Historic Arroyo Colorado Lift Bridge

This summer, we went on vacation to South Padre Island, and on our way back home we drove across a very interesting bridge.

If you are traveling in this part of Texas, the Historic Arroyo Colorado Lift Bridge is worth noticing. It is not a tourist attraction in the usual sense, but it is a very unusual engineering structure and one of those places that makes a road trip more interesting.

The bridge opened in 1953. It was built to carry road traffic while also allowing industrial barges to travel to and from the Port of Harlingen.

Unlike a classic drawbridge, this is a vertical-lift bridge. Its central span stays horizontal and moves straight up, opening the waterway for barges. When raised, the bridge provides about 73 feet of vertical clearance.

The bridge is more than 380 feet long and was designed by the New York engineering firm Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Hall & MacDonald. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to raise and lower the span.

Another interesting fact is that after Hurricane Beulah in 1967, this bridge remained the only operational crossing in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Today, it is the only vertical-lift bridge of its kind still operating in Texas.

If you want to see it yourself, here are its coordinates: 26.235556, -97.584722.

So, if you are driving through this area on your way to or from South Padre Island, keep an eye out for this bridge. It is definitely an interesting piece of Texas engineering to see in person.