Lamar Boulevard Bridge
Lamar Blvd. over the Colorado R., Austin, TXThe Lamar Boulevard Bridge over the Colorado River was dedicated on 15 July 1942, connecting north and south Austin through a new street named for Republic of Texas President (1838-41) Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar. The reinforced-concrete bridge was designed by the Texas Highway Department's Bridge Division. Construction was supervised by THD Austin District Engineer D.E.H. Manigault. Cage Brothers and L.A. Turner of Bishop, Texas, won the construction contract. The overall appearance follows similar concrete open-spandrel designs dating from about 1900, as well as the popular adaption in the 1920s and 30s of Art Deco styling to engineering structures. Because of its finely crafted and unusually late open-spandrel design and its survival virtually unchanged since dedication, the bridge is eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion C, in the Areas of Engineering, Architecture and Transportation.
The first European-descent settler credited with making a home in the present Austin area was Jacob M. Harrell, who pitched a tent about 1835 on the north bank of the Colorado River. In 1838 while hunting near the settlement of Waterloo and Harrell's home site near the present Congress Avenue bridge, newly elected Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar expressed interest in the landscape. In January 1839 Lamar encouraged the commission searching for a new republic capital site to inspect these Colorado River banks between wooded hills to the west and grassland prairies to the east. In May work began on government buildings and surveyor Edwin Waller laid out a new town site on the north bank centered between two creeks. A prominent rise was the nucleus of the grid street system, and a smooth natural descent from the hill to the river accommodated the main street. The central rise became Capitol Hill, and the main street was designated Congress Avenue.
Bridges have periodically spanned the Colorado River at Austin since 1869. In November of that year, a pontoon bridge capable of carrying heavy wagon loads was completed to the foot of Brazos Street, one block east of Congress. A flood destroyed that bridge in 1870. After its reconstruction it was washed out again in 1873. The first "permanent" bridge into Austin was a wooden toll bridge constructed at the foot of Congress Avenue in 1875. (A railroad bridge was completed in 1881; see next paragraph.) Dry rot and a herd of cattle reportedly contributed to the toll bridge's collapse in 1883. The following year a new public bridge, a series of six double intersection Pratt through trusses, was constructed by the King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The latest Congress Avenue vehicular bridge—a 1910 poured-in-place reinforced concrete, barrel arch, open spandrel design-reflected new and durable technology of its time. The Kansas City firm of Waddell and Harrington designed the $210,000 structure, built by the William P. Carmichael Company. (The 1910 Congress Avenue Bridge was rehabilitated in the 1950s, and again in 1980 with a wider prestressed concrete girder deck and other alterations, but retains its original piers and distinctive open spandrel barrel arches.)
The International and Great Northern (later Missouri Pacific [MoPac], now Union Pacific) Railway spanned the Colorado in 1881 at the southwest comer of the Austin townsite with a series of stone piers and six wrought-iron double-intersection Pratt through trusses. These trusses were replaced in 1906 with a series of 14 plate girder spans, utilizing the 1880s stone piers.
Another Austin area Colorado River bridge was built about four miles east (downstream) of the Congress Avenue Bridge in 1889 at Montopolis. A devastating flood in 1935 destroyed this span. A new bridge designed by the Texas Highway Department (established in 1917) was completed in 1938 to carry S.H. 29 (now U.S. Highway 183) traffic across the river at Montopolis. These five steel Parker through trusses represented the state engineers' favored bridge type of the era, when prefabricated steel members could be assembled at remote sites for economical and efficient bridge compositions.
An earlier reinforced concrete, open spandrel bridge survives in Austin near the Lamar Boulevard Bridge, carrying Barton Springs Road across Barton Creek, a few hundred yards from its entry into the Colorado River. This triple-arch bridge of paired ribs was built in 1926 by the City of Austin as a two-lane span at the entry to Zilker Park. This bridge was enlarged in 1946 to four lanes with the construction of an additional set of piers and paired ribs on the north side, spaced slightly wider than the 1926 arrangement.
Austin grew modestly after the turn of the century, secure as the seat of state government and home of the University of Texas, but with a mercurial population due to these institutions. During the Great Depression of the 1930s Austin began to expand more rapidly as part of a national trend of urban growth, and as the result of jobs offered by numerous public works projects in the city. The city's population shot from 53,120 in 1930 to 87,930 in 1940. New Austin subdivisions of the 1930s expanded the city west into the hills and south of the river. The development of a comprehensive recreation park system centered on Zilker Park, about two miles southwest of downtown across the river, was a focus in the 1930s of New Deal labor programs. During this decade periodic flooding of the river was checked by a series of dams above Austin built by the new Lower Colorado River Authority. As early as 1934 the city planned segments of a new north-south artery west of downtown, to tie new subdivisions together and to move regional through-traffic around the congested downtown area.
