Legends and Myths from Nigger Bridge / Puente de los Negroes

by Javier R. Garcia

[Complete 1953 Chamber of Commerce of Map at end of article]

Back in 2006 when I was working for a local historical museum a person asked about a bridge called “Puente de Los Negroes” where it was rumored black soldiers had been hung after raiding the town of Brownsville around midnight August 13-14, 1906.  I was familiar with the story about 167 African-American soldiers who were discharged without honor by order of Theodore Roosevelt after it was assumed the soldiers were culpable of maintaining a conspiracy of silence following investigations into the matter which failed to uncover the persons involved in the shooting in which a bartender was killed and police lieutenant had to have an arm amputated, but I had never heard of any soldiers being lynched afterward.

A search of the Brownsville Herald archives yielded several references to the bridge such as this one:  “There is a historic marker after you cross Nigger Bridge Highway 77 before Oklahoma Filling Station identifies the site of Rancho Viejo as the home of Jose Sanvador de la Garza to whom was given the Espitu Santo Grant by the King of Spain in 1771.”  

The Barlow Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed the marker on that spot in 1938.  The marker reads:  “’RANCH VIEJO’  Here Jose Salvador de la Garza built his ranch El Espiritu Santo in 1771 --  First European settlement in Cameron County  --  Erected by the State of Texas 1936”

Another historic error that creeps into this topic is the claim that the bridge was where General Taylor and his black troops were camped at the onset of the invasion of Mexico also known as The War with Mexico in 1846. 

One only has to go as far back as 1930 when searching Herald archives for references to the bridge.  Back then it was a landmark north of Brownsville.  Today there isn’t a trace of it to be found as it’s been absorbed as part of the “new” highway 77/83 or 69W if you prefer. Even I get confused.

Digitized online Brownsville Herald archives are missing years from the 1910's but we can safely assume the bridge got its name by 1904 after it was built by the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico railroad and was called “Puente de Los Negroes” by locals and “Nigger Bridge” by a few people using the common although mean-spirited term at the time.  Polite societal folks used the "Negro" term which wasn't offensive at the time.   We'll know the truth about how it got its name and it may come as a surprise but first let's continue with it's history.

Another time the bridge made headlines was after Mexican raiders burned the bridge at "Tandy Station" on October 18,1915. They had robbed the St.LB&M train nearby and shot a brazen army corporal.  Then they burned a trestle bridge to slow down their would be captors.

[Tandy Rd is north of Alton Gloor and also where old timer's have described as the bridge's location.  No date was on this postcard downloaded from Ebay.]

The bridge would have to be rebuilt of wood and it would be most likely done by working Mexicans.  A scarce population of African-Americans who lived in Brownsville would have worked for the St. Louis Brownsville & Mexico which later became the Missouri Pacific Railroad and other menial jobs they could find but as we know Mexican labor has always been cheap in carpentry and construction so it is unlikely black men would have rebuilt the bridge.  It was probably after 1915 that it got it's nick-name.

It would again be rebuilt in the 1920s when Cameron County Judge Oscar Dancy implemented a concrete system known as farm-to-market road system to make it easier for farmers out in the rural dirt road areas.  The bridge would also need to be widened for this project. 

[Photocopied from Historic Brownsville Museum archives taken during the construction of "Dancy's Sidewalks" because they were only one lane wide. - Watermarks included to preclude future errors of history being re-reported by future historians who post photos without facts]

There were several accidents or tragedies reported from this bridge between 1930 and 1948.  In 1930 a car collision occurred in which neither driver was injured near the “D.S. Harrison” home which is described as being near the spot the accident occurred.  In 1935 “People living near ‘Nigger Bridge’ heard the young woman’s cries for aid at about 3 a.m. and notified Chief Deputy Will Cabler who lives nearby.”  Will Cabler was again at the scene in 1937 after two brothers were involved in an altercation which left them with knife slashes on their arms.  An H-E-B truck trailer jackknifed on the spot in 1944 after striking the abutment.  He was passing a county mower who “raised the blade on his machine alongside the highway” which startled the truck driver and caused him to crash.  Then in 1948 four year-old Marcelo Alvarado drowned in the Resaca Del Rancho Viejo near the bridge.

One Bertram Combe was known as the “law south of Nigger Bridge” though the reason he earned that nick-name may be lost to history for now unless he was a judge.  The sports section of the Herald included a small commentary on sports called “Piluski’s Picks” which included sports tid-bits by “Prof. Picus Piluski” parenthetically described as “(Chief of the Pinkertons south of Nigger Bridge, assistant chief of the Pinkertons north of Nigger Bridge, and originator of the air-flow haircut).”  It’s most likely the same man with a different nickname and probably more commonly known as Judge “Buck” Combes.  He and his good ol’ boy pals Bill Kiekel, Bert Hinkley and Robin Pate performed a minstrel show (a show performed by white people in blackface) to benefit underprivileged children under the auspices of the Kiwanians of Brownsville in 1934.

Here's what "Buck, Bill, Bert and Robin" probably looked like.  It doesn't look funny today.

Perhaps the greatest headlines surrounding the bridge came in 1934 when Air Circus was arranged to benefit Boy Scouts.  The air-show included acrobatic plane stunt flying, races and parachute jumpers.  Motorcycle daredevil Louis Tackett raced his bike at 60 mpg through a wall of fire.  The event took place on a make-shift airfield “located on Brownsville – San Benito Highway Near Nigger Bridge.”

Big Spring Daily Herald clipping 2 June 1934

Brownsvile Herald clipping 18 March 1934

Nearby the first oil well in south Texas was drilled in 1915.  The project was mired with trouble which included a bandit raid on the camp working near the bridge.  Then again in 1923 near the same spot from a small dry salt lake more tests were done to search for oil.
 

Before we look at the prophetic piece of evidence found in the A.A. Champion papers at the Brownsville Historical Association archives we’ll take a quick look at the two individuals mentioned in the typewritten document.  One is Ralph Schmelling and the other is Ygnacio Dominguez.  Most historians remember Schmelling as a local local historian who claimed until his dying day that black soldiers were responsible for shooting up the town because of some off-handed remark made by a black soldier was suspicious enough to make all the soldiers guilty in his estimation.  Dominguez was the police officer who lost his arm in the 1906 raid and was interviewed by Schmelling in 1963.  Dominguez was well known for his role in the raid in which he lost an arm but he continued to work for the city many years after and he was also known as the bell ringer of Market Square at the time.  Here is the document:

After the late 1940’s it is possible the Brownsville Herald correctly referred to the Bridge at Resaca del Rancho Viejo but in a 1953 Chamber of Commerce “Points of Interest” map printed locally by Springman-King printers “Nigger Bridge” appears again as a tiny red dot north of Brownsville proper.  Like other historians who try to correct misrepresentations of the past, Schmelling knew one day we would be asking “What’s all this we’ve heard about a bridge called Puente de los Negroes where some blacks were lynched a long time ago?”  The answer is right here.

[Courtesy of Brownsville Historical Association]

Here's a map of the area today.  Be careful if you venture out on the highway to see for yourself.  

If evidence is found later that the course of Tandy Rd was altered in later years as north Brownsville developed it would add support to the theory that it once ran a straight line to where the description of the bridge's location was once upon a time.

UPDATE 8/8/2015 ~ Here's an aerial from 1962.  The bridge isn't visible at all.  That "orange slice" shaped isle surrounded by road mught be site of historical mentioned earlier and Tandy Rd is not unchanged so that scratches my previous hypothesis.  Thanks to Erick Randall Tripp for helping us close this article.