On June 15, 1935, the city of Austin suffered a devastating flood along the Colorado River. The original Montopolis bridge, built by Travis County in the late 1880s, was one of five bridges washed away by the flood. The
Texas Highway Department designed the current bridge and requested federal emergency relief funds from the
Bureau of Public Roads to rebuild it. Work on the bridge began on February 15, 1937. The bridge was completed on February 11, 1938, by
Vincennes Steel Corporation under contract to the Highway Department at a cost of nearly $232,000 (). It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1996. The Montopolis Bridge remained in use until 2018 and, as one of the principal routes to the
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport from
Downtown Austin, was fairly busy. The southbound frontage of
U.S. 183, Airport Boulevard and East 7th Street all merge at the north side of the bridge. In 2006, 29,200 vehicles crossed on average each day. The bridge was decommissioned for vehicular traffic on October 8, 2018, and was subsequently converted to a bicycle and pedestrian bridge as part of the Bergstrom Expressway Project. The bridge is part of the
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. Montopolis Bridge May 2020.jpg|Deck during conversion to pedestrian use in 2020 Austin Skyline from Montopolis Bridge.jpg|Austin skyline from the bridge Colorado river montopolis.jpg|The Colorado River in the Montopolis area ==See also==