National Register Listing

Houston Street Viaduct

a.k.a. Dallas-Oak Cliff Viaduct

Houston St. roughly between Arlington St. and Lancaster Ave., Dallas, TX

The Houston Street Viaduct was the first of five concrete and steel viaducts built to connect the north and south sections of Dallas. One of the longest viaducts with reinforced concrete arches ever built (6,562'), the bridge was constructed entirely with Dallas County funds at a surprisingly low cost of $2.10 per square foot of floor. The bridge includes an unusual feature designed to facilitate ocean-going vessels in this inland city; a steel plate girder span over the river channel with special "shoes" that feature vertical bearing surfaces for transmitting the arch thrust through the piers to the girder span.

On May 25, 1908, the worst flood in Dallas history swept down the Trinity River causing over a million dollars worth of damage to homes and businesses located near the banks of the river. This flood washed away most of the bridges and left the remaining ones underwater. The Oak Cliff community and Dallas were thus effectively cut off from each other for a week. The Houston Street Viaduct was built as a direct result of this flood.

In 1909, the County of Dallas voted a bond issue of $600,000 to construct the viaduct. After the acquisition of the right-of-way, the county had $563,000 remaining for construction. In November of 1909, County Engineer J.F. Witt advertised for competitive bids. All bids had to be in on January 1, 1910, with these general specifications:

1. Any structure between Dallas and Oak Cliff has to be of reinforced concrete of either arch or trestle construction.


2. The bridge must provide a roadway for vehicular traffic and shall include two sidewalks, with provisions for a double-track electric railway in the future.


3. It must be 50 feet from a handrail to a handrail, or any greater width so long as that width does not cause the construction of the viaduct to exceed the money available.


4. Conduit spaces must be provided longitudinally throughout the viaduct of no less than 20 square feet.


5. All designs are to consider live loads of two 100,000-pound electric cars on each track plus 100 pounds per square foot, or a 15-ton road roller having a maximum axle concentration of 10 tons. Sidewalks should be designed to support 80 pounds per square foot.


6. Complete construction plans, specifications, and design analysis are to accompany bids.

All bids were considered by a board of engineers consisting of T.U. Baylor, Otto H. Lang, and N. Werenskiold. Of the 15 bids submitted, an arch design of Ira G. Hedrick, C.E., of Kansas City, Missouri, with M.R. Ash as Associate Engineer, was accepted with only two modifications. Exceptions included the adoption of pile footings instead of spread reinforced concrete footings and the widening of the roadway from 40 to 44 feet with two 45-foot-wide sidewalks. Pile footings were utilized because of soil conditions. The roadway was broadened because the bid submitted was low enough to warrant the alteration with the money available.

The county awarded the contract to Corrigan, Lee, and Halpin, of Kansas City, Missouri. The fieldwork was carried out under the supervision of Hedrick and Cochrane, Consulting Engineers, of the same city, and J.F. Witt, a Dallas County Engineer. Work on the viaduct began in October of 1910 and was completed late in 1911. It incorporated top-quality materials and workmanship and utilized both proven and innovative techniques. The proposed Trinity River Canal, which would have connected Dallas to the 300-mile-distant Gulf of Mexico, demanded a 90-foot clearance under the viaduct's central span. The use of a concrete arch at this point was prohibited by the height. It was necessary either to build abutment piers on either side of the river capable of receiving the unbalanced thrust of the arches or to transmit the thrust through the river span. The latter scheme was chosen, prompting the design of the special "shoes," which have both the usual horizontal, plus vertical, bearing surfaces on the bridge seat.

Careful construction has proved a valuable investment, for the Houston Street Viaduct continues to serve as a major traffic artery for the county. Newer, nearby bridges over the Trinity are higher, but none have the solidity or visual prominence of the Houston Street Viaduct. The northern, downtown, sections of the bridge begin at Union Terminal (National Register, 1975), and continue over a network of railroad tracks, IH 30, and Reunion Arena. The context of the southern half of the bridge remains little changed, crossing the Trinity River and flood plain into an early and intact section of the Oak Cliff suburb.

Local significance of the structure:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.