Pratt Truss Bridge
Deer Park, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A pin connected truss bridge characteristic of the popular style that once dotted rural Texas, this bridge is the last one in Texas built by the Clinton Bridge and Iron Company of Iowa. Originally opened in 1891 on the Leon River in Coryell County in what later became Mother Neff State Park, the bridge was moved 6 miles in the late 1940s or early 1950s to County Road 322. By 1993 the bridge could no longer support modern road traffic. Texas Department of Transportation officials, in a historic preservation agreement with the Texas Historical Commission, painstakingly transported it more than 150 miles to this site. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This pin-connected truss bridge is the last in Texas built by Iowa's Clinton Bridge and Iron Company, first opened in 1891 over the Leon River in what became Mother Neff State Park. Relocated a few miles in the mid-twentieth century, it could no longer bear modern traffic by 1993. Rather than scrap it, transportation and preservation officials moved the span more than 150 miles to this site.
Why it matters
Once common on rural Texas roads, iron truss bridges like this represent the engineering that knit the countryside together—and its careful relocation shows how historic infrastructure can be saved rather than lost.
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