Faust Street Bridge
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Caravans carrying supplies to Spanish missions in east Texas and other travelers crossed the Guadalupe River on El Camino Real (The King's Highway) near this site in the 18th century. It sometimes took weeks for floodwaters to subside so travelers could cross. In 1887, the Comal County commissioners court contracted with the King Iron Bridge Company of Ohio to build a high water bridge over the Guadalupe River. Among the last wrought iron bridges built in Texas and one of the first long-term toll-free structures completed over a major waterway in the state, this monumental truss structure extends more than 640 feet in length. It is comprised of two main spans, known as Pratt (Whipple) truss spans, flanked by two smaller spans. The Whipple was a variation on the more typical Pratt truss style bridge design which enjoyed brief but explosive popularity in the mid- to late-19th century. These trusses are connected by a pin-and-hanger system, which was the common method of the time. The spans are supported by oval-shaped masonry piers with rusticated stonework and pointed, or "cut-water," ends. In 1917, the Texas Highway Department designated the Faust Street bridge to serve as a major crossing for all traffic between Austin and San Antonio on state highway 2, formerly the Austin-San Antonio post road. In 1934, a new concrete highway bridge was erected. The Faust Street bridge continued to serve local traffic until it was damaged by fire in 1979. Its unique design, using a combination of Pratt and Whipple truss types, and its wrought iron construction place the Faust Street bridge among the important historic bridges in the state. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1999
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Spanish supply caravans on El Camino Real forded the Guadalupe near here in the 1700s, sometimes waiting weeks for floods to recede. In 1887 Comal County hired Ohio's King Iron Bridge Company to build a high-water crossing — a monumental wrought-iron truss stretching more than 640 feet, combining Pratt and Whipple spans on masonry piers. It carried the main Austin-to-San Antonio traffic until a concrete bridge replaced it in 1934, then served locals until fire damaged it in 1979.
Why it matters
One of the last great wrought-iron truss bridges in Texas, it marks the leap from perilous river fords to reliable all-weather crossings that opened the state to travel and trade.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Long before any bridge stood here, this stretch of the Guadalupe River was a chokepoint on one of the oldest roads in Texas. In the eighteenth century, Spanish caravans hauling supplies to the missions of east Texas crossed the river near this site on El Camino Real — the King's Highway. When the river ran high, travelers could wait weeks for the floodwaters to fall before they dared to cross.
That single detail — weeks of waiting — explains everything that came later. A river without a reliable crossing was not just an inconvenience; it was a wall. Commerce, travel, and communication all halted at the water's edge until nature relented.
By the late nineteenth century, in the Gilded Age boom of railroads and iron, America was in the business of conquering exactly such obstacles. Bridge-building had become an industry, and iron truss spans were rising over rivers across the country. The old ford's days were numbered.
People & events
In 1887, the Comal County commissioners court struck a contract with the King Iron Bridge Company of Ohio to build a high-water crossing over the Guadalupe. What they got was a monument: a wrought-iron truss stretching more than 640 feet, among the last wrought-iron bridges built in Texas and one of the first long-term toll-free structures over a major waterway in the state.
The engineering is the story here. Two main spans use the Pratt (Whipple) truss design — the Whipple being a variation on the widely used Pratt style that enjoyed a brief but explosive popularity in the mid-to-late nineteenth century — flanked by two smaller spans and joined by the era's standard pin-and-hanger connections. The whole structure rests on oval masonry piers of rusticated stone, their pointed "cut-water" ends shaped to split the current.
The bridge's working life stretched across decades. In 1917 the Texas Highway Department made it a major crossing for all traffic between Austin and San Antonio on State Highway 2, the old post road. A new concrete bridge took over the through-traffic in 1934, and the Faust Street bridge carried local travelers until a fire damaged it in 1979. It was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1999.
Its place in the American story
This bridge marks a turning point that played out on rivers all across America: the leap from the perilous, weather-ruled ford to the dependable, all-weather crossing. When a wait of weeks became a crossing of minutes, trade and travel could finally flow on a schedule — and regions that had been divided by water were knit together.
Its very construction is a chapter of the industrial age. An Ohio bridge company shipping a massive iron structure to central Texas is the Gilded Age in miniature: standardized engineering, national manufacturing, and local government combining to modernize the countryside. The truss styles and pin-and-hanger connections it displays were the cutting-edge technology of their brief moment.
That it was one of the first long-term toll-free crossings of a major Texas waterway matters too. A public, free bridge was a statement that mobility was a shared good — infrastructure as a civic promise, not just a private venture.
If you visit
Give yourself time to walk the length of it, because 640-plus feet of wrought iron is meant to be experienced slowly. Look closely at the truss work overhead — the Pratt and Whipple spans, the pin-and-hanger joints — and you're reading the engineering vocabulary of the 1880s written in metal.
Don't miss the piers. Their rusticated stonework and pointed "cut-water" ends were shaped to cleave the Guadalupe's floods, the same floods that once stranded travelers for weeks. Standing above the river, you can feel the whole point of the place: this is where waiting ended and crossing began.
As a road-trip stop between Austin and San Antonio, it's especially fitting, since this bridge once carried exactly that traffic. It's a chance to stand on a genuine piece of nineteenth-century engineering and imagine the caravans, wagons, and early automobiles that all funneled to this single bend in the river.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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