Carpenters Bluff Bridge

Before the railroad there was a crossing. Local historian Robin Cole-Jett writes that people reportedly used a ferry at Carpenter's Bluff from the 1860s. The iron truss built in 1910 carried a wooden shelf on its east side for wagons and walkers, and when Oklahoma converted the bridge for cars in 1967, that narrow shelf stayed, so drivers took turns. The whole span lies in Oklahoma, though it takes the Texas community's name. In 2017 Bryan County and the state built a wider two-lane concrete bridge just north; the county planned to keep the truss for pedestrians.

What the plaque says

Carpenters Bluff Bridge Originally built as a railroad bridge for the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf (MO&G) Line, this landmark structure across the Red River continues to provide a transportation route between Grayson County, Texas, and Bryan County, Oklahoma. MO&G officials determined they needed a line through Grayson County to connect there with other railways in order to secure better freight rates for their shipments from the Oklahoma coal mines. The new line, under construction by 1910, entered Texas via this bridge at the small community known as Carpenters Bluff. Completed in the late summer of 1910, the Carpenters Bluff Bridge was designed to withstand major floods such as the one in 1908 that had destroyed several area bridges. Its design also included a wagon shelf, an extra lane to serve travelers on foot and horseback, as well as horse-drawn vehicles, all of whom had to pay a toll for its use. In 1921, ownership passed to the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway Co., which maintained the line until 1965, when the company ceased operations in Texas due to declining rail traffic. The Texas & Pacific Railroad maintained the bridge for a brief time and then deeded it to the counties of Grayson and Bryan. County commissioners agreed to convert the structure for vehicular traffic, and upon completion of that work, the bridge was opened as a free public thoroughfare. Spanning the Red River since 1910, the Carpenters Bluff Bridge remains a significant part of Grayson County's history. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 7.0 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 11 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Choctaw Cultural Center — 14 mi
  The Choctaw Nation's history told from the Chahta side at Calera, with galleries from Nanih Waiya to the Trail of Tears and the reservation today, a living village and daily stickball.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 17 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• L. A. Washington, Jr. and wife Martha A. — 6.7 mi
• Joseph G. McCoy, Promoter of Chisholm Trail — 6.9 mi
• North-South Railway Connection — 7.0 mi
• Waples-Platter Grocery Company — 7.0 mi