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| TCHC members at the 3rd street trestle dedication, June 2022, as the trestle was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Click to enlarge. |
The 3rd
Street railroad trestle that spans Shoal Creek on what was the western
outskirts of downtown Austin, Texas, is a surviving example of what railroads
meant for the growth and development of Austin.
Originally built in 1876 by the International & Great Northern
(I&GN) Railroad and later rebuilt in 1908 and 1925, the wooden trestle stands
today as a reminder of the remarkable evolution that transformed Austin when railroads
arrived more than 140 years ago. Trains
that rumbled into town over the trestle were a driving force that propelled the
city to prominence as the capital of the State of Texas.
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| The trestle (circled) appears on the 1887 Austin birdseye map drawn by Augustus Koch. Retrieved 10/9/19 http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/historic_tex_cities.html |
Five years after the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad rolled into Austin on Christmas Day in 1871, the I&GN arrived as Austin’s second railroad when it steamed into town on December 28, 1876.[1] The I&GN entered Austin from the west and crossed over Shoal Creek on the trestle and proceeded eastward into downtown along Cypress Street (now 3rd Street) to its depot at the southwest corner of Congress Avenue.[2]
Over time, the timbered trestle
featured eleven spans with walkways on either side.[3] The loads the
trestle carried were distributed throughout the structure, giving it resiliency
against stresses imposed by trains that chugged across. The 3rd Street
trestle is a straightforward design that was in widespread use in early railroad
construction. Wooden trestles built back
then were open, braced frameworks of strong vertical supports called “bents” shaped
in the form of a tripod that rose from the ravine. Timber in a bent was held in place with sway
braces and sashes that rigidly supported an overhead deck of stringers, wooden railing,
ties, and tracks.[4]
As the years passed by, the I&GN
developed into the city’s major rail line.[5] The location of the trestle at the Shoal Creek
crossing played a strong role in supporting local businesses in the downtown
area of Austin. One period map shows a
network of rail lines that sprawled across the bottom half of the city.[6] On the west bank of Shoal Creek was a cluster
of spurs and sidings known locally as the “Upper Yards” within a compact area that
serviced cotton merchants, brickmakers, stock pens, and the City’s water supply
plant.
On the east bank of
the creek was a network of tracks known as the “Lower Yards” that serviced a
warehouse district in a rectangle roughly situated between West Avenue and Congress
Avenue on one side and 2nd Street and 4th Street on the
other. At the center of its express
business, the I&GN (later its successor the Missouri Pacific Railroad) operated
a freight depot located at Guadalupe and 3rd Streets on the block
where the W Hotel stands today. A
block west, the railroad maintained a freight house and platform for general freight
car loading and unloading where a high-rise condominium now reaches skyward.[7]
I&GN trains
brought in products that wholesalers needed to ply their business and consumables
that Austin citizens wanted for their necessities and pleasure. Builders needed lumber, plumbing supplies,
lime and cement, hardware, steel trusses, pipe, plastics, and paint to build a
better Austin. Homemakers needed grain,
flour, ice, and groceries to run their households. Office workers needed supplies and paper, butchers
needed poultry and meat, saloons needed cigars and beer, automobiles dealers
needed parts, and everybody needed janitorial supplies. Calcasieu Lumber Company, Walter Tips Hardware,
Nalle Plastics, and the Austin American-Statesman
anchored this multiblock area as four of the most important employers in the
Austin business community.[8]
The I&GN brought
in these provisions at a busy pace. Freight
trains moved in and out of the railyards, switch locomotives waited their turn
at sidings, box cars were dropped and picked up at platforms, materials and bundles
were stacked on docks, and workers shoved and heaved to keep the ball rolling.[9]
Some sixteen years
after I&GN built the trestle, a third railroad arrived in Austin to share it
with the I&GN. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas
(M-K-T) Railroad (the “Katy”) entered Texas with regular train service in 1872.[10] It began operations in Austin twenty years
later. By 1923, the M-K-T ran five trains
a day in each direction through Austin.[11]
They arrived through east Austin and stopped
at the H&TC depot located at the northeast corner of Congress Avenue and 3rd
Street.[12] M-K-T trains then ran southbound out of
Austin over the trestle via trackage rights with the Missouri Pacific (MP)
Railroad toward San Marcos. Although the
MP gave up the trestle for passenger service in 1949, the M-K-T continued to
depend on it for routing its trains to San Antonio. The Katy’s last train left Austin on July 26,
1964.[13]
The trestle over Shoal
Creek, as it exists today, is the only remaining railroad structure in the western
3rd Street corridor. Tucked away in the
burgeoning urban landscape of downtown Austin and hidden under the overgrowth of
chinaberry trees and the relentless creep of tangled vines, the trestle is a sturdy
edifice that surely stands the test of time. A monument to Austin’s railroading history, the
trestle is a memory of the past that serves as a perfect candidate for preservation
in the future.
Because the trestle is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of
Austin and Travis County history, the Shoal Creek Conservancy, an Austin-based group that works to protect and enhance the creek, filed a request with the Texas Historical Commission (THC) to nominate the structure for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. THC agreed and submitted the nomination to the National Park Service (NPS) in October of 2021. On November 23, 2021, the NPS entered the trestle into the Register.
Endnotes.
[1] Handbook of Texas Online, George C. Werner, "INTERNATIONAL-GREAT
NORTHERN RAILROAD," accessed October 24, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqi04.
[2] Map of the International and Great Northern Railroad:
(Lone [Star] Route) and connections., map, 1877; Chicago,
Illinois. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231275/: accessed December 6, 2018), University
of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of
Texas at Arlington Library.
[3] Seicer,
Guest. Texas’ hill country bridges – covering
Austin and more. https://www.forum.urbanohio.com/topic/12846-texas-hill-country-bridges-covering-austin-and-more/
(accessed 19 November 2018). p. 4/8.
[4] Wooden
Trestle Construction on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. Trestle components. http://www.rhyman.org/articles/trestles-rgs-style
(accessed 19 November 2018).
[5] Willoughby,
Larry. Austin, a Historical Portrait. Norfolk, Virginia: The Donning Company. 1981. p.
57.
[6] Station map,
lands, tracks, and structures of the International & Great Northern Railway. Austin History Center map collection.
[7] Ibid.
[8]
Insurance Maps of Austin, Texas. Volume
One. Sanborn Map Company, New York. 1935.
Austin History Center map collection.
[9] Wright,
Hamilton.
Austin American-Statesman. “Railroads
Once Big Giant Here.” 29 March 1962. p. B20.
[10] Handbook of Texas Online, Donovan L. Hofsommer, "MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS
RAILROAD," accessed October 23, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqm08.
[11] Statesman. Notice of railroad timetable. 16 November 1923. p. 15.
[12] Texas
& New Orleans Austin Division Time Table No. 44. 10 March 1929.
[13] Statesman. “Today, Sunday Last Katy Run.” 25 July 1964.
p. 1.
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