Nolan River Bridge 303-A of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway

The Nolan River Bridge 303-A of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway at Blum, Hill County, Texas, was constructed in stages between 1899 and 1903 to replace an earlier structure. From that time through the summer of 1952, it carried all of the traffic of the Santa Fe Railway between Chicago and the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. Due to realignment northwestward to higher ground concurrent with the construction of the Whitney Dam on the Brazos River near Blum, the railway line in 1952 shifted away from its original route. The company transferred ownership of the structure to Hill County, which adapted it to carry vehicular traffic as a one-lane road bridge. It has served that role with no further significant modifications for over half a century. Because the Nolan River Bridge carried major rail traffic on a strategic line that contributed to the economic development of Texas for half a century and because it represents a virtually unaltered example of a style bridge that was once common but now is unusual, it is nominated under criterion C for engineering and criterion A for transportation at the local level of significance.

The Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway Company, incorporated by a group of Texas businessmen and merchants in 1873, came into existence because of their desire to connect Galveston with the interior of the state. Because the existing railway lines from Galveston passed through Houston, an economic rival, they desired a railroad that would bypass the competitor. Built in stages, the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe laid standard gauge rails northwestward around Houston, reaching Temple, Cleburne, and Fort Worth by 1881. In 1886 the much larger Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway agreed to purchase the GC&SF if the latter firm could lay an additional thousand miles of track. The Texas company did so, with some of this construction linking Fort Worth with the AT&SF track at Purcell, Oklahoma. (Though AT&SF acquired the Texas company, the latter continued to operate into the 1960s as the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe.) The expansion gave Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico a direct connection with Chicago in the heartland of the Midwest. The strategic railway line transported Texas agricultural products both southward to Galveston for export and northward to markets in Kansas City and Chicago. The line contributed substantially to Galveston becoming the largest cotton export center in the nation. The railroad company likewise used this line to distribute goods in Texas that were shipped directly from the Midwest and through the port of Galveston. It played a major role in the economic development of Texas from the 1880s through the mid-twentieth century. The story of railway bridge construction over the Nolan River crossing near Blum was all shaped by these larger events in corporate and regional history.

The Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway was built northward across northern Hill County during the summer and fall of 1881 in its larger program of construction between Temple and Fort Worth. It reached Morgan (south of Blum) in August and Cleburne (north of Blum) by October. Although the precise date rails were laid through Blum (named for company director Leon Blum) is not known, the railroad opened its agency there on 21 October 1881. The creation by the railway company of towns like Blum presented opportunities to generate income for itself by shipping to and from these communities. Well before the arrival of the rails at Blum, work began on the initial GC&SF bridge across the Nolan River on the north side of the town. (The river took its name from that of American filibusterer Philip Nolan, whose band of men were apprehended as illegal aliens by Spanish troops after a fight somewhere along its length in 1801.) Although the original 1880s Blum depot does not survive, its early-twentieth-century wood frame replacement still stands in situ housing a modern place of business approximately 1,500 feet southwest of the river crossing.

The initial 1881 bridge consisted of two 104-foot iron through truss spans with 28- and 56-foot timber trestle approaches at the northeast and southwest ends. The effective opening for high water to pass was a limited 3,425 square feet. Because company engineers decided the original roadbed and bridge were too low and the opening so restricted that they would be threatened by flood waters, company crews in 1887 raised the roadbed, placed the two 104-foot iron overhead truss spans on three rusticated limestone piers (piers 1, 3, and 5)1, and extended the timber trestle approaches to 234 feet on the north and 476 feet on the south. The piers stood approximately 23, 16, and 13 feet above footings in bedrock. These three stone piers remain in place beneath the current historic bridge. (Written sources do not reveal the origin of the stone, but it closely resembles limestone from local quarries.) The 1887 construction effort not only raised the track above expected flood levels but also more than doubled to 8,705 square feet the space for flood waters to pass beneath the rails. The Nolan River crossing at Blum operated in this configuration for the next dozen years.

