An aerial view of the trestle, located quite literally in the shadow of downtown. Image: Bing Maps / James Rambin
In the shadow of the Independent, the downtown Austin condo tower taller than any other residential structure west of the Mississippi, you’ll find an unlikely relic of an unrecognizable past — the Third Street Railroad Trestle, an overgrown piece of vestigial infrastructure removed from the current context of its urban surroundings by nearly a century. Built over Shoal Creek by the International-Great Northern Railroad in 1925, the wooden bridge is one of the last physical reminders of the rail lines that fueled Austin’s rapid development as a regional hub starting in the 1870s, one of the major engines of growth along a local economic through-line you can arguably trace all the way to supertall towers and newcomers from Silicon Valley.
A Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the bridge and its surroundings from 1935. Image: Texas Historical Commission
A steam locomotive crossing the Third Street Trestle in 1947. Image: Texas Historical Commission / Bruce Wilson / RailPictures.net
The trestle in its present condition. Image: Shoal Creek Conservancy
But rich metaphorical significance doesn’t necessarily translate to real-world beauty, and so we find the trestle looking objectively pretty bad in 2021, a full 96 years after its construction — and, it’s worth noting, at least 20 years after the start of a civic conversation regarding its historic merit and future preservation. Some of the early voices in that discussion have since formally organized around this and similar issues as the Shoal Creek Conservancy, and later this spring the group could reach the most significant preservation milestone for the bridge in years, as the Texas Historical Commission’s State Board of Review considers the conservancy’s application for the admission of the trestle to the National Register of Historic Places.
Image: Joemy Buschur / Shoal Creek Conservancy
A train departing downtown Austin in 1954. In this image, the train has just passed over the rail trestle at Third Street and will shortly cross the Colorado River heading south. Image: Museum of the American Railroad
The board will review the application at its quarterly meeting scheduled for May 15, but as we’ve seen from many previous items, once a prospective historic site makes it on the agenda there’s very little chance of a failure to secure approval — especially considering the trestle’s historic context, as explained in its draft application:
The structure is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Transportation at the local level of significance because it supported the efficient movement of both passenger and freight trains thereby transferring people, materials, and products in and out of downtown Austin. Over the years the trestle was used by the International-Great Northern Railroad, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (M-K-T) Railroad, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The presence of the trestle along this key transportation route contributed to the growth of the central business district as well as the political, social, and cultural development of the capital city. The trestle is also significant because it serves as one of the last remaining vestiges of Austin’s railroad infrastructure and is the last known example of an early 20th century wooden railroad trestle in downtown Austin. The period of significance begins with construction in 1925 and ends in 1964 when the last scheduled passenger train of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad crossed the trestle signaling the decline of railway traffic in Austin.
— Draft Historic Registration, Third Street Railroad Trestle
Thanks to federal tax credits for rehabilitation work, the historic designation of the trestle would assist the renovation and possible adaptive reuse of the structure as part of the Shoal Creek Conservancy’s larger Cypress & Shoal Creek plan, which would create a significant new outdoor public space in this area — and that project is only one step of an even larger vision from the conservancy to improve the trails and greenbelt along Shoal Creek through downtown and further north for several miles.
Image: Andre Boudreaux / Shoal Creek Conservancy
The Third Street Railroad Trestle was the landmark that alerted arriving passengers the train would soon slow down for its final push into the depot. As trains eased over the trestle passengers gathered up their belongings. They then made their way to the vestibule of their coach to deboard the train.
— Draft Historic Registration, Third Street Railroad Trestle
Plans to convert the trestle, which is currently too precarious for any access by the public, into a “High Line”-inspired linear park space at the heart of the Cypress & Shoal Creek project has appeared in various planning efforts by the conservancy for several years, with a 2018 study of the structure by local firms Sparks Engineering and preservation architects Limbacher & Godfrey outlining several concepts.
One of the preservation and adaptive reuse scenarios for the trestle imagined during the Shoal Creek Conservancy’s 2018 study. Image: Limbacher & Godfrey
Potentially funded by local Hotel Occupancy Taxes and serving as the natural focal point of any improved outdoor space in this area, the trestle’s possible future as a public asset is particularly interesting in the context of its immediate surroundings — between the creek’s concrete channels and some of the city’s fastest development taking place on all sides, this admittedly scruffy-looking bridge to the past is the only thing that looks old. As you ought to know by now, old things tend to tell good stories.
With the final design for Cypress & Shoal Creek reportedly scheduled in April and the State Board of Review’s discussion of the trestle in May, summer could bring a better idea of how this downtown relic might best adapt itself for today’s Austin — just in time for the arrival of its 100th year in a remarkably different city.
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