Moore's Crossing Historic District is a community located in rural

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is na ...

nine miles southeast of

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

near the

Austin–Bergstrom International Airport Austin–Bergstrom International Airport, or ABIA , is a Class C international airport in Austin, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Located about southeast of downtown Austin, it covers and has two runways ...

. The location was used as a

low-water crossing A low-water crossing (also known as an Irish bridge or Irish Crossing, causeway in Australia, low-level crossing or low-water bridge) provides a bridge when water flow is low. Under high-flow conditions, water runs over the roadway and preclu ...

of Onion Creek as early as the 1840s but did not receive its current name until the early 1900s, when John B. Moore built a store in the area. Moore's Crossing was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on October 16, 1996

Description and significance

The southeastern quadrant of what is now Travis County was the first part of the county Europeans settled after the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

(and later Mexican) government opened Texas lands to colonists in the 1820s. Watered by the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, the region's rich black land promised much greater agricultural potential than the rocky hills to the west. Its first residents were farmers who plowed fields and built modest homes along the rivers and creeks that ran through the area. Despite the designation and subsequent growth of nearby Austin as the state capital and county seat, southeast Travis County remained largely an agricultural region until the construction of

Bergstrom Air Force Base Bergstrom Air Force Base (1942–1993) was located seven miles southeast of Austin, Texas. In its later years it was a major base for the U.S. Air Force's RF-4C reconnaissance fighter fleet. History Bergstrom was originally activated on 1 ...

in 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Population growth in 1990s and the opening of ABIA in 1999 was followed by commercial development along

Texas State Highway 71 State Highway 71 (SH 71) is a Texas state highway that runs . The northern terminus is at US 87 and US 377 south of Brady and its southern terminus is at SH 35 near Blessing. This highway is designated the "10th Mountain Division Highway" from ...

. In 1915, three of six spans from the 1884 iron

Congress Avenue Bridge The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge (formerly known simply as the Congress Avenue Bridge) crosses over Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Before construction of the Longhorn Dam was completed in 1960, the bridge crossed the Colorado Ri ...

, which had been put into storage in 1910, were used to construct a bridge at Moore's Crossing (formerly Onion Creek Bridge). The bridge was washed away by a spring flood that year. The current bridge, built by the Austin Bridge Company of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

is made of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

piers and the remaining three spans from the Congress Avenue Bridge. It was completed in 1922 and took Burleson Road across Onion Creek to

Farm to Market Road 973 Farm to Market Road 973 (FM 973) is a farm-to-market road in Travis County, Texas, Travis and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Route description FM 973 begins at U.S. Route 183 in Texas, US 183 sout ...

. On January 8, 1980, the bridge was "finally put to rest" after nearly 97 years. Richard Moya,

Commissioner Precinct 4, stated the bridge would be closed to automobile traffic due to risk of structural failure. The estimate to stabilize the one-lane bridge for traffic was $750,000 and that did not include widening it to support the increased traffic caused by area growth. A four-lane concrete beam bridge with a different alignment to Farm to Market Road 973 was built instead. The county barricaded the bridge at Moore's Crossing and turned it into a

pedestrian bridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

. The bridge at Moore's Crossing was registered as a Historic Landmark in 1980 by the

Texas Historical Commission The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Historic La ...

. The community itself was added to the

on October 16, 1996. Moores crossing bridge the leftovers

In television

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

used the Moore's Crossing Bridge and the park beneath it as a location for season 2 of '' The Leftovers'', which airs on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

. Production at the location occurred between April and October 2015.

References

External links

National Register Nomination File
{{National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas Geography of Travis County, Texas Neighborhoods in Austin, Texas National Register of Historic Places in Austin, Texas Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Queen Anne architecture in Texas