Community fighting to save 100+ year old bridge near Bastrop

The memories Ernie Nance has of the Lower Elgin Road Bridge are as strong as the iron that its made from.

"We've been here since 1994 and when we first got here we used this old bridge before the new bridge was built." Nance said, "This bridge, we feel like it's important because of it is part of the Bastrop County history."

Built in-between Elgin and Bastrop in 1888, Nance said the bridge was the link to the railroad in Elgin. It was used until 1997 when a new bridge was built. The bridge remained open for pedestrians until the Memorial Day floods damaged it, making it unsafe to even walk on. Since then Nance and his sister, Debra Ferguson, have been working to help repair it.

"All we want to do is to repair the decking and restore it to its preflood state," Nance said.

Ferguson said, The Bastrop County Commissioners Court will release the results of an engineering report that was done to see if the bridge can be saved.

"Primarily because it's a part of our history and once it's gone you can't get it back." Ferguson said, "I think the worst-case scenario is that we would absolutely lose it. And I think that would be sort of tragic. There's not very many of these old bridges left. This one is important to this area but these types of bridges were really common in the late 1800's and they were important to the development of the state of Texas."

The bridge is on the agenda for Monday morning's Bastrop County Commissioners Court meeting, where the issue will only be discussed. There is no time table for a decision to be made. 

To follow the Lower Elgin Road Bridge on Facebook, click here.

To learn more information about the Lower Elgin Road Bridge, click here. 

To read the notice of meeting for the Bastrop County Commissioners Court, click here.