Hidalgo-Reynosa Bridges

Hidalgo has worn several names. Escandón's colonists settled the riverside in 1749, and the place was called La Habitación, Rancho San Luis and San Luisito before John Young, a Scot, settled here in 1852 and renamed it Edinburgh. The post office took the name Hidalgo in 1885. The county seat left for Chapin in 1908, but Texas Rangers and United States troops stayed on, quartered in the town as late as 1915. A toll bridge opened in 1926, replacing the ferry, and flooding later pushed buildings inland.

What the plaque says

Hidalgo-Reynosa Bridges At the time of the formation of Hidalgo County in 1852, the village located here, originally named Edinburgh, became the new county seat. A ferry service was operating between the village and Reynosa, Mexico. By 1861 the town's name was changed to Hidalgo, and regular ferry service was inaugurated in 1910 by Crisoforo Vela (1856-1932). First using rowboats and, later, raft-like conveyances, the ferry continued in operation until Joe Pate erected a bridge here in 1926. The 1926 suspension bridge was damaged by floods in 1933. Although rebuilt and strengthened, it fell into the river and was destroyed in 1939 after cable anchors on the U.S. side failed to hold. A second suspension bridge was erected the following year and purchased by the city of McAllen in 1960. A four-lane prestressed concrete bridge was opened to traffic on June 1, 1967. The suspension bridge was removed for salvage in 1971. Construction of an additional four-lane bridge was completed in 1988. For over six decades, the Hidalgo-Reynosa bridges, operated jointly by McAllen, Hidalgo, and Mexican interests since 1960, have facilitated transportation and fostered international cooperation and friendship between Texas and Mexico. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• La Lomita Chapel — 5.6 mi
  A small sandstone chapel on the Rio Grande levee, built by Oblate missionaries in 1865 and rebuilt at this site in 1899, the landmark that gave the city of Mission its name.
• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 8.4 mi
  About 2,000 acres of river forest on the Rio Grande's north bank, the surviving part of Benigno Leal's 1834 land grant, kept as a refuge since 1943 where two bird migration routes meet.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 9.3 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.
• Museum of South Texas History — 16 mi
  Edinburg's regional museum, begun in 1967 in the 1910 Hidalgo County jail and now telling the Rio Grande's story from fossils and native peoples through steamboats to the 20th century.

More markers nearby

• Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company — 4.2 mi
• Jackson Ranch Church — 5.3 mi
• Juan Davis Bradburn — 5.6 mi
• Quinta Mazatlan_Home of Jason Matthews — 5.9 mi