| |
| Editor’s
Note: Will
and Karla Beauchamp of Tuleta, Texas
both descend from ancestors who planted cotton.
Will’s father also taught Texas history in nearby Pettus, Texas. The apple doesn’t
fall from the tree and Will discovered early on that he had inherited the history
gene.
In Mr.
Beauchamp’s own words: “I started out collecting antique bottles in my youth in
the Tuleta / Beeville
area of South Texas. My father teaching
history just fueled my desire to collect historical items, especially from South
Texas. I then started collecting cotton
gin postcards. Almost every town
in Texas had at least one cotton gin and many had several. Before and after
the Civil War many Southerners migrated to Texas.
The families were so big that most farms were self-sufficient. Many cotton farmers
who knew nothing else found that cotton didn't grow very well in some regions.
About five
years ago I caught the bridge craze. The story of the old Texas
bridges is similar to the fate of the gins.
Almost all of them are gone now and it's a history that some of us want to save.
I thought that by sharing my collection with Texas Escapes’
readers, it would reach a much larger audience than it would stuck away and only
seen by a few.” |
Forgotten
Texas Bridges - Series One:
Ballinger, Corpus Christi, Junction, Marble Falls, Marlin, Mineral Wells, Concho
River Bridge, Tandy’s Station, Tuleta and Gatesville |
| Ballinger,
Texas, Colorado River, The G.C. & S.F. Railroad Bridge (still standing) |
Concho
River Bridge, also known as the Lone Wolf Bridge, Lone
Wolf, Texas
Postcard circa 1906 |
| Corpus
Christi, The old Bascule Bridge opening for the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”)
Dismantled and replaced by the current bridge in the early 1960s. |
| Bridge
at Junction, Texas - postcard
dated Jan 3, 1926 (No information available) |
| Brazos
River Bridge, Marlin, Texas - postmarked
1907 (supports still visible in 2007) |
Bridge
at Tandy's Station (on Texas-Mexico border), burned.
No information available
on the bridge or the community. |
New
Medio Creek Bridge at Tuleta, Texas.
"Writing on the back of the postcard is a message from one of the men pictured
on the bridge to his sister. He states this is the new bridge they just built.
Postcard dated May 1909." - Will Beauchamp |
 |
Forgotten Texas
Bridges - Forum Subject:
Thank You
I really enjoyed seeing all of Will Beauchamp's old bridge postcards!
My great-grandfather came to Texas from France in 1869, and within a few years
he was working for the old I&GN Railroad (merged with Missouri Pacific). He was
a bridge engineer, and actually supervised the crews who built or repaired many
of these old train bridges you show here, especially the ones in central Texas,
in his nearly 50 year career with the railroad. I had no idea what that work entailed,
and it was a real treat to see these pictures so I can pass them on to my grandchildren!
Thank you! - Kaye Vivian, July 10, 2010
Subject: Gallery of Forgotten Bridges
What great photos!! I was doing some research on an old bridge in Ballinger
and happened upon your site. There is one bridge you identify in your Forgotten
Gallery as the Concho River bridge – I believe it is also known as the Lone Wolf
Bridge. Keep up the great work – very interesting and educational! - Kathy Keane,
San Angelo, June 18, 2008 |
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