Construction of Lamar Boulevard by city and federally paid Work Projects Administration (WPA) crews began in 1939, the centennial of Austin's founding through the influence of President Lamar. Federal, state and local governments greatly expanded public works projects during the Depression to provide employment and receive much needed public facilities in return. Roads and landscaping projects proved popular and effective vehicles for this approach to economic crisis throughout the 1930s, [see "Work Projects Administration in Texas," Handbook of Texas Vol. Ill, p. 1132, for a detailed account of the WPA, 1935-42.] By the end of the decade Texas' economy had recovered sufficiently for state and local governments to finance a large share of public works projects, although federal assistance was now commonplace and often essential. Lamar Boulevard was justified beyond city needs as a component of the state highway system, as a more direct connection for Austin to the Fredericksburg Highway (S.H. 20), and as a western bypass around downtown for S.H. 2 between Waco and San Antonio.
Thus the Colorado River bridge for the new Lamar Boulevard was designed by state highway engineers, and was expected to receive funding from the U.S. Public Roads Administration's Federal Aid Program. But a disagreement over the planned load capacity, roadway width and elevation, and the need for a grade separation at the nearby intersection with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, caused the Texas Highway Department to leave the federal government out of financing (and regulating) the bridge's construction. Recovery of the state's economy and a successful state gasoline tax allowed the Highway Department to pay for the structure on its own. Accepting the total cost of the bridge, the State Highway Commission was able to shift $400,000 in federal funds previously assigned to the Lamar bridge project to several other projects.
According to its contract with the City of Austin, the Texas Highway Department agreed to construct the Lamar Boulevard Bridge and its north and south approach roadways, from Fifth Street to Barton Springs Road. The city provided the Highway Department with free right-of-way and liability protection from claims arising from construction of the bridge.
The reinforced concrete, open spandrel design selected for the new bridge was a proven type, first utilized in the U.S. in 1898 by F.W. Patterson, an engineer with the Department of Public Roads in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The open spandrel rib arch design evolved from the open spandrel barrel arch design (exemplified by the 1910 Congress Avenue bridge). The newer design was economical, efficient and popular throughout the nation where plentiful supplies of cement, aggregate and steel reinforcing materials were available.
A history of flooding on the Colorado River through Austin may have played a part in selecting concrete and the durable open spandrel design for the bridge. Internal highway department memos indicated that this bridge might sustain the loss of its deck and roadway approaches in a catastrophic flood, and that the concrete base structures would survive intact. The concrete design, they added, would be able to withstand "occasional submergence." Because of completion in 1940 of the Marshall Ford dam (impounding Lake Travis) upstream, the Lamar bridge deck was placed at 455 feet above sea level, 18 feet lower than the Congress Avenue bridge of 1910. Also, a highway department estimate ($590,000) for construction of a metal deck truss bridge and railroad overpass at a higher elevation for Lamar Boulevard proved to be about $80,000 more than a reinforced concrete bridge and associated railroad underpass at a lower elevation. The State's decision to omit the railroad underpass in 1941 brought the estimated cost of the Lamar Boulevard Bridge down to $350,000.
The contracting team of Cage Brothers and L.A. Turner of Bishop, Texas, was awarded the project for a low bid of $255,843.85 and work commenced on 27 March 1941. Concrete was supplied by CA. Maufrais Company of Austin. Steel centering for casting the arched ribs, steel reinforcing rods, and fabricated steel railings were supplied by Alamo Iron Works of San Antonio. By January 1942, one month after the United States entered the Second World War and with these materials determined critical for the war effort, the bridge was reported 57 per cent complete.
Thereafter completion of the bridge and finally the dedication ceremony were presented to the public in a distinctly military light. The bridge was placed by federal officials on the "strategic military network of highways," according to a newspaper account, to hasten completion and justify procurement of construction materials, as well as use of WPA labor for the approach pavements and final landscaping. The dedication was planned for the same day that the U.S. Army's 95th Infantry Division was formally activated at Camp Swift near Bastrop, 35 miles east of Austin. With Governor Coke Stevenson presenting dedication speeches at each site with the same military personnel and parades of the same military equipment convoyed to Austin, the bridge dedication was scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m., 15 July 1942. Stevenson noted, according to published reports, that because of the new dams on the Colorado, it was "possible for the highway department to build the bridge many feet lower than otherwise, saving thousands of dollars in cost, and many tons of materials that now have become needed for the war effort."
