We had a chance to visit the San Antonio River Walk. It is next door to the Alamo. Two Texas icons in downtown San Antonio. The history of this place is fascinating. In 1921 a storm hit San Antonio so hard and decimated the city. The city built the Olmos Dam to assist with potential flooding. In 1929 a young architect named Robert Hugman had an ingenious idea. Not only did he help solve the flooding problem, he created an aesthetic that would incorporate culture and retail.
Money, of course, was the villain and Hugman’s idea sat around for years. Work finally started in the late 1930s with federal Depression money, and the River Walk opened around 1941.
For a while it was a quiet little place. Then in 1968 San Antonio hosted the world’s fair, and suddenly the River Walk had hotels, extensions, and a captive audience of people who had come to see the future. Robert Hugman died in 1980, but he was so proud of his design and died a happy man. Today over 11 million people visit the San Antonio Riverwalk each year, coupled with the Alamo, this is the #1 attraction in all of Texas.