Moore's Crossing Bridge
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This structure was originally part of a six-span bridge across the Colorado River at Congress Avenue in Austin. Constructed there in 1884, it was designed by the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1910 it was dismantled and placed in storage. Five years later three spans were rebuilt here but destroyed the same year in a flood. The current bridge, comprised of the remaining spans, was completed in 1922. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
These iron spans began life in 1884 as part of a six-span bridge carrying Congress Avenue across the Colorado River in Austin, engineered by the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland. Dismantled in 1910 and stored, three spans were re-erected here in 1915 only to be swept away by a flood that same year. The surviving spans were finally rebuilt into the present bridge in 1922.
Why it matters
The bridge's travels—built, stored, moved, flooded, and rebuilt—capture how prized iron infrastructure was salvaged and reused in an era before disposable construction, and how Texas rivers repeatedly humbled the engineers who tried to span them.
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