Building the Lone Star: An Illustrated Guide to Historic Sites

by T. Lindsay Baker

Overview

Texas has changed a lot since the first European settlers arrived. Instead of bare prairies and unfordable creeks, there are now bridges, highways, buildings, and people who use them. Life became easier because engineers thought of unusual and innovative ways to bridge rivers, provide water, and light up the Lone Star skies at night.

Building the Lone Star is the first published book to look at the historical structures, from windmills and lighthouses to dams and bridges, that were responsible for making Texas the habitable place it is today. Some of yesterday's engineering works may seem quaint now, but they show the continuum of human achievement. Each project pictured in this book is accompanied by the fascinating tales of how and why the project came to be and of the events that played a role in its history.

Thanks to more than a decade of research and travel by the author, the details of Texas' transformation from a wild frontier to a civilized, productive state are presented here. More than a hundred historic engineering sites in Texas are pictured and described, each description accompanied by directions to the site and suggestions for further reading. A map of the state gives the general locations of the sites described, and an appendix provides brief descriptions of hundreds more engineering works in Texas. Historical as well as modern photographs and some measured drawings are included, and old newspaper accounts provide a view of the times, as in an eyewitness account of a dam break on the Colorado River at Austin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780890969793
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2000
Series:	Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University , #20
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	646,144
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	A Personal Introduction	xi
	Acknowledgments	xix
	Historic Texas Engineering Works	xxii
1.	Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Works	3
2.	Amicable Building	4
3.	Aransas Pass Lighthouse	7
4.	Austin Artesian Well	9
5.	Austin Dam	11
6.	Austin "Moonlight" Tower Street Lighting System	15
7.	Balmorhea Irrigation Project	17
8.	Bluff Dale Suspension Bridge	20
9.	Brazos Santiago Lighthouse	22
10.	Buchanan Dam	24
11.	Buffalo Gap Railway Water System	26
12.	Canadian River Wagon Bridge	29
13.	Canon Ranch Eclipse Windmill	32
14.	Clear Fork of the Brazos Suspension Bridge	34
15.	Cleburne Waterworks	36
16.	Congress Avenue Bridge	39
17.	Copano Bay Causeway	42
18.	Corpus Christi Seawall	44
19.	Corsicana Oil Field Discovery Well	47
20.	Cuero Hydroelectric Plant	50
21.	Cullinan Oil Refinery	53
22.	Daisy Bradford No. 3 Oil Well	56
23.	Dallas--Oak Cliff Viaduct	59
24.	Dallas Union Terminal	62
25.	Don Patricio Causeway	65
26.	Droemer Brick Yard	67
27.	Eagle Lake Irrigation System	69
28.	East Navidad River Bridge	71
29.	Elissa	72
30.	El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Rio Grande Bridge	75
31.	El Paso Smelter	77
32.	El Paso Waterworks	80
33.	Fort Davis Military Water System	83
34.	Fort Griffin Iron Truss Bridge	85
35.	Fort Worth Stockyards	87
36.	Franklin Canal	90
37.	Galveston Causeway	92
38.	Galveston Grade Raising	97
39.	Galveston Highway Bridge	101
40.	Galveston Jetties	102
41.	Galveston Military Fortifications	105
42.	Galveston Seawall	108
43.	Galveston Waterworks	112
44.	Gonzales Hydroelectric Plant	115
45.	Granite Mountain Quarry	117
46.	Hangar Nine	119
47.	Harris County Dome Stadium	121
48.	High Bridge over the Pecos	124
49.	Houston 1879 Waterworks	127
50.	Houston Ship Channel	130
51.	Humphrey Direct Action Pumping Plant	133
52.	International and Great Northern Railroad Station	135
53.	Justiceburg Railway Water System	137
54.	Kelly Plow Works	139
55.	Lake Wichita Dam	141
56.	Landa Rock Mill	144
57.	Lavaca Bay Causeway	145
58.	Los Ebanos Ferry	148
59.	Lucas Gusher	149
60.	McDonald Observatory	152
61.	Matagorda Lighthouse	156
62.	Medina Dam	158
63.	Moore's Crossing Bridge	162
64.	Nash Iron Furnace	165
65.	Nueces Bay Causeways	168
66.	Oil Springs Oil Field	170
67.	Old Alcalde Iron Furnace	174
68.	Old Lone Star Brewery	176
69.	Orange--Port Arthur High Bridge	178
70.	Paddock Viaduct	181
71.	Paris Abattoir	183
72.	Pliska Aeroplane	184
73.	Point Bolivar Lighthouse	187
74.	Point Isabel Lighthouse	189
75.	Porter's Bluff Highway	191
76.	Possum Kingdom Stone Arch Bridge	193
77.	Post City Windmill Waterworks	195
78.	Quitaque Railway Tunnel	198
79.	Red Brick Road	200
80.	Regency Suspension Bridge	203
81.	Republic of Texas Boundary Marker	205
82.	Riverside Swing Bridge	207
83.	San Antonio Acequias	210
84.	San Antonio Sewerage System	215
85.	San Antonio Waterworks	218
86.	San Jacinto Monument	223
87.	San Marcos Activated Sludge Sewage Treatment Plant	228
88.	San Marcos River Covered Bridge	231
89.	Santa Rita No. 1 Oil Well	233
90.	Shafter Mining District	236
91.	Slayden Bridge	238
92.	Somerville Tie and Timber Preserving Plant	239
93.	Terlingua Mining District	242
94.	Texas Gulf Intracoastal Waterway	245
95.	Thurber Mining District	246
96.	Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway Depot and Office Building	249
97.	Tyler Hydraulic Fill Dam	252
98.	Vaughn Brothers Irrigation Plant	255
99.	Victoria "Dutch" Windmill	258
100.	Waco Suspension Bridge	260
101.	Waxahachie Creek Bridge	262
102.	Williamson Dam	264
103.	Yellowhouse Canyon Bridge	265
Appendix	List of Historic Engineering Sites	269
	Index	311