Riverside's First Major Thoroughfare

When is the story of a bridge more than its nuts and bolts (or rivets)?

The  southbound Riverside Drive Bridge  (previously called the Frey Avenue bridge) is a recognizable Fort Worth landmark. Built in 1932, its story is one about growth, city planning, civic boosterism—and engineering, of course. Together these forces led to the construction of a unique crossing that continues to connect Fort Worthians today.

Like most of the country, Fort Worth was booming after World War I. In the late 1920s, Harland Bartholomew designed the city’s first transportation plan to help manage growth. The Riverside Drive Bridge over the Trinity River, originally named Frey Avenue Bridge, was one of several replacement bridges in the plan. Bartholomew’s job as a city planner was a brand-new profession at the time.

At the turn of the 20 ^th  century, rapid growth caused crowding and disorganized development in American cities. Officials took inspiration from the ideas introduced at the World's Fair of 1892 in Chicago. The fair showcased the latest in American landscape design and city planning. Exhibits and buildings emphasized symmetry, balance, and classical architecture in a style that came to be called City Beautiful. Larger cities like Washington, D.C. and Chicago were among the first to shape how their communities should look and grow using these ideas.

By the 1920s, officials in smaller cities and towns also looked to the City Beautiful movement for guidance. They hired professional planners to select the best locations for roads and bridges, neighborhoods, and other places. To this day, city planners create guides showing where to build houses, stores, schools, parks, and other developments based on the needs of the community.

Harland Bartholomew became the first full-time city planner in America in 1914, working for Newark, New Jersey. Today, Bartholomew would be considered a “consulting” planner because he traveled to cities in the U.S. and Canada to design their major street systems. He became so successful that he served as a consultant to U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. While his plans made cities more beautiful and made travel easier, they often also resulted in economic and racial segregation. He used zoning laws, redlining, and other land-use restrictions to limit where African Americans could live. His plans also demolished black neighborhoods that he considered "slums" to build new roads and bridges.

Fort Worth needed help. Like much of the country, it struggled with how fast people were relocating from farms and small towns to the city, faster than roads and houses could be built. Fort Worth also struggled with repeated flooding events because roads were paved with new materials like asphalt that did not absorb rain. The flood of 1922 proved particularly destructive. City officials wanted a study and a map detailing how Fort Worth should grow (now known as a future land use map). They believed that understanding current conditions and future transportation needs could help them avoid another devastating flood and make streets and neighborhoods safe for the booming population.

The Frey Avenue Bridge would be the Riverside neighborhood’s first major thoroughfare and “a strategic entry to Fort Worth” from Dallas north of the Trinity River.

How is a bridge funded? After a city approves a planning document, the next step is finding funding for proposed projects. Cities often use bond funding to pay for public infrastructure like roads and bridges. Cities repay bonds with property taxes, so citizens must vote to allow bonds. After the City approved Bartholomew’s 1927 plan, the Riverside Civic League, led by J.J. Hurley, was excited about what the proposed new, wider Frey Avenue bridge could do for the Riverside neighborhood. With the neighborhood’s support, the City approved plans for the new bridge in 1929, the same year the U.S. stock market crashed and sent the nation into the Great Depression.

Fort Worth officials reconsidered whether they should build the new bridge during an uncertain time. Hurley convinced them to stick with the plan. He also asked Fort Worth residents to pay their poll tax to show their support, even as they struggled during the Depression. (Historically, voters were required to pay a “poll tax” to cast their vote, and the price varied depending on the area.)

Hurley appealed to the public, pointing out the dangerous condition of the only nearby bridge. He assured fellow Riverside residents that a new bridge would provide greater access to downtown and other parts of the city. Whether with enthusiastic support or under unfair pressure, Riverside residents adjacent to the proposed project location sold their property for a lower price than it was worth. This allowed the City to purchase the land for the construction of Frey Avenue and the bridge. Tarrant County Judge C. W. Atkinson instructed the county engineers to start construction in 1932.

The City of Fort Worth hired engineer F.D. Hughes to design the Frey Avenue Bridge and many of the other crossings that appeared in Bartholomew’s 1927 plan. Contractor Ernest Lloyd built the structure.

