One of the first ghosts I ever encountered was on the land near the Moores Bridge crossing.
The old bridge today you can walk along and it goes over a park that sometimes floods because it’s along onion Creek. There was an A store back in the 1990s that. A family also lived in and it was definitely creepy. In the 2000s, you could still go in there and get a selected few things like a candy bar or a soda. I went by there recently in 2025 and the store is closed but the building is still there. As before, and still today, there seems to be a little bit of a compound of people who are related living behind the old store. The walk from the store to the bridge. Is where I was with somebody who saw numerous spirits walking around but that makes sense because this general area was once very populated. Today, it is Richard Moya Park. A public park for everyone to enjoy.
The Moore’s Crossing bridge is located in southeast Travis County on the Burleson Road, about one mile east of State Highway 183 and just south of Bergstrom Air Force Base.
The bridge was erected by the county in 1915 to replace a low water crossing on Onion Creek. To build this bridge, three trusses of the old iron Bridge built across the Colorado River at Congress Avenue in 1884 were brought out of storage and used. Later that same year, floods washed the bridge away. Then in 1922, a contract was executed with the Austin Bridge Company of Dallas to rebuild the Piers and rebuild the bridge across Onion Creek. The county hauled out of storage the last three of the iron bridge trusses. The support peers were elevated by nine or 10 feet and the bridge was built as it stands today. It is 537 feet long, twenty feet high, and it stands 58 feet above Onion Creek. It is a single lane bridge with a load limit of 12, 000 pounds.
Originally, this iron bridge, six spans in length,
was built across the Colorado River at the foot of Congress Avenue to replace the old wooden bridge which had collapsed. It was built by the Kingbridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio. According to a 1979 letter from Douglas Griffin, chief. Historic American Engineering Record, United States Department of Interior, The King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, was among the largest 19th century bridge companies in America, and the old Congress Avenue Trussell Bridge appears to be a fine example of their work. This bridge served Austin’s people for many years until it was replaced with a new concrete bridge in 1920. At that time, though, William Carmichael Company of Williamsburg Port, Indiana. Were builders of the new bridge contracted for 950 to move the six Truss iron structure to new Piers until the construction of the new bridge was completed? Then the old trusses were dismantled and stored, according to the records of the Commissioners Court.
In 1976. A story was written in the Austin American Statesman that quotes Commissioner Richard Moya as saying it’s a Sound Bridge, though the weight on the bridge had to be limited to 12,000 pounds. In the same story, Edwin Reinhardt, road supervisor for Precinct 4, said that the iron girders were still in good shape, though the floor Timbers rattled when a vehicle crossed.
The bridge has been a convenient bypass for residents of the area for many years.
A recent traffic survey showed an average of 525 vehicles crossed the bridge daily. Because gravel trucks and other heavy loads ignored, the weight limit has been necessary to close the bridge, This was done in on January 8th, 1980, according to a report from Mr Prebel.
Because this is one of the last steel bridges of its kind, and because the structure has served people of Austin and Travis County for so many years, first as a crossing of the Colorado River, and then of Onion Creek, The members of the Travis County Historical Commission feel that it is very deserving of a historical marker, which you did get.
Bridges have been known to be haunted all over Texas, the United States and the world. The old Congress Avenue bridge that goes over Onion Creek is no different. It doesn’t have a ghost associated with it that has anything to do with a hanging. It doesn’t have a ghost associated with it that has anything to do with a school bus. The hauntings on the bridge at Onion Creek don’t have anything to do with a car accident. Most likely, the ghosts associated with the bridge are from all of the floods and drownings that have happened along Onion Creek.
