SEAoT - San Antonio

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OLD HAYS STREET BRIDGE

TEXAS HISTORIC CIVIL ENGINEERING LANDMARK

Designation as an ASCE Texas Historic Civil Engineering Landmark is a distinction given only to few notable works of civil engineering in the State. The landmark must be shown to be historic, to be unique or have characteristics which set it apart from other projects, and must have been shown to have made a contribution to the civil engineering profession and to the City and State. A very detailed submission must be approved by the Texas Section, ASCE Committee on History and Heritage. If approved by the committee, it must be then be submitted to the Texas Section ASCE Board composed of Civil Engineers from all over the State for its decision.

San Antonio, a historic city, is fortunate to have received four National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks: El Camino Real (The Royal Road), the Acequias, The Riverwalk Flood Control Project, and Old Hanger 9 at Brooks Air Force Base. It is also the location of three Texas Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks: Original Cement Plat at Sunken Gardens, Medina Dam, and now OLD HAYS STREET BRIDGE.

The Old Hays Street Bridge is the oldest (by five years) of the nine bridges in San Antonio eligible for the National Register. It is presently on the historic lists of the City of San Antonio, the Texas Department of Transportation, and the Texas Historical Commission, and application is being prepared for listing on the National Register.

The bridge is composed of two different through truss bridge spas: one a Pratt of 128'-0" span and the other, the more historically significant, a "Whipple/Old Phoenix" span of 225'-0 3/4". The Pratt, the more common truss type, was patented in 1844. The "Whipple/Old Phoenix" bridge is one of only six left in the State and has the distinction of having been constructed about 1887 by the Morgan Steamship Lines as part of a narrow gauge railroad bridge (16'-0" center to center of trusses) over the Atchafalaya Bayou near Morgan City, Louisiana. The Morgan Railroad was sold in the late 1890s to the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Co. and the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway Co. (subsidiaries of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co.).

In the early 1900s the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway Co. desired to lay tracks across a number of east side San Antonio city streets. In order to do so the City required the Railway Co, to provide overpasses (viaducts) at New Braunfels Avenue and at Hays Street. The dismantled Atchafalaya Bridge spans thus were sent to San Antonio (and widened to 25' center to center of trusses) to provide these overpasses. Plans and specifications and formal documents were prepared for the Hays Street Bridge, which provided for new support piers, approaches, and bridge deck, which were approved February 14, 1910.

After serving horse drawn vehicles, then Model Ts, and then more modern autos of the 70s, the bridge was determined to be structurally deficient for carrying even ordinary vehicles any longer. After being in service in San Antonio for over 70 years, the bridge was closed to traffic in 1982. Plans are now underway to restore the Bridge as a "Hike and Bike" trail to serve the Dignowity Hill Historic District.

As with all restoration work matching funds must be raised to qualify for any funded monies. This historical project is no different and local volunteers have established a center for fund raising activities. Those wishing to aid this once in a lifetime project of significant worth with their time, pledges or donations may contact