The five main piers exhibit modest Art Deco detailing in their splayed footings. The balustrade columns are each a miniature Art Deco skyscraper, reflecting the popularity in this era of consumer articles-radios, furniture, lamps-in the step-back motif of Art Deco, or Moderne buildings. Yet the overall visual effect of the arch combinations is akin to a Roman aqueduct, or even a Romanesque cathedral composition, the latter popular as an architectural revival style through the 1920s. Since many early Art Deco designs in the 1920s drew heavily from the Gothic Revival—for example the 1927 Gulf Building in Houston (N.R. 1983)—perhaps the bridge designers felt comfortable adapting the earlier medieval style-Romanesque—to practical engineering necessities. Despite this careful attention to aesthetics, state highway bridge engineer Percy V. Pennybacker described the bridge as "detailed severely plain."
The Lamar Boulevard Bridge served military convoys—and Austin citizens—well during World War II, then facilitated renewed suburban growth of Austin after the war. In the first decade of the Lamar bridge's use, Austin grew to a population of 132,459, largely through suburban growth west and south. Since its dedication, the bridge has survived periodic floods, though at less dramatic levels than anticipated. True to its design this bridge supports an unceasing load of motor vehicles, as well as bicycles and pedestrians utilizing an extensive lakeside trail system for which the bridge is now an important link. The bridge is an excellent and very late example of open spandrel concrete bridge design. It is also an attractive and efficient reminder of the transition era between New Deal optimism of the Depression and wartime dedication of resources and culture
The first European-descent settler credited with making a home in the present Austin area was Jacob M. Harrell, who pitched a tent about 1835 on the north bank of the Colorado River. In 1838 while hunting near the settlement of Waterloo and Harrell's home site near the present Congress Avenue bridge, newly elected Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar expressed interest in the landscape. In January 1839 Lamar encouraged the commission searching for a new republic capital site to inspect these Colorado River banks between wooded hills to the west and grassland prairies to the east. In May work began on government buildings and surveyor Edwin Waller laid out a new town site on the north bank centered between two creeks. A prominent rise was the nucleus of the grid street system, and a smooth natural descent from the hill to the river accommodated the main street. The central rise became Capitol Hill, and the main street was designated Congress Avenue.
Bridges have periodically spanned the Colorado River at Austin since 1869. In November of that year, a pontoon bridge capable of carrying heavy wagon loads was completed to the foot of Brazos Street, one block east of Congress. A flood destroyed that bridge in 1870. After its reconstruction it was washed out again in 1873. The first "permanent" bridge into Austin was a wooden toll bridge constructed at the foot of Congress Avenue in 1875. (A railroad bridge was completed in 1881; see next paragraph.) Dry rot and a herd of cattle reportedly contributed to the toll bridge's collapse in 1883. The following year a new public bridge, a series of six double intersection Pratt through trusses, was constructed by the King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The latest Congress Avenue vehicular bridge—a 1910 poured-in-place reinforced concrete, barrel arch, open spandrel design-reflected new and durable technology of its time. The Kansas City firm of Waddell and Harrington designed the $210,000 structure, built by the William P. Carmichael Company. (The 1910 Congress Avenue Bridge was rehabilitated in the 1950s, and again in 1980 with a wider prestressed concrete girder deck and other alterations, but retains its original piers and distinctive open spandrel barrel arches.)
The International and Great Northern (later Missouri Pacific [MoPac], now Union Pacific) Railway spanned the Colorado in 1881 at the southwest comer of the Austin townsite with a series of stone piers and six wrought-iron double-intersection Pratt through trusses. These trusses were replaced in 1906 with a series of 14 plate girder spans, utilizing the 1880s stone piers.
Another Austin area Colorado River bridge was built about four miles east (downstream) of the Congress Avenue Bridge in 1889 at Montopolis. A devastating flood in 1935 destroyed this span. A new bridge designed by the Texas Highway Department (established in 1917) was completed in 1938 to carry S.H. 29 (now U.S. Highway 183) traffic across the river at Montopolis. These five steel Parker through trusses represented the state engineers' favored bridge type of the era, when prefabricated steel members could be assembled at remote sites for economical and efficient bridge compositions.
