Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge

Duane's take

The way I hear it, this one comes straight off the official marker for the Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge in Erath County, so let me tell it right. Now, picture this. For at least twenty years, if you wanted to reach Bluff Dale or push on west, you had one option: point your wheels at the Paluxy River and hope for the best.

Ford it. Right through the current. Wagons, horses, whatever you had.

That was the road. Then the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad line reached town in 1889, and wagon traffic picked up considerably. More goods, more people, more crossings.

The Paluxy wasn't getting any narrower, and patience was running thin. So along came this iron bridge, a suspension bridge, what folks called the swinging bridge, and by about 1891 it was spanning the Paluxy and carrying the public across on what would become State Highway 10 and later U.S. 377. Main access road.

The real deal. For decades it did its job. But by 1933, arterial highway travel was demanding something wider.

The old swinger just couldn't keep up with the times. So here is where the story takes a turn. In 1934, authorities didn't tear that bridge down.

They moved it. A full one and a half miles upstream. And there it went on serving local traffic, same iron bones, new home on the river.

That bridge refused to be retired. Some things in Texas are just built that way.

What the marker says

For at least 20 years vehicles had to ford the Paluxy River to reach Bluff Dale and points west. Wagon traffic increased after the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad line reached the town in 1889. This iron bridge began to serve the public by spanning the Paluxy about 1891, on the main access road that became State Highway 10 and later U.S. 377. By 1933 arterial highway travel demanded a wider bridge. In 1934 authorities moved the "swinging" bridge 1.5 miles upstream where it serves local traffic. (1978)