State Highway 9 Bridge at the Llano River – Mason TX

Description

On June 14, 1935, a devastating flood washed out the two truss spans and the center pier of the 1930 bridge of State Highway 9 across the Llano River in Mason County, Texas. The Texas Highway Department considered the reconstruction of the Llano River Bridge a priority as it isolated the town of Mason from the south. The Texas Highway Department applied to the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) for emergency relief highway funds provided for under Section 3 of the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934. In addition to extending federal relief funding established under the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Hayden-Cartwright Act provided emergency funds for the repair or reconstruction of highways and bridges on the federal aid system “which have been damaged or destroyed by floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or landslides. . . .”

The bridge consists of two riveted Warren polygonal-chord through truss spans, 12 concrete girder approach spans and two steel I-beam spans. By the late 1930s, the northern portion of State Highway 9 between the Texas Panhandle and San Antonio had become US 87. As of 2014, the bridge serves southbound lanes on US 87 linking Mason with Fredericksburg.