An earlier reinforced concrete, open spandrel bridge survives in Austin near the Lamar Boulevard Bridge, carrying Barton Springs Road across Barton Creek, a few hundred yards from its entry into the Colorado River. This triple-arch bridge of paired ribs was built in 1926 by the City of Austin as a two-lane span at the entry to Zilker Park. This bridge was enlarged in 1946 to four lanes with the construction of an additional set of piers and paired ribs on the north side, spaced slightly wider than the 1926 arrangement.
Austin grew modestly after the turn of the century, secure as the seat of state government and home of the University of Texas, but with a mercurial population due to these institutions. During the Great Depression of the 1930s Austin began to expand more rapidly as part of a national trend of urban growth, and as the result of jobs offered by numerous public works projects in the city. The city's population shot from 53,120 in 1930 to 87,930 in 1940. New Austin subdivisions of the 1930s expanded the city west into the hills and south of the river. The development of a comprehensive recreation park system centered on Zilker Park, about two miles southwest of downtown across the river, was a focus in the 1930s of New Deal labor programs. During this decade periodic flooding of the river was checked by a series of dams above Austin built by the new Lower Colorado River Authority. As early as 1934 the city planned segments of a new north-south artery west of downtown, to tie new subdivisions together and to move regional through-traffic around the congested downtown area.
Construction of Lamar Boulevard by city and federally paid Work Projects Administration (WPA) crews began in 1939, the centennial of Austin's founding through the influence of President Lamar. Federal, state and local governments greatly expanded public works projects during the Depression to provide employment and receive much needed public facilities in return. Roads and landscaping projects proved popular and effective vehicles for this approach to economic crisis throughout the 1930s, [see "Work Projects Administration in Texas," Handbook of Texas Vol. Ill, p. 1132, for a detailed account of the WPA, 1935-42.] By the end of the decade Texas' economy had recovered sufficiently for state and local governments to finance a large share of public works projects, although federal assistance was now commonplace and often essential. Lamar Boulevard was justified beyond city needs as a component of the state highway system, as a more direct connection for Austin to the Fredericksburg Highway (S.H. 20), and as a western bypass around downtown for S.H. 2 between Waco and San Antonio.
Thus the Colorado River bridge for the new Lamar Boulevard was designed by state highway engineers, and was expected to receive funding from the U.S. Public Roads Administration's Federal Aid Program. But a disagreement over the planned load capacity, roadway width and elevation, and the need for a grade separation at the nearby intersection with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, caused the Texas Highway Department to leave the federal government out of financing (and regulating) the bridge's construction. Recovery of the state's economy and a successful state gasoline tax allowed the Highway Department to pay for the structure on its own. Accepting the total cost of the bridge, the State Highway Commission was able to shift $400,000 in federal funds previously assigned to the Lamar bridge project to several other projects.
According to its contract with the City of Austin, the Texas Highway Department agreed to construct the Lamar Boulevard Bridge and its north and south approach roadways, from Fifth Street to Barton Springs Road. The city provided the Highway Department with free right-of-way and liability protection from claims arising from construction of the bridge.
The reinforced concrete, open spandrel design selected for the new bridge was a proven type, first utilized in the U.S. in 1898 by F.W. Patterson, an engineer with the Department of Public Roads in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The open spandrel rib arch design evolved from the open spandrel barrel arch design (exemplified by the 1910 Congress Avenue bridge). The newer design was economical, efficient and popular throughout the nation where plentiful supplies of cement, aggregate and steel reinforcing materials were available.
A history of flooding on the Colorado River through Austin may have played a part in selecting concrete and the durable open spandrel design for the bridge. Internal highway department memos indicated that this bridge might sustain the loss of its deck and roadway approaches in a catastrophic flood, and that the concrete base structures would survive intact. The concrete design, they added, would be able to withstand "occasional submergence." Because of completion in 1940 of the Marshall Ford dam (impounding Lake Travis) upstream, the Lamar bridge deck was placed at 455 feet above sea level, 18 feet lower than the Congress Avenue bridge of 1910. Also, a highway department estimate ($590,000) for construction of a metal deck truss bridge and railroad overpass at a higher elevation for Lamar Boulevard proved to be about $80,000 more than a reinforced concrete bridge and associated railroad underpass at a lower elevation. The State's decision to omit the railroad underpass in 1941 brought the estimated cost of the Lamar Boulevard Bridge down to $350,000.