By the end of the 1890s, the needs of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway for its bridge at Blum had changed. The sizes of locomotives and their loads and even the weight of rails had increased substantially. To carry heavier loads, company engineers began a phased replacement of the 1880s bridge across the Nolan River at Blum. The two 104-foot iron overhead truss spans were inadequate to carry the loads required. Furthermore, the long timber trestle approaches at each end created fire hazards that over the years increasingly concerned the operators. The company experienced regular fires along its right-of-way, the major sources being sparks from steam locomotives and "hot box" fires caused when rolling stock wheel bearings degraded and subsequently overheated. This problem experienced by all railways became especially critical in the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe because one of its greatest sources of revenue consisted of hauling bales of cotton, a highly inflammable commodity. The creosote-soaked timbers of the approaches to the old Nolan River bridge at Blum were highly susceptible to igniting from such right-of-way fires. Because of its location on a strategic railroad line, company engineers chose to build a replacement structure that not only could carry heavier loads but also could withstand the worst risks they could expect and flood. This work at Blum coincided with improvements elsewhere along the line as the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe emerged from receivership in 1899 and funds became available for such efforts.

Between 1899 and 1903, the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway completely replaced the old 1880s Nolan River bridge, leaving behind only the three 1887 rusticated limestone piers (piers 1, 3, and 5) that had supported the ends of the two earlier iron spans. Rather than rebuilding with heavier-duty iron through truss spans, company engineers chose to use stronger steel plate girder spans resting on limestone piers set closer together to give greater support. In time the company eliminated all of the fire-prone timber trestle approaches.

Construction crews began the replacement project in the fall of 1899. They enveloped 431 feet of the timber approach at the northeast end to create an earthen embankment. This procedure effectively cut off oxygen from the buried wood and prevented its further rot and subsidence. After constructing an abutment, they connected it to the northeast end of the old through truss spans using a modern, partially prefabricated steel plate girder span 48 feet long. On its perpendicular and diagonal cross members were laid wooden crossties onto which steel rails were spiked. This work, however, represented only the first stage in the planned improvements.

In 1900 crews began the second phase of work by removing the two 104-foot through truss spans dating from the 1880s. They constructed two new limestone piers (piers 2 and 4) equidistant between the existing piers beneath, and at about the same time, they added approximately 5 feet 10 inches of rusticated limestone blocks atop the three 1887 piers to bring them up to the height of the two new piers. Atop the piers, they assembled and installed four partially prefabricated 52-foot steel plate girder spans. As they had done on the northeasternmost span, workers laid wooden ties on the steel cross members of the span and spiked rails to them. The steel cross members remained open and exposed; a pedestrian on the bridge could look downward between the wooden ties and see the steel cross members and the riverbed below. To continue the movement of trains across the crossing, the crews also increased the height of the 48-foot plate girder span and earthen approach that had been constructed at the northeastern end of the bridge in 1899 and built a new concrete abutment at the increased height, as well as adding to the grade of the old timber trestle approach at the southwestern end. This raised the grade for all the tracks at the Nolan River crossing, giving the whole structure greater protection from floods. The 1900 efforts left only the old timber trestle approach on the southwest end from the obsolete style construction, but it would remain in place for another three years.

In 1903 the work crews completed updating the bridge across the Nolan River at Blum. As they had done at the northeast end, they enveloped 186 feet of the creosoted timber approach at the southwest end with rocks and earth, creating an earthen embankment that led up to a new abutment. Concurrently they constructed a rusticated limestone abutment and connected it with the remainder of the bridge with a partially prefabricated 48-foot steel plate girder span. As on the rest of the structure, workers laid wooden ties on the steel cross members of the span and fastened steel rails to these ties. Having completed the job of bridge replacement, the engineers and laborers could step back and view a structure that they hoped would serve the freight- and passenger-moving needs of the company for decades to come. Little did they realize that their work would survive and continue to transport people and goods for over a century.

The partially prefabricated plate girder spans in Bridge 303-A do not bear any identification of their maker. They do, however, follow the standard plans for class D spans developed by the American Bridge Company of Chicago. These plans, dated 1898 for the 48-foot spans and 1900 for the 52-foot spans, were approved by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway bridge engineer A. F. Robinson and system chief engineer James Dun.

