Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge Explained

Bridge Name:	Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge
Carries:	Pedestrian way on County Road 49 (Berry's Creek Road)
Crosses:	Paluxy River
Locale:	Berry's Creek Road, Bluff Dale, Texas
Designer:	Edwin Elijah Runyon
Design:	Cable-stayed
Material:	Wrought iron
Spans:	3
Pierswater:	2
Mainspan:	140feet
Length:	200feet
Width:	13feet
Owner:	Erath County
Begin:	1890
Complete:	1890
Extra:	Embed: yes Bluff Dale Bridge Map Label: Bluff Dale Bridge Locmap Relief: yes Added: December 20, 1977 Refnum: 77001440 Designated Other1: TSAL Designated Other1 Date: May 28, 1981 Designated Other1 Number: 8200000250 Designated Other1 Num Position: bottom

The Bluff Dale Bridge is a historic cable-stayed bridge (not a suspension bridge) located near Bluff Dale, Texas, United States. Built in 1891, the bridge spans 225feet across the Paluxy River. The road deck is 28feet above the river and held in place by fourteen 1adj=midNaNadj=mid cables attached to the towers made of 9adj=midNaNadj=mid iron pipe.

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. In 1933, a new bridge was built to handle the increasing traffic on U.S. 377. The old bridge was relocated 1.5miles upstream in 1934 and extended from 200feetto225feetft (toft).^[1]

The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places 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.^[2]

Structure type

Despite the name given in Historic American Engineering Record documentation, the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge is actually a cable-stayed structure.^[3] 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, .^[4] 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
• List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Erath County, Texas

Notes and References

1. Web site: Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge . Texas Historic Sites Atlas . August 26, 2009.
2. Web site: Preservation Texas: Most Endangered Places 2009 . 2009-05-20 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090305062347/http://preservationtexas.org/endangered/2009.htm . 2009-03-05.
3. Web site: Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge . Brown . Mark M. . August 1996 . Historic American Engineering Record . Library of Congress . Washington, D.C. . 7 . 2018-10-05.
4. News: Buonopane . Stephen G. . Brown . Mark M. . History and Engineering Analysis of the 1890 Cable-Stayed Bluff Dale Bridge . Proceedings of the First International Congress on Construction History . Madrid . Instituto Juan de Herrera . 2003 . 433–442.