Brazoria Bridge

The Brazos River Bridge at Brazoria, completed in 1939, is the second road bridge crossing at this location and perpetuates a historic route through Texas, critical to Brazoria County's development since 1912. The structure is also an important surviving example of the work of the Public Works Administration (PWA) during the Great Depression. The bridge meets National Register Criterion A in the area of Transportation, as a link in the historic route of commerce and communication along which Brazoria was settled and, in this century, as a link between Houston and several coastal communities. It meets Criterion c in the area of Engineering, as a major Parker through truss bridge embodying the design and construction technology of 1930s highway construction in Texas.

Brazoria grew from a colony that Stephen P. Austin established in 1828 as a port and trading center at this important crossing of the Brazos River. The river served as a chief artery of commerce and communication from the Gulf of Mexico for Austin's colony. Brazoria burned in April 1836 toward the end of the Texas Revolution. Rebuilt, the town functioned as the seat of Brazoria County from 1836 until 1897 when the seat of county government was moved to Angleton.

In 1906 St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico Railroad (now Missouri Pacific) traversed the county and the Brazos River at Brazoria. While what became known as old Brazoria remained at the south bank of the river, a new townsite for Brazoria was laid out in 1912 about one mile south along the railroad line. Running parallel to the railroad bridge, the first highway bridge at this crossing was also constructed in 1912. Local residents remember this bridge as a steel truss bridge with a wood deck. Construction of this first bridge provided access from eastern to western Brazoria County as well as to many coastal towns.

After World War I automobiles became an increasingly dominant form of transportation in Texas, as throughout the United States. In 1917 more than 200,000 automobiles were in use in Texas and motor transport provided a means for the delivery of mail and the movement of agricultural goods within rural areas. Reflecting this trend, the construction of railroads in the state eventually peaked and began to decline after the 1920s.

The river crossing at Brazoria sustained the direct route between Houston (40 miles north) and several important coastal towns including Matagorda (46 miles south) and Palacios (55 miles south). The growing need for access to these communities and western Brazoria County justified a modern bridge structure to replace the earlier bridge, which was condemned (according to local sources) in the early 1930s and eventually fell into the river.

[The federal government was responsible for funding most bridges of this size during the New Deal era. Recognizing the importance of a network of farm-to-market roads as early as the 1890s with the establishment of the Bureau of Public Roads (part of the United States Department of Agriculture), federal aid to local governments for road construction began on a small scale at that time. The 1916 Federal Aid Road Act formalized this procedure focusing on the creation of major thoroughfares within the states. The Texas Highway Department was created in 1917 as required by the Act to manage the disbursement of federal funds and oversee the construction of roads by county governments. By 1921 most often county commissioners employed a county engineer to handle the construction and maintenance of the road system under the management of the state highway commission. A county could apply to the state for up to 25 percent financial assistance on a project and up to 50 percent from the federal government. The Depression of the 1930s brought increased federal aid to the state highway system, and to local governments through such work relief programs as the Public Works Administration. )

The construction of the Brazoria Bridge appears to have been an unusual project in that the funding sources deviated from the typical approach. The bridge is a product of an early partnership between the federal government and the county government, without the assistance of the state. The PWA agreed to pay 45 percent of the bridge's cost. Brazoria County raised its share of the construction cost of the Brazoria Bridge, originally estimated to be about $175,000, through the issuance of road bonds in 1938. Bids on the project were solicited and the Keliher Construction Company was selected as the contractor.

The project included not only the construction of the bridge but upgrading of the eight-mile segment of road designated as Farm-to-Market 521 sometime between 1936 and 1938 before the state had formally established the farm-to-market system in 1941. The road connected State Highway 35, just west of Angleton, and State Highway 36, at Brazoria.

Although funding for the project was not channeled through the state highway department, the State Bridge Engineer's (1918-1940) design of choice heavily influenced the consulting engineer's design for the project. Largely through Wickline's influence, the Parker through bridge truss was popular across the state from the 1920s into the 1940s. J.D. McKenzie, associated with the firm of Haile & McClendon of Harris County, served as consulting engineer on the project and designed this Parker through truss bridge.

The Parker is the offspring of an earlier truss design, the Pratt truss, which has vertical compression members and diagonal tension members with top and bottom chords that run parallel to each other. In truss design, structural members resist forces in two primary ways--compression and tension. The Parker applies a polygonal top chord (the center of the truss is taller than the ends) to the structure. The polygonal design increased the distance between the top and bottom chords and made the truss depth greatest at the center of the span where stress was highest.

Ranging from 40 to 250 feet long, 40 Parker through truss bridges remain in Texas. The majority of these were constructed in the 1930s. Only five of these are known to be longer than the Brazoria Bridge. This bridge design was preferred because of its life expectancy and ease of construction. In addition, its efficiency allowed for a longer span with greater strength while using less steel, reducing both weight and cost.

Construction of the bridge took about a year, with problems encountered in driving the pilings for the pier foundations to a firm strata beneath the river bed. The bridge was opened in 1939.

According to the present State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, the bridge was placed on their state highway department maintenance list in 1939 and the state agency became the owner of the resource. The bridge now serves State Highway 332 providing access to downtown Brazoria.