Brazos River Bridge - 1938 - Knox County, TX - Bridge Date Stones and Plaques on Waymarking.com

A small medallion is located at the south end on the east side of the concrete section of the bridge, and it says:

Texas State Highway
Department
1938
Contractor
Oran Speer

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.

Date built or dedicated as indicated on the date stone or plaque.: 1938 Date stone, plaque location.: South end of bridge, on east side, embedded in concrete Road, body of water, land feature, etc. that the bridge spans.: Brazos River Website (if available): [Web Link] Parking (safe parking location): Not Listed

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