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 

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.  

Beatles at Washington Park Brownsville, Texas

I would like to do a Mexican version of this with guys wearing sombreros and carrying instruments like this one below.  Maybe later.  This is one of several Photoshopped images for the infamous Jefferson Davis stone we like to have fun with.  We'll make a coffee table book for them someday.  

E Elizabeth St & 10th courtesy of  Joe Von Hatten

Pin-up Cards from Brownsville Station to Bronsbil Estacion

 In the early days people's names would appear showing it was their birthday so several custom birthday cards were made; this one using the classic bomber girl logo

 Trying hard to look like Marilyn Monroe

 An any reason to celebrate card

A play on Kris Kristofferson's "You can leave Brownsville but you can never get Matannoros out of your Soul" famous t-shirt.  Several other designs were posted but here's an example with the Majestic Theater.

 Another birthday card collage

 just weird

 practicing text tricks on Photoshop

 Mixed a new beer with an old ad for fun 

 Bomber girl classic which now is considered sexist to some people but it plays out well with the vintage theme on Bronsbil Estacion

 1970s 

Vanna White