Moore's Crossing Historic District | |
 The bridge at Moore's Crossing | |
 | |
| Location | SE ofAustin, TexasUSA roughly bounded by FM 973, Moores Bridge Road and Onion Creek. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 30°10′5″N97°39′42″W / 30.16806°N 97.66167°W /30.16806; -97.66167 |
| Area | 305 acres (123 ha) |
| Built | 1871 |
| MPS | Southeast Travis County MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 96001091[1] |
| Added to NRHP | October 16, 1996 |
Moore's Crossing Historic District is a community located in ruralTravis County nine miles southeast ofAustin, Texas near theAustin–Bergstrom International Airport.
The location was used as alow-water crossing ofOnion 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 theNational Register of Historic Places on October 16, 1996[2]
The southeastern quadrant of what is now Travis County was the first part of the county Europeans settled after theSpanish (and later Mexican) government opened Texas lands to colonists in the 1820s. Watered by theColorado River, 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 ofBergstrom Air Force Base in 1942, duringWorld War II. Population growth in 1990s and the opening of ABIA in 1999 was followed by commercial development alongTexas State Highway 71.[3]
In 1915, three of six spans from the 1884 ironCongress Avenue Bridge, 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 theAustin Bridge Company ofDallas is made ofconcrete piers and the remaining three spans from the Congress Avenue Bridge. It was completed in 1922 and took Burleson Road across Onion Creek toFarm to Market Road 973.[4]
On January 8, 1980, the bridge was "finally put to rest" after nearly 97 years.Richard Moya,Travis County 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 apedestrian bridge.[5]
The bridge at Moore's Crossing was registered as a Historic Landmark in 1980 by theTexas Historical Commission. The community itself was added to theNational Register of Historic Places on October 16, 1996.[2]
Warner Bros. Television used the Moore's Crossing Bridge and the park beneath it as a location for season 2 ofThe Leftovers, which airs onHBO. Production at the location occurred between April and October 2015.[6][7]
