Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge
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The Bluff Dale Bridge is a historic
cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...
(not a
suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
) located near
Bluff Dale, Texas Bluff Dale is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) in Erath County, Texas, United States. The Bluff Dale Independent School District serves area students. Bluff Dale, Texas is on U.S. Highway 377 and the North Palux ...
,
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Built in
1891 Events January * January 1 ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. **Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories. * January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a ...
, the bridge spans across the
Paluxy River The Paluxy River, also known as Paluxy Creek, is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the ''North Paluxy River'' and the ''South Paluxy River'' near Bluff Dale, Texas in E ...
. The road deck is above the river and held in place by fourteen cables attached to the towers made of
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...
.


History

The bridge was originally constructed across the river on a dirt road that became Texas State Highway 10, which is now
U.S. Route 377 U.S. Route 377 (US 377) is a north–south United States highway. Originally formed as a short spur to connect Denton and Fort Worth, Texas, it has since been extended northward into Oklahoma and southward to Del Rio, Texas, near the ...
. In 1933, a new bridge was built to handle the increasing traffic on U.S. 377. The old bridge was relocated upstream in 1934 and extended from . The bridge was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on December 20, 1977. The bridge is on Preservation Texas' 2009 list of most endangered places due to its poor condition and lack of funds for restoration. It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1989 because of its advanced state of deterioration.


Structure type

Despite the name given in
Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...
documentation, the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge is actually a
cable-stayed A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern o ...
structure. Its deck is suspended from multiple layers of stay cables radiating from the towers, some terminating at the deck and others running continuously from one tower to the other. This pattern of cables was established in designer Edwin Elijah Runyon's first U.S. patent, . It is known as one of only two examples of Runyon's patents, along with the Barton Creek Bridge in Huckabay, Texas. Its hand-twisted wire cable and non-traditional use of wrought-iron pipe components make it a notable example of vernacular American bridge construction.


See also

*
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Texas A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas This is a list of bridges currently on the National Register of Historic Places in the U.S. state of Texas. References

{{NRHP bridges Bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas, Lists of bridges on the National Regi ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Erath County, Texas


Notes


References


External links

* {{Authority control Bridges completed in 1890 Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Cable-stayed bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in Erath County, Texas Pedestrian bridges in Texas Former road bridges in the United States Historic American Engineering Record in Texas Relocated buildings and structures in Texas National Register of Historic Places in Erath County, Texas Wrought iron bridges in the United States 1890 establishments in Texas