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.
I was recently at Crabtree Farms of Chattanooga for an appointment. It is a large farm that harvests produce and holds annual plant sales for the community.
I arrived to the farm early, and while I was walking around, I found a beautiful planted butterfly garden at the edge of the farm. It was a photographer’s paradise.
I have been busy the past week, with interviews and appointments. This has been giving me the opportunity to visit and explore more areas.
I was at Greenway Farms, a park in Hixson, Tennessee, which is about 15 minutes from our place. It’s a large park with hiking trails, a dog park, community garden plots, and an old restored cabin.
The cabin is host to events throughout the year. While I was there, there was a type of mommy and me class happening.
The cabin was built in the 1850s by Christian Sniteman. The Snitemans were a pioneering family of the area.
It was originally tucked back into the woods, but was deconstructed and rebuilt again back out in the open.
We live near the base of Signal Mountain, a community on top of the mountain. We have driven up there a few times, and have found some new places to explore and visit. It’s a short drive up there, only a few miles, but since it goes up the mountain, there is a section with some steep hairpin curves.
We first went up the mountain when my parents visited a few weeks ago, when I had only been officially living in Chattanooga for a few days. We drove around to get a feel for the area, and checked out some shops. On the way back down, I took a video of the hairpin section, plus some of the gorgeous views.
I already have quite a few Signal Mountain related things that I would like to write about, but I thought I would backtrack and show readers the drive first.
Yesterday we went to Blowing Springs Farm, a farm that is open Fridays and weekends starting in late September through the month of October.
The farm is located just over the border of Georgia, which added another element of excitement for me. Now I can say that I’ve been to a new state. Everyone does it differently, but I do not count driving through!
The farm is mainly for families with young kids, but that has never stopped us before! However, we did see some groups with just older people too.
The main focus (and also the gift shop) of the farm is the See Rock City red barn, painted to look like a bird house. All though we have not seen any yet, there are advertisement barns all over the southeast on the sides of highways that have “See Rock City” painted on them. This particular barn is the only one you can actually see at Rock City, an attraction on top of Lookout Mountain. It will be fun to go to Rock City, hopefully sometime soon, and be able to look down and see the red barn below.
Admission is $10 per person and it includes four activity tokens. Each activity is one token. You can buy extra tokens if you want to. We picked out three activities (the ones that are more for us old folks.)
We did the corn maze, the hay ride and the critter coral.
The corn maze was bigger than I expected. At first I was disappointed because the corn stalks at the front were small and we towered over them, but once you got in the middle and towards the back, we were quite lost! They did a good job of making a lot of dead ends and turn arounds.
The critter corral had all kinds of smaller animals to pet. There were alpacas, miniature horses, donkeys, rabbits, pigs and cows. The cows had a lot of fluffy hair; they were my favorite.
The hay ride was small and short, but still nice. It entered through a back portion of the corn maze.
We also bought a pumpkin to take home at the pumpkin market. This cost extra so it did not use up tokens. I will use my leftover tokens for scrapbooking.
Some of the kid activities included a cow train, a corn sling shot, rubber duck races, and go cart races.
We had a great morning and I recommend it for anyone who’s looking to have a good fall themed outing.
See Rock City!
Inside the corn maze.
A higher up view of the corn maze and barn from a little wooden bridge.
These fluffy cows were my favorite!
Entering the corn maze on the hayride.
A little section to buy pumpkins.
A playground for the kids, with the cow train passing through in the front.
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
“Anchors” by Peter Lundberg
“Red Tree” by Ruth Midgal
“Temple Mayan” by Linda Howard
A wider view of the park and the paths, with Lookout Mountain in the background.
“The Least Amount of Space” by Jason Kimes
“Star Center” by Linda Howard
“Duke” by John Clement in the foreground, with other scattered sculptures in the background.
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.)
View of the Tennessee River from the overlook.
Sculpture Garden views
Tony’s, where we had dinner. Delicious!
A sculpture titled “Grandfather.”
This alley felt like it belonged more in Italy, not Chattanooga.
One of the inns. That front porch looks inviting!
The front of Rembrandt’s Coffee House. This is another place that we will have to check out in the future.
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.
A fennec fox. I love those long ears!
The sand cat was my favorite animal in the zoo. Looks similar to a house cat!
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.
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.
The Andrews Raiders Monument
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.
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.”
