The Brazos River proved to be both a blessing and a curse for Waco, providing a constant water supply, means of transportation, and fertile farming ground, but also serving as a site of frequent flooding and destruction. This tension shaped the history of the communities which developed upon the banks of the Brazos.

The longest river in Texas, the Brazos is 840 miles long and drains an area of 41,700 square miles. Spanning from its headwater source in New Mexico to where it drains into the Gulf of Mexico, the river flows through varying terrain, from canyons to the rolling plains of West Texas to its meandering course through the relatively flat Coastal Plain.

Efforts to improve the Brazos and to make it navigable were begun as early as 1870. McLennan County cotton planters began looking for a water route to ship their produce at lower prices than railroads could offer. Barges and steamboats, notably the Kate Ross captained by early Wacoan Shapley Prince Ross, plied the river for a while until the channel shifted and more railroads came into the county. A bridge constructed in 1870 spanning the banks of the Brazos increased the amount of commercial activity within the city.

Notable attempts to build a series of locks and dams on the Brazos were made under the terms of the River and Harbor Act of 1905 and later under a New Deal project in the 1930s. However, the river shifted its course multiple times and floods wrecked construction sites.

Frequent flooding made life near the Brazos River a struggle for many Wacoans. On May 27, 1885, a tornado and flood resulted in the deaths of eleven people and $300,000 in property damage. In 1913, tumultuous flood waters inundated much of East Waco and took the lives of two people. The flood which occurred in September of 1936 resulted in $1.5 million in property damage in the county, especially in East Waco, although no lives were lost.

A United States Army Corps of Engineers study in 1937 recommended a series of dams on tributary streams of the Brazos and a major dam at Whitney on the main stream as the best means of controlling floods. World War II intervened, but in 1946, the first tributary dam was begun in Belton, and soon thereafter the Whitney Dam began to rise on the Brazos. The Flood Control Act of 1954 authorized a dam on the Bosque River at Waco, and as well as several others in different cities in line with the 1937 study.

When Waco Dam was finished in 1965, it completed, with the Whitney Dam, the major flood control instruments to protect Waco and the lower Brazos Valley. The floodplain at Waco became available for development. In 1967 Waco voters approved a $1.5 million bond issue to build a channel dam to create a bank-level lake through the heart of the city for recreation and beautification purposes. Lake Brazos was filled in 1972.

The Brazos River Authority, an independent organization established by legislation in 1929, continues to develop and manage the waters of the entire Brazos River basin. Today, the river continues to serve as an important water source for power, irrigation, and other resources for Waco and McLennan County, as well as other regions throughout Texas.

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The establishment of Waco Village in the nineteenth century laid the foundation for what would evolve into the vibrant commercial city that is Waco. The humble beginnings of this town were developed upon the site of the Wi-iko, or Waco Indians’ agricultural village. Attacks from Cherokee and pressure from white settlers and the US government drove this subtribe of the Wichita from their land in the 1830s, and out of Texas by 1859.

A company of Texas Rangers established Fort Fisher near the deserted Indian village in 1837, but abandoned it just a few months later because of its remote location. In 1844, George Barnard opened a branch of Torrey’s Trading Post just south of the former Ranger site. Known throughout Texas, this chain of trading posts played a vital role in Sam Houston’s peace policy with the American Indians.

Jacob De Cordova, a Texas politician and colonizer, acquired a large amount of land in this area in 1846, and his surveyor George Erath convinced him to establish a town at the site of the old Waco Indian village. In 1849, Erath laid out plots of land for the first block of the new town, pricing them at five dollars apiece for the new village. Farming plots sold for two to three dollars each. The majority of the property owners desired to name the town “Lamartine” in order to honor a French poet, but Erath convinced them to name the village after the town’s predecessors.

In the following years, Waco Village grew rapidly. On January 22, 1850, the Texas State Legislature established McLennan County. In August, the county organized its structure of government. Waco Village was chosen as the county seat, or administrative center, of McLennan County primarily because of De Cordova’s efforts to develop government services for the public. He designated several plots of land to be donated to the city for the establishment of schools, churches, and other public buildings.

