Morristown Panoramic Downtown Webcam

Take a good look at this Downtown Morristown view and, when the camera focuses on the right part, you may be able to discern one of the things that makes this city in Tennessee a little bit different to others. The question that difference raises is – are the drivers in Morristown so bad the authorities needed to construct a second-story sidewalk system to keep pedestrians safe? Well, the answer to that is definitely no. The second-story sidewalk wasn’t built for that at all.

The same as many cities around the world, Morristown has suffered an economic decline over the past few decades, especially in the retail sector. Back in the 1960s during a Downtown renovation project, someone had the bright idea of doubling up on commercial outlets by opening second-story stores accessible by a skywalk. It was a pretty innovative idea at the time, and may well have attracted more people initially. But like most bright ideas that probably should never have seen the light of day, the local fascination for skywalk shopping dissipated faster than a candle flame being extinguished by a damp finger.

There’s not much hope of the SkyMart being resurrected as the in-place to shop. Let’s face it, today’s society is pretty lazy where shopping is concerned. Why bother going out to shop when you can do it, in comfort at home, online and get your purchases delivered to your door? The walkway is still in existence and will one day, no doubt, become one of the city’s historic features. While they may be a feature from the past, the stairs and ramps up to the skywalk now lead to the future and those second-story retail outlets provide spaces for budding entrepreneurs to develop their businesses. It could well be the SkyMart wasn’t such a bad idea after all.