1927 ~ First Steel: Building the Gateway Bridge (Part 1)

Here's a rare clump of lone-gone history very few get to see and fewer remember actually seeing. Not a history - but historical first photos of the former Gateway International Bridge.

Part one compiled by Jose Cazares & Javier Garcia

This is Gateway Bridge built in 1927-28.  We'll be looking at a series of photos of it's early construction in 1927.

 Map showing bridge site where 'tongue' of Matamoros licks Brownsville

Looking from Mexican side of Rio with a few labels to make identifying landmarks of the time easier.

"First Steel" may refer to the girders of the truss bridge they were building.  A girder is a large support beam and main horizontal support of the bridge system of bracing parts.

A pile driver is used to hammer pier to bridge construction process from Brownsville, Texas to the Matamoros, Tamaulipas side.

 

Construction from the Mexican side.

 A cofferdam is a watertight enclosure pumped dry to permit construction work below the waterline.

We will see more long-shots and close ups of the bridge's truss system being constructed.

More photos of the bridge under construction coming soon.  Sorry - we're not experts and did not take time to write a history of this.