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Traveling via road for the holidays? Try a stop in Waco.
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The Historic Waco Suspension Bridge
About halfway between the artsy, metropolitan cities of Austin and Dallas in McLennan County, Texas lies the unassuming town of Waco. Like many other non-Texas-natives, I was aware of Waco mostly through references in old Western films and television shows. You know—where the dusty, out-of-town cowboy sidles up to the schoolteacher and asks, “Beg yer pardon, ma’am, but can y’all tell me the way to Waco?” Now, I’m from the northeast originally, but just saying the name Waco—well, it’s nearly impossible not to let it roll off the tongue with a good ole Texas twang.
The town was originally named for a Wichita group of Native Americans known as the "Hueco." Way back when in 1824 when Thomas M. Duke made a survey of the small village, he reported to Stephen F. Austin that, "They have a spring almost as cold as ice itself. All we want is some Brandy and Sugar to have Ice Toddy." Priorities, priorities. Austin apparently felt it was worth destroying the village for, but changed his mind and decided to strike a treaty instead. The "Waco" villagers did safely move from the region, northward toward what is now Fort Worth, to eventually join the Wichita tribes in Oklahoma.
That being said, what sights might one stop and see while in Waco, other than the Dr Pepper Museum? (Yes, the soft drink.) Well, the Waco Suspension Bridge, for one.
In 1866, a company was formed in order to attempt the very ambitious project of building a 475-foot (145 m) brick suspension bridge that would span the wide and untamed Brazos River. The "Waco Bridge Company" was supplied cables and steelwork by a firm located in Trenton, New Jersey--the same company that would, after completion of the Waco Bridge, build the Brooklyn Bridge.
When the 475-foot bridge was finished in 1870--an engineering feat for its era--it held the longest span of any bridge west of the Mississippi and allowed for crossings from the nearby “Chisholm Trail”—a famous cattle run and wagon trail that began where the Little and Big Arkansas Rivers join, and ended at Jesse Chisholm's trading post, which was located just southwest of what we know today as Oklahoma City. ("The Chisholm Trail" is also a great title for a Western film, in my opinion.) If not for the completion of the impressive bridge, the little city of Waco might have remained another one-horse Texas town. The new span had an immediate and booming affect on the population, as it finally allowed horses and carriages safe entry into the city.
The bridge is now registered as an official National Historic Place and is open to pedestrians only. So, if you're planning on traveling between Austin and Waco over the holidays, do take a moment to stop in Waco and view the famous Suspension Bridge, situated between two beautiful local parks--Indian Spring and Martin Luther King, Jr. Maybe take a picture, either mental or digital. After all, it’s more than just a halfway point—it’s a little piece of history.
For more information: http://www.wacocvb.com/trip_builder/attractions.aspx?attraction=16, http://www.waco-texas.com/city_depts/parks/Fall-Winter-09-Good-Times.pdf, http://www.thechisholmtrail.com/
Contact Bonnie Scott directly at: oracle-59039@mypacks.net
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