birthday dinner. The reviews are in and Tony’s will become a favorite place for us. I had the shrimp scampi, and there was plenty more on the menu that I want to try. The portions and prices were both reasonable. I recommend making a reservation though! The place was packed, but that is always a good sign.

While waiting for our name to be called for a table, we took a quick walk to the sculpture garden and the bluff overlook. After dinner, we walked around the entire district (it’s only 1.5 blocks.)

Chattanooga3 — View of the Tennessee River from the overlook.

Chattanooga18 — Tony’s, where we had dinner. Delicious!

Chattanooga30 — A sculpture titled “Grandfather.”

Chattanooga19 — This alley felt like it belonged more in Italy, not Chattanooga.

Chattanooga24 — One of the inns. That front porch looks inviting!

Chattanooga27 — The front of Rembrandt’s Coffee House. This is another place that we will have to check out in the future.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a beautiful campus. Most of the buildings, with an exception of a few modern ones, are brick with gorgeous details. It looks quite like Hogwarts.

The art building is in the middle of renovations, with an expected completion date in a year and a half, so Derek and his colleagues are in a temporary setting, the Collins Annex. It’s at the edge of campus, and interestingly enough, there is a Confederate Cemetery right across the street.

Here is a pictorial tour of the campus.

UTC1 — The gate to Chamberlain Field. This field used to be the old football field. The last game was held in 1997. Now the football team plays at an off site stadium. The field was preserved for students to enjoy.

UTC3 — Chamberlain Field with the library in the background.

UTC19 — A view from the front of the library. A Starbucks is to the right in the background.

UTC12 — Race Hall on the left, Hooper Hall on the right. This is one of my favorite buildings.

UTC9 — A lot of the buildings have beautiful detail work around the doors and windows.

UTC47 — The University’s alma mater. I geeked out when I found out that the song mentions the Civil War battle.

UTC30 — There are multiple brick houses around campus like this one that hold different offices.

UTC28 — The Alumni offices house. Can I live there?

UTC46 — The buildings that are temporary holding the art department offices, and some of the classrooms. Some of the art classes are scattered in other buildings around campus.

UTC42 — The Confederate Cemetery across the street from Derek’s building.

Chattanooga Zoo

The first thing my parents and Derek and I all did together during their visit was go to the Chattanooga Zoo.

It is a small zoo, but it still has a large variety of animals, some that I have never seen before at any zoos.

They are missing some of the bigger, and my favorite animals, the lions and tigers, but that is okay. I saw banners around the zoo saying that there is an expansion in progress for an African section, which will bring in giraffes and lions.

They did have plenty of other cats, which I all love, including cougars, a serval, a sand cat (which ended up being my favorite), jaguars and a snow leopard. The leopard was either out of his exhibit or hiding well when we checked out its area, but I am sure I will be back in the future.

The animals that I haven’t seen before included the sand cat, and fennec foxes, which also became another favorite.

We walked around and saw the whole zoo in about two hours. I recommend it to anyone who visits the Chattanooga area.

Chattanooga Zoo27 — A fennec fox. I love those long ears!

Chattanooga Zoo43 — The sand cat was my favorite animal in the zoo. Looks similar to a house cat!

Officially here

I left Houston on September 12, and I am now in Chattanooga for good.

I drove “home” for the last time on Thursday, and my parents drove from Maryland to visit us for a long weekend. We have not seen them for a year and a half. Driving to Tennessee is much easier than driving all the way to Texas.

Over three days, we saw and did a lot, some of which Derek and I had already done together in the previous month, but some things were new as well.

Some things that we did and went to included the Chattanooga Zoo, Coolidge Park, the carousel at Coolidge Park, explored the town of Signal Mountain and Signal Point park, Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, explored UTC’s campus, the Chattanooga Market, Moonpie General store and Clumpies Ice Cream.

Instead of posting hundreds of photos in one long post, please look for individualized posts about some of these places in the near future.

My parents’ first impression of the city was a good one. My dad said to me, “I think we are going to have a lot more fun here than we did in Houston.” Nothing against Houston, of course. I believe that Chattanooga is just a better fit for all of our interests.

In our exploring, we also discovered some things that we would like to do in the future. We would like to do a dinner or lunch cruise on the Southern Belle River Boat, go to the Tennessee Aquarium, Rock City and Ruby Falls. Mom and dad are closer now, so there will not be years between visits. I am sure Derek and I will also do these things on our own as well.

We had a good three days, but in the meantime, now I have to get back to “work.” Derek and I spend the mornings together, and when he leaves for work, I do chores around home, and apply for jobs. Hopefully something works out soon.

Civil War history at the Chattanooga National Cemetery

We walked around the Chattanooga National Cemetery on Friday. The cemetery was established in 1863, as a place to bury Union Civil War soldiers after the Battles of Chattanooga.

It was a beautiful, somber place. We have been to Arlington National Cemetery, and it felt similar, yet different because of the surrounding mountains.

We made a special stop to see the Andrews Raiders Memorial, which features a bronze statue of The General locomotive, featured in the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862.

From Wikipedia: “The Great Locomotive Chase, or Andrew’s Raid was a military raid that occurred on April 12, 1862, in northern Georgia during the American Civil War. Volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James J. Andres, commandeered a train, The General, and took it northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, doing as much damage as possible to the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad line from Atlanta to Chattanooga as they went. They were pursued by Confederate forces at first on foot, and later on a succession of locomotives, including The Texas, for 87 miles.

Because the Union men had cut the telegraph wires, the Confederates could not send warnings ahead to forces along the railway. Confederates eventually captured the raiders and quickly executed some as spies, including Andrews; some others were able to flee. Some of the raiders were the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor by the US Congress for their actions. As a civilian, Andrews was not eligible.”

I had only vaguely known about the Locomotive Chase up until this point. I am enjoying living in a new area, and learning about its history.

Chattanooga National Cemetery18 — The Andrews Raiders Monument

Chattanooga National Cemetery17 — Some of the men who were executed for their part in the Andrews Raid. They all have the same death date as June 18. The light blue flag means they are Medal of Honor recipients.

Chattanooga National Cemetery19 — A front facing shot of the Andrews’ Raiders monument. In this photo, in the bottom left, you can see the headstone for James J. Andrews, who lead the raid. It is labeled “civilian.”

Chattanooga Choo Choo

“Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?
Track twenty nine! Boy you can gimme a shine
Can you afford to board a Chattanooga Choo Choo?
I’ve got my fare and just a trifle to spare
You leave the Pennsylvania station ’bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and then you’re in Baltimore
Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham ‘n’ eggs in Carolina
When you hear the whistle blowin’ eight to the bar
Then you know that Tennessee is not very far
Shovel all the coal in, gotta keep it rollin’
Woo, woo, Chattanooga, there you are…”

I quickly learned the words to Glen Miller’s Chattanooga Choo Choo when I found out that we were moving to Chattanooga! My dad loves trains (he works as a breakman on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad as a retirement job) and he instilled that love in me. Seeing the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel was at the top of my to-do list in Chattanooga.

The hotel is in an old train terminal building which was built in 1906. It was supposed to be demolished, but it was saved and restored. Now, it is a beautiful hotel, and much more. There are shops and restaurants attached with a garden out back, and of course, the famed “Choo Choo.”

We explored the grounds this morning, and had brunch in the Frothy Monkey, which is a coffee shop attached off the lobby. It was a great morning. My parents are coming to visit in a few weeks, and I’ll be glad to get the chance to go back again so soon.