State Highway 3 Bridge at the Nueces River

Carrying eastbound US 90 over the Nueces River west of Uvalde, this bridge combines four 150-foot steel Parker through truss spans with eight concrete girder approach spans, for an overall length of 975 feet. A separate 34-span concrete relief structure lies to the west. The Texas Highway Department designed it using its T22-150 standard truss plan, one of 25 standard Parker truss designs, and only four bridges of this design survive in Texas. Construction ran from September 1932 to June 1933, with Petroleum Iron Works fabricating the steel and Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company building the concrete portions. A flood in July 1935 destroyed one truss span and two approach spans, and the work was rebuilt in 1936 to the original design, adding rip-rap made of concrete-filled cement sacks. In 1973 two new westbound bridges were built nearby, leaving the old bridge to carry a single eastbound lane. Its engineering value and largely intact design led to its listing under Criterion C.