Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Wednesday, April 12, 2000

Remember the old bascule bridge?

Sometime this year a study is supposed to be done to determine the cost and feasibility of replacing Harbor Bridge with a larger bridge. Some port and state highway officials believe a new bridge will be needed within 20 years and that planning must begin now for the great task. A new high bridge would be the third major bridge in the city's history.
   The first was the bascule bridge.
   The old bascule was built in 1925-'26 over what had been a muddy inlet called Hall's Bayou where boys in rolled-up britches used to go crabbing. While the bridge was being built, huge dredges worked behind it, in the marshy salt flats where a city dump had been, to dig a turning basin for the new port.
   The new Port of Corpus Christi and the bascule bridge were the featured attractions on Port Opening Day on Sept. 14, 1926. This was a very small city then. The new port turning basin must have looked gigantic to the residents and the new bridge was a massive structure compared to the little rickety wooden bridge that had spanned Hall's Bayou. In the early days, there was often a crowd of people gathered to watch the marvelous new bridge go up and down.
   The new bridge was never given a proper name. It was a counter-balanced trunion "bascule'' bridge, which means "seesaw'' in French. It was designed and built by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Co., of North Milwaukee, Wisc., at a cost of $400,000. It was 121 feet long, 52 feet wide, and one end could be raised 141 feet in the air. It was painted black and covered with a heavy coat of grease to protect it from the salt air.
   The bascule from the very beginning was inadequate. The Corps of Engineers had opposed plans for this type of lift bridge, arguing that a 97-foot-wide channel opening would not be wide enough to accommodate the ship traffic. But the city, which was paying for the bridge, won the argument because the bascule was the cheapest bridge it could afford. But it was a mistake that would take the city more than three decades to fix.
   In the Caller's special port-opening edition, it was said that the bascule "is so designed and constructed that within one minute's time this massive structure, weighing hundreds of tons, may be hoisted 141 feet in the air, allowing incoming and outgoing ships to enter and leave the turning basin. Then, with only a slight interruption of traffic, it is dropped back into position and the vehicles of commerce and pleasure again take motion.''
   That line about "only a slight interruption in traffic'' reflected a lot of wishful thinking.
   People will tolerate extraordinary circumstances and take them in stride. But it was the daily nuisance that exasperated area citizens. By federal maritime law, the bridge had to be raised when a ship approached. When the siren sounded, which signaled that the bridge was going up, the moans of those caught on the wrong side must have been almost as loud. The bridge stayed up about 20 minutes (or less for a barge or smaller vessel) but the wait seemed endless to motorists roasting in their un-air-conditioned cars on a hot day while watching a tanker or a barge approach the bridge. Bascule became an adjective for bottleneck.
   But if the bridge was a nuisance for motorists, it was an outright danger for ships. The 97-foot opening was a tight squeeze for the ever-larger vessels arriving at the port. Captains called getting through the bascule channel "threading the needle.'' Old newspaper archives are full of stories about ships that collided with the bridge. One major mishap left the bridge closed for 10 days after it was hit by the SS Youngstown in 1931. Part of the hull of "Old Ironsides'' was scraped off when the wooden ship smashed into the bascule when it visited Corpus Christi in 1932. Tankers and freighters often brushed against the bridge's fenders.
   It was such a dicey manuever for larger ships that some shipping companies refused to come here for cargo when they could go to other ports. After 1942, the Navigation District issued a regulation requiring larger vessels to use tugs while passing through the bascule channel.
   Near the end of its life cycle, as the port's business increased, the bascule was raised and lowered some 20 to 30 times a day. But the narrow entrance kept out some of the larger ships.
   The problem was solved when the state built the new high bridge, after a long and bitter fight in Corpus Christi over whether to build a bridge or a tunnel. From 1952 through 1954, the city wrangled over the bridge-vs.-tunnel question. The issue was settled when the state agreed to pay for a high bridge, as opposed to the city paying for a tunnel with city-backed bonds and recouping the money from toll fees.
   The completion and opening of the new 234-foot-high Harbor Bridge was the first step toward making it possible for the larger vessels to call at the port. Harbor Bridge was opened to motor traffic in October, 1959, and work began on a new 400-foot-wide entrance to the port. Within two years, the bascule was sold for scrap and dynamite charges shattered the concrete substructure of the old bridge.
   The record in the files shows there were mixed feelings in the city. Some hated to see the old bridge go; it had been a symbol of of the city for more than 30 years and, in many ways, it had spanned not only the port channel, but the old and the new Corpus Christi as well. But for those who had spent many hours waiting for a ship or a barge to creep across the bay and through the needle's eye to the port, they were more than pleased to see the greasy old black bridge go.
   (Notes & Sources: For those who remember the bascule and want to share those memories, e-mail Murphy Givens at givensm@caller.com or call 886-4315 or write to P.O. Box 9136, Corpus Christi, 78469-9136. Information for this column comes from Caller-Times archives, dating mainly from 1926, when the bascule opened, through 1961, when it was torn down.)
  

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