From Pioneer Paths to Superhighways - The Texas Highway Department Blazes Texas Trails 1917-1968

Photos from Report on a Farm-to-Market road in Bastrop County, 1957

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Ranch home near Pope Bend.

Ranch house, Pope Bend Route.

River bottom rent house near Pope Bend

Approaching the south span of the so-called "humpback" bridge across the Colorado River near Utley. The attached documentation notes that the bridge was built in 1916; before that, a ferry known as "Nash's Ferry" operated at the crossing for forty years.

This view of the "humpback" bridge shows the timber floor. The attached documentation notes that the bridge was just 14.5 feet wide and accommodated one-way traffic only. With "many broken and split timber stringers," this bridge was the only route across the river for both mail trucks and school buses.

Highway Department engineers estimated that a farm-to-market road would serve some 90-155 cars and trucks daily, making trips to and from the Union Hill Colored School in Utley (above), the Friendship Home for the Aged, the Utley General Store, and farms and ranches.

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Bastrop County project files, Texas Highway Department Records, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.