Bridge No. 303-A carried the rails of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway across the Nolan River at Blum from 1903 into the early 1950s. The company made one minor change to the structure in 1918 when it "ballasted" the bridge. Company crews first temporarily removed the crossties and rails from the bridge. Then they placed a fully creosoted wooden deck on the perpendicular and diagonal steel cross members connecting the parallel plate girders. Up to this time space between the wooden crossties had been open so that air and the elements would pass between them. The men then distributed crushed rock ballast on top of the wooden "deck," seating wooden crossties into this stone base after which they re-spiked the rails into place on the ties. Then in 1920, company crews added heavy protective "rip-rap" of heavy stones along the sides of the earthen embankment approaches at the northeastern and southwestern ends of the bridge.

The provision of the protective "rip-rap" to the approaches on the Nolan River Bridge showed foresight by Santa Fe maintenance-of-way personnel, for the structure in spring 1922 experienced the highest water ever recorded on the Nolan River. Much of Texas experienced unusually heavy rains in late April 1922, with several railroads being forced to shut down or modify passenger and freight service into Fort Worth and Dallas. The highest water reached Blum on 5 May 1922. Along the line on either side of Bridge 303-A, flood waters covered stretches of over 2,000 feet of track, while the force of the inundation pushed the rails off the roadbed in many places. The torrent reached over the floor structure of the bridge to within inches of the tops of the crossties, but the bridge held fast throughout the deluge. After the flood waters subsided, the Santa Fe sent in large crews with teams of animals who spent a week filling in washouts and returning the track to its former positions before service was restored.

With no significant structural modifications, the Nolan River Bridge at Blum remained in service carrying railroad traffic for an additional thirty years. Because of events that none of its builders could have imagined, the story of the bridge took an unexpected turn due to the construction of a dam on the Brazos River about six and a half miles to the southwest. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began work on the Whitney Dam project on 12 May 1947 to create a reservoir for flood control and water storage for municipal use and hydroelectric generation. Waters impounded by the reservoir would cover the old 1881 Santa Fe crossing of the Brazos and much of its roadbed, so the railroad company, with federal government assistance, relocated its tracks to higher ground to the northwest. The Santa Fe effort resulted in the construction of a much larger and higher bridge across part of the Whitney Reservoir, the excavation of a five-mile-long cut, and the erection of a new bridge across the Nolan River approximately three miles north of Blum. The new line completely bypassed Blum and the old railway bridge there. During the construction project, rail traffic continued to pass over the Nolan River Bridge at Blum, but in the summer of 1952 traffic switched to the new alignment. By August 1952 crews had begun removing track from the abandoned 1881 line, but the old bridge remained in place.

Through 1880s easement agreements, control of the rural land over which the bypassed tracks had been constructed was transferred to the adjacent landowners, but the bridge constituted a special case. Since the Nolan River was and is legally navigable, its banks belong to the state of Texas. The Santa Fe Railway consequently transferred the old bridge to Hill County, Texas, as an instrumentality of the state. Once the tracks and crossties were removed, county crews graded the crushed-rock ballast atop the bridge and along a portion of the earthen embankment north of Blum on both sides of the river to create a county road. (With Corps of Engineers financial assistance, the county secured ownership of a 50-foot-wide right of way beyond the bridge for the new county road from the private landowners along its route.) The fact that the steel plate girders extended well above the roadway on each side meant that county crews did not even need to install bridge railings. After tamping down the crushed-rock ballast, they declared the roadway along the former railway right-of-way and old bridge open to the public for motor vehicle and pedestrian use. This effectively converted the railway structure into a single-lane road bridge where formerly locomotives had gone. Santa Fe's Nolan River Bridge 303-A began its second life as a vehicular bridge, a role that it has served since 1952 with no substantial structural changes. Its character-defining features- including the riveted steel plate girders, floor system, limestone piers, and abutments- remain in place with a high degree of integrity.