Waco Village continued to develop as other settlers arrived in the Waco area throughout the 1840s. These people became farmers, ranchers, and plantation owners, in addition to filling many other needed occupations on the frontier. Many chose to sell their goods to the Texas Rangers who remained in the area. Waco soon grew into a regional hub for trade of all kinds. In order to continue this growth, De Cordova invited several notable citizens to move to the village, such as Texas Ranger Shapley Prince Ross. Ross ran a ferry across the Brazos River as trade expanded the once small village. Ross also established Waco’s first hotel in the 1850s and served as the village’s postmaster for a time.

The development of the cotton industry sped the growth of Waco Village, and in 1856 the village was incorporated as a town. As a regional hub for trade, Waco Village served an important role in the early Central Texas community. Its rapid economic growth provided the base for Waco to develop as a strong industrial and agricultural center of the South. 

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In the years leading up to 1870, the Brazos River proved to be both a blessing and a curse to the city of Waco. During that time, no bridges spanned the eight hundred miles of river flowing through Central Texas, forcing cattle drivers moving up the Chisholm Trail to find shallow fording areas. Waco's shallow banks provided one of these opportune locations, and the Chisholm Trail brought a great deal of trade to the small city. Yet the river also posed a serious transportation issue for merchants and travelers. Although Waco pioneer Shapely Prince Ross ran a ferry for those wishing to cross, the river became impassable for days or even weeks during flood season. It became clear that a better means of crossing the river was necessary, both for locals and those passing through. The close of the Civil War, however, left the city of Waco and McLennan County without funds for such a project. Plans to build a bridge across the Brazos initiated in 1866, when the Texas State Legislature granted a charter for the foundation of a private company, the Waco Bridge Company. The charter provided the Waco Bridge Company a monopoly on transportation across the river for the next twenty-five years, allowing no other bridges to be built within five miles of their bridge. A budget of twenty-five thousand dollars was set for the construction of the bridge, and after much deliberation, the shareholders chose the steel cable suspension bridge design due to its cheapness and ease of transport. 

John T. Flint, president of the Waco Bridge Company, hired Thomas M. Griffith, a civil engineer from New York, for the project. Griffith was an accomplished enginner who, early in his career in 1854, built the first bridge spanning the Mississippi River in frontier Minnesota. Griffith arrived in Waco in October 1868 to begin preliminary plans for the bridge. The Roebling Company of Trenton, NJ, was commissioned to provide cables and bridgework. This is the same firm that would later provide materials for the Brooklyn Bridge. After the parts arrived in Waco by oxcart, local labor began to assemble the suspension bridge. The bridge was officially completed and opened to through traffic in 1870. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River.

The economic benefits of the bridge immediately became visible to the city and surrounding area. In the following decades, Waco became the capital for cotton and cattle in Central Texas, rivaling Dallas in size by the 1900s. Built just at the edge of the business section of the city at First Street and Main Street, the Suspension Bridge stimulated the growth of Waco by providing a steady stream of traffic through the city. The bridge itself also supplied economic revenue. The 1866 charter allowed the Waco Bridge Company to charge a toll as long as the company properly maintained the bridge. The bridge collected enough in tolls in the first year of operation to completely pay off its mortgage. The toll quickly became unpopular, and many began searching for ways to circumvent it. Ultimately, McLennan County bought the Suspension Bridge from the Waco Bridge Company for a sum of $75,000. It was then sold to the city of Waco for one dollar, with the provision that the city would maintain the bridge and eliminate the toll. Many citizens called for the “unsightly bridge” to be removed in 1913. Rather than tear down the historic bridge, the city re-floored it, stuccoed over the red bricks, and replaced its wooden trusses with steel. Over the next century, the bridge underwent renovations several more times and continued to serve vehicular traffic until 1971. By that time, other options for crossing the Brazos River existed, such as the Washington Avenue Bridge and the Herring Avenue Bridge.  Today, the bridge serves only pedestrian traffic. It is the centerpiece of Indian Springs Park on the river, and stands as a reminder of Waco’s rich history.

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