{"nrhp_refnum":"96001117","name":"US 83 Bridge at the Salt Fork of the Red River","other_names":["Cg0031-03-002"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"US 83, 16 mi. S of Wheeler Cnty. line","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wellington","county":"Collingsworth County","state":"TX","lat":34.95770543000003,"lon":-100.22127149899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-10-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A steel Parker through truss highway bridge carrying northbound US 83 over the Salt Fork of the Red River, about seven miles north of Wellington in Collingsworth County, Texas. It was rebuilt in 1939 by the Texas Highway Department and the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company.","why_significant":"The bridge is significant under Criterion C in the area of Engineering at the state level. It embodies the characteristics of a Texas Highway Department truss bridge and shows innovative design and construction in the rebuilding of a flood-damaged bridge. Its specially designed steel approach railing and reuse of surviving I-beam spans from the earlier bridge make it the better of two similar flood-replacement bridges.","narrative":"Carrying northbound US 83 over the Salt Fork of the Red River north of Wellington, this 827-foot bridge combines three riveted Parker through truss spans of about 179 feet with steel I-beam approach spans. A flood in June 1938 washed out much of the earlier 1934 bridge. The Texas Highway Department designed the replacement, and the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company rebuilt it in 1939, reusing surviving I-beam spans and adding three trusses on dumbbell-shaped concrete piers. Custom steel railing runs the full length. Federal emergency relief funds paid about half of the cost. A 1949 truck fire damaged five north approach spans, which were replaced with three longer spans. In the 1970s a companion bridge took southbound traffic, allowing this one to stay in service. It is recognized for engineering, as an example of Texas Highway Department truss design and of inventive flood reconstruction.","period_of_significance":"1939","architect_builder":"Bridge Designer: Texas Highway Department; Truss Fabricator and Bridge Builder: Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company of Des Moines, Iowa","architectural_style":"Other: Parker through truss bridge","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Remains in place carrying a single lane of northbound US 83 traffic; a companion bridge for southbound traffic was built in 1973-1975.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.733093-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/31/9686/40968631/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/96001117.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001117/e538f98947-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001117/e538f98947-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Patrick Feller from Humble, Texas, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1955_Red_Bluff_Road_Bridge_over_Taylor_Bayou_0220111708BW_(5483660205).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Patrick Feller from Humble, Texas, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1955_Red_Bluff_Road_Bridge_over_Taylor_Bayou_0220111708BW_(5483660205).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40968631","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_83_Bridge_at_the_Salt_Fork_of_the_Red_River","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14711387"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/collingsworth-county/us-83-bridge-at-the-salt-fork-of-the-red-river-96001117/"}