December 10, 2007 - Monday
We went to Brownsville to get some errands done and stopped by for a view of the bridge connecting
Texas to Mexico by way of Brownsville and Matamoros. While there, I learned all about the bridge.
"Ferry service along this stretch of the Rio Grande evolved as population in the area increased. In 1836,
General Jose Urea used rowboats at the Paso Real Ferry near the later site of Fort Brown en route to
Goliad. General Vicente Filisola used the same service on his retreat from the battle of San Jacinto.
During the Civil War, the confederates used ferries to transfort cotton to Mexico while southern
ports were blockaded by the union navy. During union occupation of Brownsville in 1863, the
banks of the Rio Grande were teeming with families waiting to cross the river into exile in Mexico.
In the 1880s the ferry company built a plank walk from the railroad tracks to the Brownsville
ferry dock because of complaints from passengers who had tired of walking through six inches
or more of mud. The walk expanded as the ferry dock relocated several times, and soon the
space was filled a variety of shops catering to the bustling crowds of travelers. The Brownsville-
Matamoros bridge was erected in 1910, but for a time only freight traffic on the river decreased.
When the gateway bridge was built in 1928, the need for ferryboats vanished, and the boardwalk,
by this time as much a part of local life as the river itself, vanished with them."
If you want to learn about Brownsville, you can visit here:
Brownsville
