For close to a century, passengers flying into Waco have been treated to aerial views of the Brazos River weaving its way through downtown and the sunlight glistening off the towers of Baylor University. Waco today is served by the modern Waco Regional Airport. This was not always the case however, with commercial air service initially flying into Rich Field, an old army base near the current day Heart O’Texas Fairgrounds. The first commercial flight into Rich Field was a Travel-Air 6000 operated by the Fort Worth based Texas Air Transport (TAT) on March 30, 1929. The old base serviced commercial flights during the entire interwar period, and Waco was part of only two routes operated by TAT: Fort Worth-Dallas-Waco-San Antonio and Fort Worth-Waco-Houston-Galveston.

In 1941, the city of Waco purchased 528 acres in China Spring to begin construction of a new commercial municipal airport. When the United States entered World War II in December of that year, the Army Air Service leased the partially completed airport for use as a multi-engine flight training center, which they named Blackland Army Air Field. Under the command of Col. Emmett F. Yost, Blackland– named after the black soil of the area– rapidly expanded, operating its first flights by October 1942. Cadets at the airfield were graduates of pre-flight schools and were trained at Blackland to pilot B-17, B-24, B-25, and B-26 bombers. Training consisted of intensive flight instruction in Beechcraft AT-10s and Cessna AT-17s, as well as ground classes for radio and meteorology. Additionally, the diversity of squadrons present reflected the changing nature of the Army as a whole: the base was home to the all-black 357th aviation squadron, the 993rd quartermaster platoon, the 748th WAAC squadron, and the all-white 871st twin engine training squadron. Blackland closed as a military air field at the end of the war, with military flights shifting in 1948 to nearby James Connolly Air Force Base, whose airfield today serves as the airport for Texas State Technical College.

After Blackland was converted back into the Waco Municipal Airport in 1945, Braniff Airlines began operations, and Pioneer Airlines followed in 1947. Passenger numbers were initially high, with a combined total of 11,916 passengers in 1947 on ten flights per day. Continental Airlines soon added services as well in the 1950s and temporarily increased the profile of the airport by beginning flights on the large Douglas DC-3, a fixed-wing propeller aircraft that was known for its speed and ability to operate using shorter runways. Enjoying such options was short lived however, as in February 1963, the Civil Aeronautics Board declared that only one airline would be allowed to operate in Waco. Even with the objections of local civic leaders, the fuling forced Braniff and Continental (who had merged with Pioneer in 1955) to cease service in favor of Trans-Texas Airway’s new monopoly. This monopoly continued for the next eleven years until strikes temporarily postponed Trans-Texas Airway’s service, allowing Rio Airways to enter the Waco market with service to Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW).

Beginning in the 1960s, Waco Regional Airport also became a multi-use facility at the behest of the city council. The airport added such amenities as a skeet and rifle shooting range, a soap box derby race track, and the Central Texas Zoological Park, which later developed into the Cameron Park Zoo. The 1970s then saw both a temporary change in name and a decrease in passenger numbers for the Waco airport; briefly known as Madison Cooper, the airport suffered due to airline deregulation. Despite this, there was an increase in infrastructure, with National Weather Service buildings added in 1974 and a radar system installed in 1979. Unfortunately, the passenger number continued to decline in the 1980s in light of the expanded DFW and Austin-Bergstrom airports. Market instability increased when airlines such as Air Spirit and Texas Airlines operated out of the airport for as little as one month. Yet stability was finally achieved with American Eagle beginning service to DFW in 1985.

Waco airport entered the national spotlight briefly in 1987, when a plane carrying then-presidential candidate Al Gore had to make an emergency landing due to mechanical failure. Further, the dawn of the new millennium saw passenger numbers increase with Continental Airlines once again offering service to Houston in 2003. This led to a peak passenger count of over 150,000 that year– a number that fell to a total of 63,000 once United (who had by then purchased Contintental) ceased operations at the airport in September 2012. Currently, American Airlines (parent company of American Eagle) is still the only airline that operates out of Waco and offers short flights to Dallas.

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Love it or hate it, Interstate 35 is a presence that is difficult to ignore. As part of America's major interstate highway system, I-35 has left an indelible impact on the city of Waco, prompting dramatic shifts in Waco's economy, neighborhoods, and aesthetic landscape.

