1928 ~ First Steel: Building the Gateway Bridge (Part 2)

Photos and captions from Brownsville Herald archives and photos from archives in Austin, Texas compiled by Jose Cazares

July 31, 1928-The oldest institution on the Lower border, the Brownsville-Matamoros ferry, which has operated continuously for almost 100 years will make its last trip across the Rio Grande at 6 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, July 31. The old has given way to the new. Since the opening of the new bridge the business of the ferry has dwindled to the point where it no longer justified operation of the boats.

 " Build a bridge where a bridge belongs," was the slogan of the Gateway bridge company.

The bridge was erected by the Gateway Bridge Company of which R.B. Creager of Brownsville is president, cost approximately $550,000. The construction work was done by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company of Seattle, Washington. The span of the huge structure was 367 feet, the width was 40 feet, between 4,000 and 5,000 yards of concrete was used in the construction of piers, approaches, driveways, walks and railings. Over 400 tons of steel were placed during construction, which started in December 1927 and then followed a race to erect the steel before the annual spring rise of the Rio Grande, two shifts of workmen were employed constantly, throughout the daylight hours and often far into the night, the rattle of automatic riveters and the chugging of the concrete mixer could be heard, by the middle of May 1928, the huge steel structure began to take form, the concrete roadway was 21 feet in width, bordered on each side by concrete walks 8 feet in width.  All steel work was painted with aluminum metal paint, gleaming like silver in the bright Valley sunshine and forming a beautiful contrast to the gray concrete railings and walks. The American terminal was on Fourteenth street and the Mexican terminal at Santa Cruz  The formal opening of the bridge was on July 4, 1928.

May 29, 1928-Paint Bridge: Painters have been busy several days applying a coating of Aluminum paint over the priming coat of red on the new International bridge-Approximately one sixth of the structure has been covered.

January 6, 1929-BRIDGE LIGHT: The newly installed neon light sign for the Gateway Bridge was lighted for the first time last night. This sign has been placed across Elizabeth street at its intersection with Fourteenth street, and is easily visable from the other end of Elizabeth street in West Brownsville. The sign contains the words "Gateway Bridge," and below in smaller letters, "Mexico," these words are lighted in red and entirely surrounded by a blue line which ends in an arrow head pointing to the bridge.

Here's what the sign on the Mexican side looked like.

Some additional photos from Brownsville Historical Association archival resources