Dallas Pedestrian Tunnel Network

If you like liminal spaces, then the Dallas Pedestrian Network is for you. I visited in 2022, and have finally (!) written up this short post showing it off!

It’s wild! It definitely looks like in some places it’s on its last legs - places are not maintained very well or at all.

Some of the network is actually above ground, and I did not realise this initially when I visited. The underground sections felt more neglected than the above ground ones.

You can see in the photos where shops and food outlets used to be, but at the time at least, were completely stripped bare.

Part way through my journey in the tunnels twice I had to turn around, as the route was just boarded up!

The entrance - Thanksgiving Square

Stairs down to glass doors surrounded by concrete

Fluorescent lights and a lino floor - a recurring theme!

An empty room, with poles supporting the ceiling. The ceiling has holes for fluorescent lights. There is a gray lino floor.

Had to turn around here!

Boarded up escalators with OUT OF ORDER spraypainted on the wood board. Surrounded by rubbish. Graffitied elevator.
Boarded up escalators with OUT OF ORDER spraypainted on the wood board. Surrounded by rubbish. Graffitied elevator.

My favourite liminal space in the network

A dark and dingy room with columns supporting the roof. Half working fluorescent lights, leaking ceiling, lino floor. A selection of chairs and tables, and a solitary desk chair with no desk.

There was a lovely little free library in that room though!

A trolley with a wooden box with a glass front on reading ‘Little Free Library’

There is no lack of fluorescent lighting here.

A completely empty, white corridor with fluorescent lighting and gray floor tiles

You can see what used to be food outlets and shops - a couple were still going.

Fluorescent lit tables and chairs with a shuttered food outlet in the background in darkness.
Fluorescent lit tables and chairs with with a real food outlet behind, with a off-license type shop to the right.
A dark shuttered shop looking through glass into it

As you can see, it’s not all below ground!

An American highway intersection with bridges between skyscrapers above the road
Entrance from the Sheraton Hotel to Plaza of the Americas and Bryan Tower.
The above ground sections are actually rather pleasant to use!
Entrance to Plaza of the Americas from a walkway above ground which is well lit with natural light from the windows on each side

Feels liminal here too, though…

Fluorescent lit atrium with an escalator and an empty card rack
A messy closed down cafe, branding still in place, visible through a glass wall. An out of place chair inside.

The Thanksgiving Plaza chapel is fantastic though

A spiral stained glass roof going upwards in height

Access to the network

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I had to go back to the room with the office chair… notice the trampoline!?

A yellow walled room with fluorescent lights, tables and chairs and a trampoline
A leaking ceiling, which looks to have been leaking for some time. A horrible brown stain is shown on the floor.

This is where I got stuck and had to turn around

An emergency exit and street sign reading 1600 Pacific point to a boarded up wall
An emergency exit sign points to a downwards sloping hallway, filled with buckets catching a leak at one end