{"nrhp_refnum":"07001098","name":"San Jacinto Street Bridge over Buffalo Bayou","other_names":["B570-17-001"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"San Jacinto St. at Buffalo Bayou","address_restricted":false,"city":"Houston","county":"Harris County","state":"TX","lat":29.764867053000046,"lon":-95.35783490599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-10-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1914 open spandrel concrete arch bridge carrying San Jacinto Street over Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston, Harris County, Texas. It is 325 feet long with eight spans, and is owned by the city.","why_significant":"The bridge is one of only twenty-three open-spandrel arch bridges in Texas. It reflects City Beautiful design influences from Houston's Mayor H.B. Rice era. It keeps the character-defining features of its type, notably the barrel arch ring and open spandrel design, despite a 1997 replacement of the deck, sidewalks and railing.","narrative":"Carrying San Jacinto Street across Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston, this 1914 bridge is a 325-foot concrete structure with eight spans. Its main span is a 110-foot open-spandrel barrel arch, flanked by reinforced concrete girder approach spans, and the roadway is 50 feet wide. City engineer E.E. Sands designed it, and the William P. Carmichael Company of St. Louis built it for $155,000. It replaced an earlier iron drawbridge, and the arch's height let boats pass beneath without a movable span. Builders drove piles twenty-three feet into clay and used an open centering so water traffic could continue during construction. The bridge reflects Houston's City Beautiful campaign, with Classical-inspired details such as brackets, curved fascia walls and urn balustrades. A 1997 project replaced the deck, sidewalks and railing, but the arch kept its integrity. It is listed as one of only twenty-three open-spandrel arch bridges in Texas, and is still in use by traffic today.","period_of_significance":"1914","architect_builder":"Bridge designer: E.E. Sands; Bridge builder: William P. Carmichael Company","architectural_style":"Other: open spandrel concrete arch bridge","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a vehicular bridge; the deck, sidewalks and railing were replaced in 1997 with a compatible railing design.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.406837-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/63/9694/40969463/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/07001098.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07001098/76763606c9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07001098/76763606c9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Farragutful","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Jacinto_Street_Bridge,_Houston.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Farragutful</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Jacinto_Street_Bridge,_Houston.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"83004471","name":"Main Street/Market Square Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/main-street-market-square-historic-district-83004471/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969463","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jacinto_Street_Bridge_over_Buffalo_Bayou","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60750320"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/harris-county/san-jacinto-street-bridge-over-buffalo-bayou-07001098/"}