Local History
Texas Bridge and Infrastructure Historical Markers: Spanning the Distances
Four Texas bridge historical markers, from the 1870 Waco Suspension Bridge to a swinging span that crews picked up and moved 1.5 miles upstream. Real addresses included.
Photo: Mitchell Kmetz / Unsplash. Congress Avenue Bridge, Austin.
You cross a dozen bridges on a Texas road trip and think about none of them. Some of those crossings carry a state historical marker. Texas has more than 16,000 markers in all, and river towns account for a good share of them. RoadHistorical is a Texas historical preservation platform that tells you when one is coming up. This guide covers four bridge markers worth the pull-off, with the addresses to find them.
Bridges built the map you drive today. Between 1880 and 1930, county courts and small towns bought thousands of metal truss spans. Most were fabricated in Ohio or Pennsylvania and shipped down by rail. Suspension bridges filled the gaps where riverbeds ran too sandy to anchor a heavy truss. The markers below cover both kinds.
The Waco Suspension Bridge: A Toll Road Over the Brazos
The Waco Suspension Bridge marker stands at Suspension Bridge Park in downtown Waco, McLennan County. The Texas Historical Commission set it in 1976.
In 1866 the Waco Bridge Company won a 25 year charter to build a toll bridge here. The charter blocked any competing bridge or ferry within five miles. Construction started in 1868. Money trouble stretched the job out to 1870.
Wagons, walkers and cattle herds all paid to cross. Heavy users got a discount. The public pushed for a free bridge from 1875 to 1889, and the company kept its monopoly the whole time. In 1889 it sold out to McLennan County, which handed the bridge to the city of Waco. The tolls stopped.
That 1870 span shaped how Texas crossed water for the next 60 years. Builders copied it across the state, down to the 1928 international bridge at Roma on the Rio Grande.
Marker address: 100 University Park Dr., Waco, TX 76701
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
Faust Street Bridge: Ohio Iron Over the Guadalupe
Faust Street Bridge crosses the Guadalupe River at the east end of Faust Street in New Braunfels, Comal County. Its marker went up in 1999.
Spanish caravans hauling supplies to the East Texas missions forded the river near this spot in the 1700s. They were traveling El Camino Real, the King's Highway. People crossed here for a century and a half before anyone built anything permanent.
In 1887 Comal County contracted the King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland to build a high water crossing. King ran the largest highway bridge works in the country at the time. The finished bridge stretches more than 640 feet on masonry piers, carrying Pratt and Whipple truss spans.
By 1917 it carried State Highway 2 between Austin and San Antonio. A concrete bridge took the traffic in 1934. The iron span kept serving local drivers until a fire damaged it in 1979. Walkers and cyclists use it now, which means you can stand on the deck and read the trusses up close.
Marker address: East end of Faust Street, New Braunfels, TX 78130
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
Regency Suspension Bridge: The Last Swinging Bridge
Regency Suspension Bridge crosses the Colorado River on the Mills and San Saba county line, near the near-vanished town of Regency. The marker sits south of Goldthwaite.
The first bridge here opened in 1903 and carried ranchers and farmers to market. It fell into the river on May 9, 1924. The collapse killed Raymond Burns Jernigan, a boy born in June 1914, along with his horse and several head of cattle. A flood destroyed the replacement in 1936.
Crews built the current bridge in 1939. Roughly 90 percent of that work was done by hand. It turned into the gathering spot for local kids through the 1940s, who came out to picnic, dance and sing on the deck. Paved farm roads later routed traffic away from it.
It survives as one of the last suspension bridges in Texas. The drive out is long and the cell signal is thin. Plan that leg before you leave pavement.
Marker address: Regency Suspension Bridge, County Road, Goldthwaite, TX 76844
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge: Moved Upstream, Still Working
Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge stands on Berry Creek Road in Erath County, a quarter mile north of U.S. 377. The marker dates to 1978.
For at least 20 years, anyone headed to Bluff Dale and points west forded the Paluxy River. Wagon traffic climbed after the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad reached town in 1889. The iron bridge opened to the public around 1891.
Its road became State Highway 10, then U.S. 377. By 1933 highway traffic demanded something wider. So in 1934 crews picked the swinging bridge up and moved it 1.5 miles upstream. It has carried local traffic from that spot ever since.
Most Texas towns tore their old spans down. Bluff Dale relocated one and kept using it. That decision is why you can still drive it.
Marker address: Berry Creek Rd., Bluff Dale, TX 76433
Find it in RoadHistorical before your visit.
How RoadHistorical Finds These Markers
Discovery Mode runs while you drive. When you come up on a marker, your phone tells you. That matters on bridge markers more than most, because the sign usually sits at the approach. You're past it at 60 before you register the shape.
The AI Tour Guide answers what the plaque leaves out. Ask who fabricated the truss, or what happened to the town the bridge served. Offline mode keeps all of it working in places like Mills County, where coverage drops for miles at a stretch. Pulling over and reading a plaque is preservation. These markers only stay worth maintaining if people still stop.
Start Discovering Texas History Today
RoadHistorical is free to download on iPhone and Android. Download it here and turn on Discovery Mode before your next drive. Android users can download RoadHistorical from Google Play.
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