Bridge at McAlister Crossing

John Murphy McAlister and his wife, Isabella McClain McAlister, settled in La Vernia with their family in the early 1850s, and in 1857 they bought several hundred acres on the southwest bank of Cibolo Creek. The natural stream crossing beside their property became known as McAlister Crossing and for years served residents on both sides of the creek. After John McAlister's death in 1885, the McAlister children subdivided the land, and around the same time county commissioners designated the local route, including the crossing, as Road No. 62, now County Road 337. In 1906, the Henry Mueller family bought land on the east side of the creek, and a son later acquired land on the west side just southwest of McAlister Crossing. In 1908, county commissioners allowed telephone poles to be placed along the road and creek crossing. In 1915, the Commissioners Court contracted with the Alamo Construction Company of San Antonio to build five county bridges, including the one at McAlister Crossing. Completed in 1915 at a cost of nearly $9,000, it was the most expensive of the new bridges. Because members of the Mueller family owned property at both ends, it was often called Mueller Bridge. The three-span, 252-foot bridge features polygonal camelback trusses with multiple panels. For more than 70 years, it served local residents and endured occasional raging waters on Cibolo Creek. Closed to vehicular traffic in 1988, it remains a historic link to early 20th-century engineering design.

Texas · United States