{"nrhp_refnum":"96001109","name":"State Highway 34 Bridge at the Trinity River","other_names":["Kf0173-02-008"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"TX 34 at the Ellis and Kaufman Cnty. line","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rosser","county":"Kaufman County","state":"TX","lat":32.426717171000064,"lon":-96.46284532199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-10-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A steel Parker through truss highway bridge with 53 I-beam approach spans and two small borrow pit bridges, carrying State Highway 34 across the Trinity River at the Ellis and Kaufman county line near Rosser, Texas. Built 1933-1934 by the Austin Bridge Company for the Texas Highway Department.","why_significant":"The bridge was built with federal emergency relief funds under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, tying it to Depression-era public works. It also embodies the defining characteristics of a Texas Highway Department standard truss design (T22-150), one of four surviving examples in Texas. At just over 1,700 feet, it is the third longest Parker through truss bridge remaining in Texas.","narrative":"This highway crossing on State Highway 34 spans the Trinity River where Ellis and Kaufman counties meet, near Rosser, Texas. It combines a single 150-foot steel Parker through truss with 53 steel I-beam approach spans and two small borrow pit bridges, for an overall length of about 1,708 feet. The Texas Highway Department designed it, Petroleum Iron Works of Beaumont fabricated the steel, and the Austin Bridge Company of Dallas built it between December 1933 and November 1934. Funding came almost entirely from federal emergency money authorized by the National Industrial Recovery Act, which aimed to sustain highway construction and employment during the Depression. Contract provisions required hand labor methods for some work. The truss follows the department's standard T22-150 design, one of four surviving examples in Texas. Only one major repair, to a single bent in 1954, is recorded, and the structures remain largely unchanged. A replacement project was scheduled for late 1996.","period_of_significance":"1933-1934","architect_builder":"Bridge Designer: Texas Highway Department; Truss Fabricator: Petroleum Iron Works Company of Beaumont, Texas; Bridge Builder: Austin Bridge Company of Dallas, Texas","architectural_style":"Other: Parker through truss bridge","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still carrying vehicular traffic at the time of the form; a replacement project scheduled for late 1996 would remove the main structure and both borrow pit bridges.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.903918-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/9697/40969762/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/96001109.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969762","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Highway_34_Bridge_at_the_Trinity_River","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55315816"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/kaufman-county/state-highway-34-bridge-at-the-trinity-river-96001109/"}