Site of First Ferry and Bridge
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(About 300 feet West) First ferry on the Trinity River at Dallas was started here, 1842, by John Neely Bryan (1810 - 1877), the founder of Dallas. Alexander Cockrell (1820 - 1858), early builder and developer, replaced ferry with wooden toll bridge, 1854. This crossing played an important part in the development of the city. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On this spot in 1842, John Neely Bryan—the founder of Dallas—launched the first ferry across the Trinity River, giving travelers a way over the water that would anchor a new settlement. In 1854 developer Alexander Cockrell replaced the ferry with a wooden toll bridge, sturdier infrastructure for a fast-growing town. The crossing became a linchpin in Dallas's rise from riverbank hamlet to commercial city.
Why it matters
River crossings decided where American cities grew, and this ferry-and-bridge site marks the literal foundation of Dallas.
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Related people
- · John Neely Bryan
- · Alexander Cockrell
Related events
- · Founding of Dallas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Neely Bryan, 1810-1877 and Margaret Beeman Bryan, 1825-1919
Dallas, TX
In 1839 Tennessee lawyer John Neely Bryan chose this high bluff and shallow ford on the Trinity River for a trading post, and when he returned in 1841 he platted a town, installed a ferry, and named it Dallas. The Republic of Texas soon opened its Central National Road from here, drawing settlers with liberal land grants. Margaret Beeman, who married Bryan in 1843 and bore six children, and her Illinois-born family were staunch supporters of the man remembered as the "Father of Dallas"; she lived to age 94 and saw the city grow past 150,000.
Central National Road
Dallas, TX
In 1844 the Congress of the Republic of Texas commissioned a road to link the U.S. military highway crossing on the Red River with the Trinity River in Dallas County. Surveyed by George W. Stell, the 130-mile Central National Road ran thirty feet wide through five counties and met the Preston Road, which Col. William G. Cooke's soldiers had opened in 1840 toward Austin. Together these routes joined north and south Texas, easing the way for pioneers to settle the young republic.
James Martin Patterson
Dallas, TX
Kentucky-born James Martin Patterson reached Dallas in 1846 and, with partner John W. Smith, pooled $700 to open one of the town's first stores. Ever the venturer, in 1851 the pair built a flatboat and tried to float cotton down the Trinity River toward the Gulf — a bold bid to give landlocked North Texas a route to market. Patterson went on to serve as county judge from 1854 to 1866 and managed extensive landholdings until his death at ninety-four.
City of Dallas
Dallas, TX
Dallas began in 1841 as a single cabin on the Trinity River, where pioneer John Neely Bryan hoped river navigation would build a city. Instead it was the railroads — the Houston and Texas Central in 1872 and the Texas and Pacific the next year — that turned the young county seat into a commercial powerhouse. By 1890 Dallas was the state's most populous city, its fortunes riding on cotton, wheat, banking, and later East Texas oil, and in 1936 it hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition.