Waco Suspension Bridge

About

The Waco Suspension Bridge crosses the Brazos River in Waco, Texas. The bridge once functioned as a key route for travelers following the Chisholm Trail, and when it debuted, no other single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River exceeded its length. Efforts to construct a bridge over the Brazos River began in 1866, when the Texas State Legislature authorized the creation of a private firm, the Waco Bridge Company. The charter gave the company exclusive rights to cross the river for twenty-five years, prohibiting any other bridge within a five-mile radius. It was designed by the same company that would later build the Brooklyn Bridge. It is a single-span suspension bridge, with a main span of 475 ft (145 m). Opened on November 20, 1869, it contains nearly 3 million bricks. It is located north of downtown Waco, connecting Indian Spring Park (on the southwest side of the river) with Doris D. Miller Park (on the northeast side of the river). Every year on Independence Day, the bridge serves as a place where thousands of locals gather to watch fireworks. Indian Spring Park marks the location of the origin of the town of Waco, where the Huaco Indians had settled on the bank of the river, at the location of a cold spring.

Before 1869, crossing the Brazos River was a time-consuming and sometimes dangerous ordeal. The only way to cross the river was by ferry, and due to the location of Waco on the growing Chisholm Trail, local businessmen knew that a bridge was needed to support commerce. For this reason, members of Waco Masonic Lodge #92 proposed the creation of such a bridge and they assigned a committee which would form the Waco Bridge Company, responsible for funding and building the project. A charter was received from the state in 1866.

Col. John T. Flint, an Austin lawyer and banker, who had moved to Waco after the war and established a firm named Flint & Chamberlain, went personally to New York to handle the contract for building a bridge.

The Waco Bridge Company, under the leadership of John T. Flint, enlisted New York civil engineer Thomas M. Griffith to manage the bridge project. In October 1868 Griffith began to supervise the construction using cables from the Roebling company of Trenton, New Jersey. The logistical and engineering difficulties he encountered were abnormal because of the remote location.

Due to lack of machine shops in the Waco area, getting the materials to the building site was a journey in itself. The nearest railroad was 100 miles (160 km) away, and the closest town with artisans with the skills needed was Galveston, over 212 miles (341 km) from the build site. Supplies were loaded onto a steamer in Galveston, and ferried to Bryan. From there, they were loaded onto wagons pulled by oxen. The pothole-filled dirt road over 80 miles long from Bryan to Waco was bad, even by 19th-century Texas standards.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.