{"nrhp_refnum":"98000562","name":"Burr's Ferry Bridge","other_names":["State Highway 63 Bridge at the Sabine River","Nw0214-04-005"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"TX 63 at the LA state line","address_restricted":false,"city":"Burkeville","county":"Newton County","state":"TX","lat":31.063948725000046,"lon":-93.52037492199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-05-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A steel Parker through truss highway bridge with concrete girder approaches carrying State Highway 63 across the Sabine River at the Texas-Louisiana line near Burkeville, Newton County, Texas. It was built in 1936-1937 by the W. Horace Williams Company to a Louisiana Highway Commission design.","why_significant":"The bridge was built with federal emergency relief funds under a Depression-era Works Program Highway Project, which supports significance in transportation. Its long spans and slightly curved alignment addressed difficult river site conditions, supporting significance in engineering at the state level.","narrative":"Burr's Ferry Bridge carries State Highway 63 over the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana line. It has three riveted steel Parker through truss spans, a 250-foot center span flanked by two 120-foot spans, plus 34 concrete girder approach spans, for an overall length of 1,882 feet. The Louisiana Highway Commission designed it with review by Texas engineers, and the W. Horace Williams Company built it in 1936-1937. It replaced a toll ferry that had served a heavily used crossing since the 19th century. Funding came from the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 as a Works Program Highway Project, with labor largely drawn from relief rolls. The bridge is significant for that Depression-era public works link and for engineering: long spans and a slightly curved alignment answered drift and swampy approach conditions. Apart from replaced portal bracing in 1977, it is largely unaltered and still carries traffic, although a replacement project is being planned.","period_of_significance":"1936-1937","architect_builder":"Bridge Designer: Louisiana Highway Commission; Truss Fabricator: unknown; Bridge Builder: W. Horace Williams Company of New Orleans, Louisiana","architectural_style":"Other: Parker through truss bridge","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in place and carrying highway traffic; a replacement project is in preliminary planning and the bridge's disposition is undecided.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:24.001679-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/0/9699/40969900/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/98000562.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969900","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/newton-county/burrs-ferry-bridge-98000562/"}