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The Regency
Suspension Bridge over the Colorado River
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, March 2008 |
Colorado River
Bridge at Regency
Regency's
1939 bridge is one of eight remaining suspension bridges in Texas
and has been used in commercials and as a backdrop for television
programs. It was rededicated March 1, 1999.
The original 1903 bridge fell in 1924 and its replacement was swept
away in a flood in 1938. Construction of the bridge was from April
to October of 1939.
Mills and San
Saba Counties both paid for construction of the bridge which was
built with local labor under supervision of the Austin Bridge Company
of Dallas. During WWII,
the bridge was visited by troops stationed at nearby Camp Brady and
locals used the bridge as a meeting place and held dances there. |
By Mike Cox
When you’re standing on a suspension bridge and the span begins to
bounce as a car starts across, it may be necessary to suspend an instinctive
urge to run.
This is especially true with the Regency Bridge, which crosses the
Colorado River 23 miles from Goldwaithe
to link Mills
and San Saba
counties. Looking down at the river below, a normally robust appears
to be considerably smaller.
Suppressing hard-wired flight impulses can be even more difficult
if you’ve pulled off Mills County Road 127 to read the 1976-vintage
historical marker summarizing the bridge’s history. The first
bridge on this site was built in 1903. That structure, a traditional
truss bridge, lasted only 23 years – practically a blink of an eye
when it comes to public infrastructure typically designed to last
a half-century or more.
Unfortunately, what the first bridge’s builder surely considered impossible
happened on May 9, 1924 when a rancher and his two sons pushed
a herd of cattle across the bridge... more
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Historical Marker
In Goldthwaite,
on Fisher St (183/16)
Regency Suspension
Bridge
(Near extinct town
of Regency, 22 mi. SW)
This area's first Colorado River bridge was at Regency,
on Mills
- San Saba
County line. Built 1903, it served ranchers and farmers for going
to market, but fell in 1924, killing a boy, a horse, and some cattle.
Its successor was demolished by a 1936 flood. With 90 per cent of
the work done by hand labor, the Regency Suspension Bridge was erected
in 1939. It became the pride of the locality, and youths gathered
there in the 1940s to picnic, dance, and sing. Bypassed by paved farm
roads, it now (1976) survives as one of the last suspension bridges
in Texas.
1976 |
Another view
of the Colorado River Regency Suspension Bridge
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, March 2008 |
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