• Bastrop State Park - Bastrop TX
    This beautiful park is nestled in the "Lost Pines" area of Texas. The park was built as a CCC project and opened to the public in 1937. In September 2011 96% of the park was burned by a devastating wildfire; some of the burn damage is still visible, but the park is regenerating. The fire spared the refectory and the cabins built by the CCC. A CCC pavilion at the overlook suffered damage to the wood roof, but today has been rebuilt. "The architect of Bastrop State Park, Arthur Fehr, followed National Park Service design principles that suggested harmony with the...
  • Bastrop-to-Elgin Bridge (former) - Bastrop TX
    Hailed as the first major Works Progress Administration (WPA) project completed in Texas, what was then a bridge spanning the Colorado River along the primary link connecting Bastrop and Elgin, located on a farm-to-market road, opened in January 1936. Given as Texas State Route 95—the most direct connection between the cities today—was not yet constructed at the time, Living New Deal believes this to be the former bridge spanning the Colorado River along Farm-to-Market Road 969 (since replaced).
  • Texas State Highway 95 - Bastrop TX
    The February 9, 1939 issue of the Bastrop Advertiser published a letter from Texas Senator Albert Stone advising Bastrop residents that bids would soon be accepted for the grading and drainage structure for nine miles of Texas State Highway 95 starting eight miles south of Elgin, near Sayersville, to Bastrop. The road had already been improved from Elgin to Sayersville and this would complete the connection to Bastrop. The Works Progress Administration was funding the $109,000 relief project with 30% of the cost expected to be spent on labor.