San Antonio was always a childhood destination for the family, being a mere four hours from home. Our highlight was eating at Casa Rio, established in 1946 and the first San Antonio business along what has since become the infamous River Walk.

I don't think the river walk was then what it is today, though the San Antonio River has always been an integral part of the city of San Antonio. The river itself begins some four miles north of the city in a cluster of springs in the Hill Country. It travels 139 miles southeasterly, emptying into the San Antonio Bay, on the Texas Coast near Aransas. Its length, however, is 240 miles long! That's a lot of wandering!

Even in the city, the river covers some 15 miles, even though with a scaled-down five-mile walk, one will cover the highlights of the river walk, a magical array of shady cypress trees, crossover bridges, waterfalls and elegant landscaping. The river walk is considered a city park, and, at that, one of the largest in the nation. It's open 24 hours and there is no admission fee.

After a devestating flood in San Antonio in 1921, the city realized the need for flood control and acted to establish a dam (Olmos Dam) and locks north of town. As well, they constructed 'cut off channels" at each end of the great bend, so that floodwaters would bypass that most active part of the river walk. The system also has gates such as this one , Gate 5 at Nueva Street, to hold back the water downtown. San Antonio boasts its control system because it engages three necessary concepts: detention (holding back the water), diversion (moving the water to where it does the most good) and channelization (easing its flow downstream).