Bluff Dale's old bridge moved upstream and kept working

For at least 20 years, travelers forded the Paluxy to reach Bluff Dale and points west. Wagon traffic grew after the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway arrived in 1889. An iron bridge began carrying the crossing around 1891.

The road later became State Highway 10 and then U.S. 377. When highway traffic needed a wider span, authorities moved the old bridge 1.5 miles upstream in 1934. It continued carrying local traffic until the early 1990s.

Erath County had commissioned it as one of three bridges from E.E. Runyon and William Flinn. Its nickname says suspension bridge, but its cables attach directly to the towers, making it a rare early cable-stayed design. Wrought-iron gas pipes that Runyon called needle beams help form the deck.