Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge
Bluff Dale, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For decades travelers to Bluff Dale had to ford the Paluxy River, a crossing that grew busier once the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad arrived in 1889 and quickened wagon traffic through town. Around 1891 this iron suspension bridge—locals called it the "swinging" bridge—began carrying the main road west, later signed as State Highway 10 and U.S. 377. By the 1930s highway travel had outgrown it, and in 1934 the whole span was picked up and moved a mile and a half upstream to keep serving quieter local roads.
Why it matters
Rare surviving 19th-century iron suspension bridges like this one trace how rural America stitched itself together in the railroad age, one river crossing at a time.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Public Water Well
Bluff Dale, TX
Dug around 1887 by the crew building the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad, this well was an early oasis for travelers and cattle herds. Once artesian, it lost its natural pressure after a nearby well was sunk to supply steam locomotives with water. Restored in 1965, it still stands ready for local residents in emergencies.
Erath County Courthouse
Stephenville, TX
Stephenville grew from a mid-1850s settlement and became the seat of newly formed Erath County in 1856. When the railroad arrived in 1889 it touched off an economic boom, and county leaders commissioned rising architect J. Riely Gordon to design this limestone Romanesque Revival courthouse, completed in 1892. Its central clock tower has dominated the town square ever since.
Historic Brick Streets of Stephenville
Stephenville, TX
In 1929 the Stephenville City Council set out to tame its dusty streets, hiring the Thurber Construction Co. to pave the town with the high-quality bricks made in nearby Thurber and prized by builders statewide. Laid over a macadam base, the brickwork was paid for largely by property owners even as the Depression loomed, and residents took pride in the durable new thoroughfares.
Baker-Rylee Building and Town Square Service Station
Granbury, TX
Built of cut limestone in 1895, this building housed the hardware business of D.O. Baker and J.D. Rylee on the Granbury square, growing into the Baker Hardware Company by the turn of the century. In 1929 the automobile age remade it literally: the Transcontinental Oil Company knocked out two walls so cars could pull in for gasoline. The transformation from hardware store to service station is written right into the structure.