Week and every weekend, on cspan 3. We are standing on the historic part of the San Antonio River walk, which is developed into one of the worlds great linear parks. Its not something that started out to be this back in the 1700s when san antonio was first established, this was the major source of water for the residents of the city. There were various sake he has an irrigation dishes dishes that came from it and furnished water to the growing community. As a city grew the railroad came in this sundays the population exploded, gravity driven Water Systems just werent working. They couldnt get water to run over a hill. And so a new water system was established with protection wells, which one drilled into the ground, which the water on the ground and lower the water table. So the senate on your river was frequently going dry. At that point, in 1914, the city created a park through downtown along what was to be the walk and it was to be a park in plannings and not too much else. Which was here for about 25 years until with the wpa, and the project was initiated to develop the river walk. An architect by the name of robert hartman. He came up with a design that would give a fanciful appearance to the area, that would include shops and boats and colorful walkways that would dress up the river. Which did all right, except that nobody came down to the river walk, and it became dangerous. It was not until san antonios worlds fair chemistry fair in 1968 that enough hotels were built on the river walk to generate a strong pedestrian traffic Strong Enough to support businesses, which happened. And all of a sudden there was a lot of commercial development. And the river walk became successful as we know it. But being below the level of the street, its warmer down here. We have essentially a semi tropical Botanical Garden in the plantings along the river walk, which is not the cold breezes that you have above and plants thrive that could not five at street level. Another hallmark of the river walk are the separate trees which are planted along the banks. These have roots they go down and hold the soil but they also get very tall, and so as the hotels. As the hotels are built along the river walk, the cypress give a sense of scale and keep the stock buildings from just overwhelming the river walk itself. So you get a sense of being in a very different environment. The part of the river that we are on right now, the river walk, is essentially two miles. This was originally a loop that actually headed straight east then south then west again. It was connected by Flight Control channels so the water would not have to come all the way around. This is the historical part of the river walk from the 1930s. About ten years ago, the river walk was expanded to the north in an area where there are several museums. Theres been significant commercial development in the north. It was also extended in the south so the length of the river walk is now about 15 miles. The advantage to all the starts and stops that weve had along the way is that the buildings have evolved in a almost haphazard way. That does not give the appearance of a place that was suddenly created in one stroke to be what it is. It gives a sense of the passage of time and a variety and interests that is much of the charm of the river walk. As we explore our music history. Some of the stops include the Ryman Auditorium in nashville, iraq and roll hall of fame in e