Is Lerdo Street sandwiched between an alley and the U.S. 77 Frontage Road one of the shortest streets in the city?
Although there are other short streets along the frontage road, this one comes close to the thin edge of a wedge that ends at the parking lot of the law office and congressional HQ of Filemon Vela Jr. near the Ebony Street/Frontage Road intersection. The roads on this section of the city all along the frontage road were named after Mexican figures all the way to the McDonald's at the opposite side.
We tried to speak with someone (anyone) at the City Engineer's office all day Friday to no avail. The city dispatcher tried several times to connect with someone there but no one was in the office. Or perhaps they took off early for the weekend. Who can tell?
We walked off the distance between stop signs (from the alley to the frontage road and we marked all off 28 steps. Now, we're not big people, so if we multiply that by 3 feet (give or take a few inches) we get 84 feet.
The Google maps show that another street just north of this stretch also bears the name of Lerdo, so we don't know if both stretches are part of the same street. This reminds us of a publication printed a few decades ago that spoke of the laying out of the city using the names of presidents except that between Lincoln and Taylor someone inserted Ringgold, a president we don't remember.
But that's about par for the course in Browntown, though. Take, for example, E. 11th and 12th streets. Eleventh Street appears to come to a halt at the doors of the Brownsville Herald on Van Buren Street. Twelveth Street seems comes to an inglorious end on Arthur Street.
But 11th and 12th streets don't really end there. Ask the guys at the U.S. Post Office. They reemerge several miles away on the north side of South Padre Island Highway off Portway Street.
For all we know, there may be shorter streets than Lerdo in the city, but we admit we don't know which one.
Lerdo, by the way, was the Mexican president (Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada) who succeeded Benito Juarez and was deposed by dictator Porfirio Diaz. Diaz, coincidentally, was in Brownsville at the invitation of the Stillman family and was allowed to use the Stillman House on Washington Street in his unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Juarez by fomenting revolution in Tamaulipas before his forces were routed by a Mexican army.
8 comments:
Stillman was a Chaquetero. He played both sides.
Like Montoya does
This article was more interesting than I thought it would be.
Stillman's monument to Brownssville is his Shack being "remodeled" in front of the Federal Court House .
When you house the man who was to be a dictator for over 30 years and abetted him in an attempt to overthrow the greatest of all Mexican Presidents, you are much more than a Chaquetero. You are evil personified. Juarez and Cardenas are the only two decent leaders Mexico has ever had.
Get some real news who cares....
Viva Lázaro Cárdenas and Benito Mussolini !
It's a short street for a reason. This way,the city can save money on paving costs.
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