DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Cow Bayou Swing Bridge in Orange County. Now, most bridges just sit there. They don't do a thing but hold still and let you cross.
But the Cow Bayou Swing Bridge — that one moves. And that, right there, is worth a story. Completed in 1940, this center-bearing swing bridge is one of only a few highway bridges of its kind still standing in Texas.
Eight hundred and six feet of steel and concrete, carrying two lanes of traffic, right there along Texas Highway 87 — the road they called the Hug-the-Coast Highway, running all the way from Orange down to Brownsville. The Cow Bayou Bridge was the last major piece of that highway to be built, and when it went in, it snapped together a vital connection between Orange and Port Arthur like the final link in a chain. Now, the engineers didn't start from scratch.
They modeled this bridge after an existing swing bridge over the Sabine River in Deweyville, up in Newton County, which had been completed in 1938. So they had a proven design and they ran with it. The magic of a swing bridge is in the pivot.
There's a central plate mounted on a center-bearing concrete pier — that pier itself sitting on timber piles — and when a boat needs through, an electric motor fires up and that whole central span swings. A complete opening and closing takes ten minutes. Road traffic stops, water traffic moves, then road traffic goes again.
Ten minutes. That's it. The bayou and the highway share the crossing, turn by turn.
And once that bridge was standing, the country around it started to shift. The Prairie View and Winfree school districts had been sitting on opposite sides of Cow Bayou — separated by that water — but with the bridge there, they consolidated. Somebody needed a name for the new district.
They looked around at what defined the place: the Cow Bayou Bridge right there, and not far off, the Rainbow Bridge over the Neches River, which had also been completed in 1938. Two bridges. The name Bridge City was suggested, and it stuck.
The community incorporated as Bridge City in 1970. Of course, nothing good gets to coast forever. In 1999, the Texas Department of Transportation — TxDOT — started weighing whether to replace the Cow Bayou Bridge altogether.
That notion sat uneasily with the people who knew what this bridge meant. By 2007, concerned citizens had formed a group and were making their case loud and clear: keep the bridge. Preserve it.
Don't tear down a piece of history just because it's old enough to have earned some wear. TxDOT listened. Instead of replacement, they moved to adjust and repair the bridge so it could go right on doing what it had always done — functioning as a living, working part of an important transportation corridor.
Eight hundred and six feet long, built in 1940, still opening and closing in ten minutes flat. Some bridges just sit there. This one keeps on moving.
What the marker says
THIS CENTER-BEARING SWING BRIDGE, COMPLETED IN 1940, IS ONE OF ONLY A FEW SUCH HIGHWAY BRIDGES REMAINING IN TEXAS. THE BRIDGE WAS THE LAST MAJOR COMPONENT CONSTRUCTED ALONG TEXAS HIGHWAY 87, WHICH WAS KNOWN AS THE "HUG-THE-COAST-HIGHWAY" RUNNING FROM ORANGE TO BROWNSVILLE. THE STRUCTURE ALSO CREATED A VITAL CONNECTION BETWEEN THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC CENTERS OF ORANGE AND PORT ARTHUR. THE COW BAYOU BRIDGE WAS MODELED AFTER AN EXISTING SWING BRIDGE OVER THE SABINE RIVER IN DEWEYVILLE, NEWTON COUNTY, WHICH HAD BEEN COMPLETED IN 1938. THIS STRUCTURE IS 806 FEET IN TOTAL LENGTH AND CARRIES TWO LANES OF TRAFFIC. THE BRIDGE HAS A CENTRAL PLATE THAT PIVOTS OR "SWINGS" ON A CENTER-BEARING CONCRETE PIER MOUNTED ON TIMBER PILES. AN ELECTRIC MOTOR POWERS ITS MOVING PARTS, AND A COMPLETE OPENING AND CLOSING OF THE BRIDGE CAN OCCUR IN TEN MINUTES, ALLOWING MOVEMENT OF BOTH ROAD AND WATER VEHICLES. AFTER THE COMPLETION OF THE BRIDGE, THE PRAIRIE VIEW AND WINFREE SCHOOL DISTRICTS, WHICH WERE LOCATED ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF COW BAYOU, WERE CONSOLIDATED. THE NAME BRIDGE CITY WAS SUGGESTED FOR THE NEW DISTRICT, BECAUSE OF THE COW BAYOU BRIDGE AND THE NEARBY "RAINBOW BRIDGE" OVER THE NECHES RIVER, WHICH HAD BEEN COMPLETED IN 1938; THE COMMUNITY INCORPORATED AS BRIDGE CITY IN 1970. IN 1999 THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (TxDOT) CONSIDERED REPLACEMENT OF THE COW BAYOU BRIDGE, AND CONCERNED CITIZENS FORMED A GROUP IN 2007 TO ADVOCATE FOR THE BRIDGE'S RETENTION. AS A RESULT, TxDOT INSTEAD TOOK ACTION TO ADJUST AND REPAIR THE BRIDGE SO THAT IT COULD BE PRESERVED AS A FUNCTIONING PART OF AN IMPORTANT TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR.