Brazos River Bridge - Knox County, TX
N 33° 29.977 W 099° 48.134
14S E 425482 N 3706964
In use from 1939 to 2014, this through truss bridge now carries foot traffic over the Brazos River alongside TX 6. The Brazos River Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Waymark Code: WMQ58K
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/22/2015
Views: 5
There is designated parking on the south end of the bridge, in front of the 2015 Texas Historical Marker, which provides some background:
This bridge was constructed in 1938-39 to replace a 1901 bridge and provide a crossing over the Brazos River. Located on State Highway 6 (originally State Highway 16 and later State Highway 283) south of Benjamin, the bridge links the Knox County seat to points south. A statewide historic bridge survey in the 1990s identified it as one of only five continuous through truss bridges in Texas built before World War II.
The design consists of a three-span continuous truss unit measuring 382 1/2 feet flanked by two simply supported truss spans each 96 feet long. The bridge has three steel I-beam approach spans on the south side and two on the north. The truss spans rest on reinforced concrete piers and the approach spans rest on a series of precast concrete pile bents.
The 1901 bridge, consisting of four 119-foot Pratt through truss spans and two pony truss spans, was reported to be in seriously deteriorated condition by 1934. During construction of the new bridge immediately upstream of the old one, a pier of the old bridge subsided, requiring closing of the bridge and construction of a detour road. Texas Highway Department engineers developed a special design for the replacement bridge's truss spans, with a warren truss configuration with parallel top and bottom chords. Oran Speer of Alvord was the contractor, and the Virginia Bridge Company of Roanoke, Virginia, fabricated the steel truss spans. Construction began on May 2, 1938, the new bridge was open to traffic by January 11, 1939, and the project was officially completed on March 16, 1939, at a cost of about $138,000. In 1996, the bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places at the state level of significance.
Parking Coordinates:: N 33° 29.952 W 099° 48.141
Date Built: 05/02/1938
Length of Span:
Per Bridgehunter.com, the dimensions are:
Length of largest span: 128.0 ft.
Total length: 755.0 ft.
Deck width: 24.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 15.9 ft.
www:
http://www.bridgehunter.com/tx/knox/251380009805036/
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Visit Instructions:
Log your find with a picture of the bridge with yourself or your GPS in the foreground. This shot does not have to be taken "on" the bridge. The shot should show the "truss" structure of the bridge as well.