The contracting team of Cage Brothers and L.A. Turner of Bishop, Texas, was awarded the project for a low bid of $255,843.85 and work commenced on 27 March 1941. Concrete was supplied by CA. Maufrais Company of Austin. Steel centering for casting the arched ribs, steel reinforcing rods, and fabricated steel railings were supplied by Alamo Iron Works of San Antonio. By January 1942, one month after the United States entered the Second World War and with these materials determined critical for the war effort, the bridge was reported 57 per cent complete.
Thereafter completion of the bridge and finally the dedication ceremony were presented to the public in a distinctly military light. The bridge was placed by federal officials on the "strategic military network of highways," according to a newspaper account, to hasten completion and justify procurement of construction materials, as well as use of WPA labor for the approach pavements and final landscaping. The dedication was planned for the same day that the U.S. Army's 95th Infantry Division was formally activated at Camp Swift near Bastrop, 35 miles east of Austin. With Governor Coke Stevenson presenting dedication speeches at each site with the same military personnel and parades of the same military equipment convoyed to Austin, the bridge dedication was scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m., 15 July 1942. Stevenson noted, according to published reports, that because of the new dams on the Colorado, it was "possible for the highway department to build the bridge many feet lower than otherwise, saving thousands of dollars in cost, and many tons of materials that now have become needed for the war effort."
The five main piers exhibit modest Art Deco detailing in their splayed footings. The balustrade columns are each a miniature Art Deco skyscraper, reflecting the popularity in this era of consumer articles-radios, furniture, lamps-in the step-back motif of Art Deco, or Moderne buildings. Yet the overall visual effect of the arch combinations is akin to a Roman aqueduct, or even a Romanesque cathedral composition, the latter popular as an architectural revival style through the 1920s. Since many early Art Deco designs in the 1920s drew heavily from the Gothic Revival—for example the 1927 Gulf Building in Houston (N.R. 1983)—perhaps the bridge designers felt comfortable adapting the earlier medieval style-Romanesque—to practical engineering necessities. Despite this careful attention to aesthetics, state highway bridge engineer Percy V. Pennybacker described the bridge as "detailed severely plain."
The Lamar Boulevard Bridge served military convoys—and Austin citizens—well during World War II, then facilitated renewed suburban growth of Austin after the war. In the first decade of the Lamar bridge's use, Austin grew to a population of 132,459, largely through suburban growth west and south. Since its dedication, the bridge has survived periodic floods, though at less dramatic levels than anticipated. True to its design this bridge supports an unceasing load of motor vehicles, as well as bicycles and pedestrians utilizing an extensive lakeside trail system for which the bridge is now an important link. The bridge is an excellent and very late example of open spandrel concrete bridge design. It is also an attractive and efficient reminder of the transition era between New Deal optimism of the Depression and wartime dedication of resources and culture
Bibliography
"A New Reinforced-Concrete Bridge Across the Colorado River, Austin, Texas." Engineering News 23 June 1910: 713.
"Army and Civil Officials Open New Bridge Here / Kinsmen of Lamar Untie Knot of Rope Placed Across Span." Austin American 16 July 1942: 1-2.
Austin History Center. City of Austin, Annual Report, Department of Engineering and Public Works, 1941.
Banks, Ralph K., P.E. "An Historical Overview: National Defense and the Highway System of Interstate and Defense Highways." Public Works June 1984: 74-79.
"From the Editor's Chair...dedication of the Lamar bridge..." Texas Parade July 1942: 3. Text of Governor's speech.
Garwood, Ellen. "'Austin Bridge Is Falling Down,'..." Houston Chronicle 22 ? 1957. Copy with incomplete date and no page number.
Harper, Robert. "Roads for Defense." County Progress August 1940: 6-7.
"Impressive Rites To Mark Opening Of New Bridge / High Military, City and State Officials To Join In Ceremony." Austin American 15 July 1942: 2.
"Lamar Boulevard Extension Set For Summer Start, Council Told." Austin American 21 May 1948: 2. Railroad underpass details.
"95th Division Activation Set for Today." Austin American 15 July 1942: 1.
"Army and Civil Officials Open New Bridge Here / Kinsmen of Lamar Untie Knot of Rope Placed Across Span." Austin American 16 July 1942: 1-2.
Austin History Center. City of Austin, Annual Report, Department of Engineering and Public Works, 1941.
Banks, Ralph K., P.E. "An Historical Overview: National Defense and the Highway System of Interstate and Defense Highways." Public Works June 1984: 74-79.