• 292 feet long and 45 feet wide
• 2 three-column reinforced concrete piers at a skew
• 1 long steel plate girder between the two piers over the river
• 2 short reinforced concrete girders from the piers to the north and south shores

The Frey Avenue Bridge was the only variable depth steel plate girder bridge proposed in the 1927 Bartholomew plan, perhaps because the plan identified the future use of Riverside and most of the inner city as industrial. This type of bridge was normally built in manufacturing or industrial areas and was plain in appearance. It could be used to cross long spans with less material, making it an affordable choice. For residential areas, designers typically chose decorative concrete bridges that mimicked classical styles. The Frey Avenue bridge splits the difference: it combines the engineering efficiency of a variable depth steel plate girder bridge with decorative concrete details.

• Piers are columns that support the bridge’s deck.
• The deck is the roadway that carries the traffic.
• Girders are beams that look like a capital I and stretch from pier to pier to support the deck.
• Plate girders are a series of more complex beams that are stronger.
• “Variable depth” means that the girders are not all the same length, with some shorter and some taller, creating a shallow arch shape when viewed from the side.

• Open rails designed with Gothic-style arches and concrete panels
• 4 lamp posts
• 2 commemorative bronze plaques

The Frey Avenue bridge originally had decorative lighting, as shown in the drawing above, though these are no longer present.

Especially common for 20 ^th -century bridges, bronze plaques with the names of people important to its construction were attached to the bridge. The plans identify the following people and groups:

Frey Ave. Bridge Tarrant Co. Highway Dpt C.W. Atkinson, Co. Judge H.E. Wright, Joe. F. Schooler, Frank T. Estill, Bill Merrett, Commissioners W. Stevens, Co. Enger. F.D. Hughes, Bridge Enger. Ernest Lloyd, Contractor

Planners estimated the Frey Avenue bridge would cost cost $40,000 (roughly $713,000 today). Once complete, the actual cost totaled $75,000 (roughly $1,337,500 today).

The streets and stores have been dressed in bunting and we are looking forward to our most successful homecoming”

The Frey Avenue bridge project took five years start to finish. In the 1920s, engineers did not have to consider environmental, social, and justice issues when planning projects. Today's engineers must evaluate how their projects might impact the surrounding environment and local communities.

In the summer of 1932, the Riverside Civic League organized a big parade for “Homecoming Week,” a six-day celebration to highlight the opening of Frey Avenue Bridge. Most of the celebration was held on the bridge. On June 24 at 6 pm, County Judge C. W. Atkinson cut the ribbon. The celebration featured a parade led by the Riverside Women’s Band, a 1,000-car motorcade, 250 participants, and performances by the Riverside Civic League’s dramatic club, a dance by the Sunshine girls, and cow milking, among other acts.

The Frey Avenue bridge project played a big part in connecting Riverside to different parts of the city. It linked Riverside to Glenwood, Polytechnic, and State Highways 10, 15, and 121 with Highway No. 34 through Glen Garden.

In the midst of World War II in 1942, the Riverside Civic League held a Jubilee to celebrate how the neighborhood had grown. By this time, the Frey Avenue bridge became the Riverside Drive Bridge, perhaps in honor of the league and its accomplishments.

Frey Avenue bridge engineer Francis Dey (F.D.) Hughes belonged to the last generation of engineers who did not need a college degree to design bridges. He graduated from high school in a small town in Missouri in 1872, then worked for the Kansas City Engineering department as a land surveyor, learning new skills on the job. Hughes served as a rodman, levelman, draftsman, and crew chief.

• A rodman sets up the equipment needed to make a map of land before it is developed for a neighborhood, road, or bridge.
• A levelman marks spots on the land to help make an accurate topographic map, showing hills and valleys.
• A draftsman takes information gathered in the field and draws a map of the future construction site.
• A crew chief is someone experienced in all parts of the job and directs a project in the field.

By 1895, Hughes was an office engineer. He took math classes at night, working his way up to become a manager and then a chief engineer at a plant in Oklahoma. He then worked for Illinois Steel Bridge Company for 19 years, where he designed highway and railway bridges, viaducts, and mills among other projects. 

By 1900, states required that engineers take a test and get a license to practice, and by 1916 engineers working on federal projects had to have a college degree. However, in the 1920s, people like Hughes could still be active members of the American Society of Engineers and work on state and local projects.

After Hughes went into business for himself in 1928, he designed the Frey Avenue Bridge in Fort Worth, as well as many other bridges and viaducts in Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, and Illinois. Hughes retired with his wife Callie in Austin, Texas in 1952.

The Frey Avenue bridge is a rare example of its type in Texas. But beyond the facts is a richer story about the rise of the professional city planner, the growth of Fort Worth and its Riverside community, and the career of a "last-of-their-kind" engineer.