While construction on I-35 did not start until 1957, the beginnings of this interstate system trace back to 1919 when Dwight D. Eisenhower, then a young lieutenant colonel, took part in a cross-country military convoy. The sixty-two-day haul covered 3,242 miles of dirt roads, ditches, and all-but-impassable terrain and convinced Eisenhower of the need for federal investment in building and maintaining adequate roads. The future politician's plan for a national highway system crystalized after he observed the German Autobahn system while stationed in Europe during World War II. In 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act. The proposed interstate highway system, he argued, would create thousands of jobs, make roads safer and routes more efficient, and allow for quick transport of people and resources in the wake of a nuclear attack. The act allowed for the construction of a 41,000-mile system of highways and earmarked $26 billion in federal aid to cover 90 percent of construction costs, to which individual states were expected to contribute the remaining amount.

One such stretch of highway was the proposed Interstate 35, which would run from Texas to Minnesota, passing through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa along the way. The commission appointed to oversee construction through Waco aimed to take into consideration the effect that highway placement would have on the city's future growth and prosperity. While some lobbied for the building up of the pre-existing route on La Salle Avenue, the commission settled on a mid-city route for the interstate. Many believed that this mid-city route would rejuvenate property values along the thoroughfare, an appealing idea as downtown Waco still reeled from the destructive tornado that tore through the area in May 1953. Planners hoped the $17 million mid-city expressway would alleviate traffic congestion as the straightest route from Potts Interchange-now the intersection of Waco Drive and Highway 77-to Waco's traffic circle. One local newspaper hailed the "graceful expanse" as "a sight to the eyes of every traffic-harried motorist who journeys north to Dallas or South to San Antonio."

The mid-city route, however, would displace many homes and businesses along the proposed path. The Texas Highway Commission began informing residents and business owners in the interstate's path of the upcoming construction plans. Not all were pleased. While the city provided affected residents and businesses with the funds to relocate, the new highway veritably erased several historic neighborhoods and disrupted deep-rooted communities.

Construction of I-35 officially began in South Waco in 1962, when building crews began the first of eight sections. The work of planning, staging, and construction, however, stretched on for several years. The subsequent seven sections were offered to independent contractors and were completed incrementally until construction finally ceased in 1972. Together, the eight contracts totaled a sum of $24,906,000. Initially, experts predicted that the new I-35 would see 68,000 vehicles a day by 1975. While the number of cars per day would later rise, the number hovered around 60,000 during the interstate's first decade, in part due to rising gas prices during the 1970s. Today, the portion of I-35 just north of Waco's traffic circle carries 138,689 cars per day.

New plans to widen the eight-mile stretch of I-35 within Loop 340 are currently slated to begin in 2019. Although the interstate has brought significant change to the communities along its path, I-35's perennial construction has proven to be a constant for Central Texas drivers since the highway's inception.

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The Washington Avenue Bridge is a steel, Pennsylvania through truss bridge that spans the Brazos River and connects East Waco to downtown. Before the construction of the Washington Avenue Bridge, the Waco Suspension Bridge, built in 1870, offered the only reliable way for individuals to cross the river. However, by 1900 Waco was a booming city, and another bridge was necessary to lighten the load on the thirty-year old structure. 

Construction on the Washington Avenue Bridge began in 1901 and was completed in 1902, with John Wharton Maxey of Houston as the lead architect, and John H. Sparks from St. Joseph, Missouri, as the contracting engineer. Once the bridge was completed in July of 1902, it was tested by sending five vehicles from the city fire department, including engines, hose carts, and wagons, across at varying speeds. At one point they went as fast as if they were traveling to an actual fire. The bridge passed this test and was opened soon after that. At the time, the Washington Avenue Bridge was the sixteenth longest bridge of its type in the United States and the longest Pennsylvania through truss in Texas and the rest of the Southwest.

The bridge was first repaired in 2004 to fix cracks that were found in some of the tension rods. It then underwent a renovation that lasted from 2009 to 2010. During this renovation other cracked parts were repaired and missing pieces were replaced with similar materials. In addition, the bridge was painted black, which a paint analysis had revealed to be its original color. The restoration work replaced less than 5 percent of the original material, and in 2011, the Texas Department of Transportation received an award for Excellence in Restoration of a Structure from the Historic Landmark Preservation Commission of Waco. Today, the Washington Avenue Bridge is still traveled by vehicles and pedestrians, which makes it the oldest and longest Pennsylvania through truss still in use in the United States.

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