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THE WACO
SUSPENSION BRIDGE
Waco,
Texas
Date Built - 1869-1870
Designed by John A. Roebling
Chief Engineer - Thomas Griffith
River - Brazos
by John
Troesser
Photos courtesy of Terri Mathis
Book Hotel Here › Waco
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At
one time this bridge was the longest (475 feet) single-span suspension
bridge in the world and the first over the Brazos River. For a time
it was the only bridge over the Brazos.
At one time this bridge was the longest (475 feet) single-span suspension
bridge in the world and the first over the Brazos River. For a time
it was the only bridge over the Brazos.
Being the only bridge made it a popular crossing point for cattle
herds - an economic boon for Waco.
The bridge was hauled in sections by wagons from Galveston. It is
said to have been the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge - built thirteen
years later.
The cost was $130,000 and sources say there were between 2,700,000
and 3,000,000 locally made bricks used in construction.
The bridge company collected tolls 20 years before selling it to McLennan
County for $80,000 (in a bond issue). The county, in turn, "sold"
it to the city of Waco for $1.
The bridge originally had crenellated towers that were stuccoed over
sometime between 1910 and 1913. The toll-keeper and his family lived
in a cottage next to the bridge - complete with a fenced yard and
windmill.
The bridge survived floods in 1885, 1907, and 1913. Only the approaches
and roads were damaged in the flood of 1885. |
| Vintage
photo courtesy TXDoT |
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The
Suspension Bridge and Wacoans, 1912
Postcard courtesy rootsweb.com/
~txgenweb// postcards/Index.html |
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The
Suspension Bridge in the early 1900s
Postcard courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
The other bridges
crossing the Brazos at Waco:
The
Waco Steel Bridge AKA The Washington Street Bridge, The
Iron Bridge c. 1902.
The Interurban
Railway Bridge c.1910, built close to and just west of the Suspension
Bridge.
The Railroad
Bridge - Known to the public as "the railroad bridge"
but is known to the railroad by it's designation of Union Pacific
Bridge 844-7.
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Old post card
showing three bridges over the Brazos at Waco.
One red
brick tower of the Suspension Bridge can be seen over the top of
the Interurban bridge.
TE
post card archives
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Although the caption
of a post card gives the location of the bridge as Waco, alert reader
Paul Newsome identified it as the Whipple Truss Bridge, c.
1884, still standing at Clifton.
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