"From the Editor's Chair...dedication of the Lamar bridge..." Texas Parade July 1942: 3. Text of Governor's speech.
Garwood, Ellen. "'Austin Bridge Is Falling Down,'..." Houston Chronicle 22 ? 1957. Copy with incomplete date and no page number.
Harper, Robert. "Roads for Defense." County Progress August 1940: 6-7.
"Impressive Rites To Mark Opening Of New Bridge / High Military, City and State Officials To Join In Ceremony." Austin American 15 July 1942: 2.
"Lamar Boulevard Extension Set For Summer Start, Council Told." Austin American 21 May 1948: 2. Railroad underpass details.
"95th Division Activation Set for Today." Austin American 15 July 1942: 1.
Engineering; Architecture; Transportation
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
About National Register Listings
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.
The Alamo, a mission in San Antonio, is perhaps the most famous historical site in Texas. It was the site of a key battle during the Texas Revolution in 1836.
About Travis County
Travis County Timeline
Travis County, Texas, is located in the central part of the state and encompasses the capital city of Austin. The county has a rich history that spans centuries, beginning with the indigenous Native American tribes who inhabited the area long before European settlement.
European exploration of the region began in the 17th century when Spanish explorers ventured into what is now Travis County. However, it was not until the early 19th century that permanent settlements were established. In 1835, the area became part of the Republic of Texas after gaining independence from Mexico, and the county was officially created in 1840.
Travis County was named after William Barret Travis, a Texas Revolution hero who commanded the Texan forces during the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Throughout the 19th century, the county experienced significant growth and development, driven by factors such as the arrival of immigrants, the expansion of the railroad, and the establishment of institutions like the University of Texas at Austin in 1883.
During the 20th century, Travis County continued to evolve and modernize. Austin, the county seat and state capital, grew into a vibrant and culturally diverse city, known for its live music scene, technological innovations, and progressive policies. The county became a center for government, education, and business, attracting a wide range of industries and residents.
Today, Travis County is one of the most populous and economically vibrant counties in Texas. It is home to a diverse population and a wide range of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities. The county's history, coupled with its present-day dynamism, contributes to its unique character and makes it a significant region in the Lone Star State.
European exploration of the region began in the 17th century when Spanish explorers ventured into what is now Travis County. However, it was not until the early 19th century that permanent settlements were established. In 1835, the area became part of the Republic of Texas after gaining independence from Mexico, and the county was officially created in 1840.
Travis County was named after William Barret Travis, a Texas Revolution hero who commanded the Texan forces during the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Throughout the 19th century, the county experienced significant growth and development, driven by factors such as the arrival of immigrants, the expansion of the railroad, and the establishment of institutions like the University of Texas at Austin in 1883.
During the 20th century, Travis County continued to evolve and modernize. Austin, the county seat and state capital, grew into a vibrant and culturally diverse city, known for its live music scene, technological innovations, and progressive policies. The county became a center for government, education, and business, attracting a wide range of industries and residents.
Today, Travis County is one of the most populous and economically vibrant counties in Texas. It is home to a diverse population and a wide range of cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities. The county's history, coupled with its present-day dynamism, contributes to its unique character and makes it a significant region in the Lone Star State.
Travis County Timeline
This timeline provides a condensed summary of the historical journey of Travis County, Texas.
- Pre-19th Century: The area that would become Travis County was inhabited by various Native American tribes, including the Tonkawa and Lipan Apache.
1691: Spanish explorers, including Domingo Terán de los Ríos and Alonso de León, explored the region.
1835: Texas Revolution against Mexico begins, and the area becomes part of the Republic of Texas.
1839: Waterloo, a small village settled near the Colorado River, is selected as the site for the new capital of the Republic of Texas.
1840: Travis County is officially established and named after William Barret Travis, a hero of the Texas Revolution.
1842: The capital is officially named Austin after Stephen F. Austin, "The Father of Texas."
1871: The Houston and Texas Central Railway reaches Austin, facilitating transportation and spurring growth.
1883: The University of Texas at Austin is founded.
1891: The Texas State Capitol building, an iconic landmark, is completed.
1930s-1940s: The construction of dams, including Mansfield Dam and Tom Miller Dam, on the Colorado River provides flood control and creates Lake Travis and Lake Austin, respectively.
1970s-1990s: Austin experiences significant growth and becomes known for its live music scene, technology industry, and progressive culture.
2000s-Present: Travis County continues to grow in population and economic significance, with Austin being recognized as one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States.