Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 26th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the 11th-most populous city in the United States, the fourth-most populous city in the state after Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, and the second-most populous state capital city after Phoenix, the capital of Arizona. It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010. Downtown Austin and Downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the Interstate 35 corridor. This combined metropolitan region of San Antonio–Austin has approximately 5 million people. Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Gamma + level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
Lady Bird Lake is a river-like reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas, United States. The City of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pond for a new city power plant. The lake, which has a surface area of 416 acres (168 ha), is now used primarily for recreation and flood control. The reservoir is named in honor of former First Lady of the United States Lady Bird Johnson.
Lake Austin, formerly Lake McDonald, is a water reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1939 by the construction of Tom Miller Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Austin is one of the seven Highland Lakes created by the LCRA, and is used for flood control, electrical power generation, and recreation.
The Colorado River is an approximately 862-mile-long (1,387 km) river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the 11th longest river in the United States and the longest river with both its source and its mouth within Texas.
Loop 360 is a 13.99-mile (22.51 km) loop route in Austin in the U.S. state of Texas. Loop 360, also known as the Capital of Texas Highway, is a scenic highway winding through the hills of West Austin. The road is described by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) as "a 4-lane depressed median arterial with at-grade signalized intersections". In 2021, the average daily traffic was 58,497 vehicles at the most traveled point, north of RM 2222.
Percy V. Pennybacker Jr. (1895–1963) was a Texas civil engineer who pioneered the technology of welded structures, particularly for bridges.
Navajo Bridge is the name of twin steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park in northern Coconino County, Arizona, United States. The newer of the two spans carries vehicular traffic on U.S. Route 89A (US 89A) over Marble Canyon between Bitter Springs and Jacob Lake, allowing travel into a remote Arizona Strip region north of the Colorado River including the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.
The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is an arch bridge in the United States that spans the Colorado River between the states of Arizona and Nevada. The bridge is located within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area approximately 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, and carries Interstate 11 and U.S. Route 93 over the Colorado River. Opened in 2010, it was the key component of the Hoover Dam Bypass project, which rerouted US 93 from its previous routing along the top of Hoover Dam and removed several hairpin turns and blind curves from the route. It is jointly named for Mike O'Callaghan, Governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1979, and Pat Tillman, an American football player who left his career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the United States Army and was killed in Afghanistan in 2004.
Loop 1 is a freeway which provides access to the west side of Austin in the U.S. state of Texas. It is named Mopac Expressway after the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Local residents almost always use the name "MoPac" rather than calling the road by its number, which can cause much confusion, for few signs along the road use this name.
The Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge (LLTB) is a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) tied arch bridge crossing Lewisville Lake in Denton County, Texas, USA. Operated by North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), the four-lane toll bridge connects Swisher Road in Lake Dallas to Eldorado Parkway in Little Elm. It is one segment of the 13-mile (21 km) Lewisville Lake Corridor, which connects Interstate 35E and Dallas North Tollway.
Barton Creek Square is an enclosed shopping mall located in southwest Austin, Texas in the United States, near the intersection of Texas State Highway Loop 1 and Texas State Highway Loop 360. The mall is eponymously named after Barton Creek, Texas. Anchor stores are Dillard's, JCPenney, Macy's, and Nordstrom.
The Lamar Boulevard Bridge is a historic arch bridge carrying Texas State Highway Loop 343 over Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, Texas, United States. The bridge features six open-spandrel concrete arches spanning 659 feet (201 m) and carries tens of thousands of vehicles daily across the lake. Completed in 1942, the Lamar Boulevard Bridge was the second permanent bridge to cross the Colorado River, and one of the last Art Deco-style open-spandrel concrete arch bridges built in Texas. The bridge was named an Austin Landmark in 1993 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The Ann W. Richards 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 River from which Lady Bird Lake is impounded. The bridge was known as the Congress Avenue Bridge from the construction of the first span across the Colorado River at that location in the late 19th century until November 16, 2006, when the Austin City Council renamed the current bridge in honor of Ann W. Richards, the 45th Governor of Texas and a long-term resident of Austin. The bridge is a concrete arch bridge with three southbound and three northbound vehicle lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the bridge.
Ranch to Market Road 2244 is an 11.3-mile (18.2 km) ranch-to-market road in Travis County, Texas, United States. It is known locally as Bee Cave Road or Bee Caves Road.
The Montopolis Bridge is a historic Parker through truss bridge in Austin, Texas. It is located in the Montopolis neighborhood where a bicycle and pedestrian walkway crosses the Colorado River in southeastern Travis County. The bridge consists of five 200-foot Parker through truss spans and four 52-foot steel I-beam approach spans resting on reinforced concrete abutments. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1996. The Montopolis Bridge sits at the best crossing of the Colorado River in the area with the historic crossing of the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail just to the east.
The Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company, and often referred to as Pitt-Des Moines Steel or PDM was an American steel fabrication company. It operated from 1892 until approximately 2002 when its assets were sold to other companies, including Chicago Bridge & Iron Company. The company began as a builder of steel water tanks and bridges. It also later fabricated the "forked" columns for the World Trade Center in the 1960s, and was the steel fabricator and erector for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. A number of its works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The James D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge is a shared use bridge for pedestrians and cyclists spanning Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, Texas. Opened in 2001, the bridge connects the north and south sides of the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail and features an unusual "double curve" design. The bridge runs parallel to the Lamar Boulevard Bridge, which carries road traffic across the lake roughly 200 feet (61 m) to the west.
Austin Country Club is a private golf club in the southern United States, located in Austin, Texas. Established 125 years ago in 1899, the club moved to its third and present site in 1984, a challenging layout designed by noted course architect Pete Dye.
The Capitol View Corridors are a series of legal restrictions on construction in Austin, Texas, aimed at preserving protected views of the Texas State Capitol from various points around the city. First established by the Texas Legislature in 1983 and recodified in 2001, the corridors are meant to protect the capitol dome from obstruction by high-rise buildings. While supported by cultural and historical preservation organizations, the corridors have also been criticized for limiting the potential for the development of new tall structures in downtown Austin.
The West Fifth Street Bridge is a historic cantilever concrete girder bridge in downtown Austin, Texas. Built in 1931, the bridge carries Fifth Street across Shoal Creek to link central Austin with neighborhoods that were then the city's western suburbs. It is one of only a handful of curved cantilever girder bridges in Texas, built as part of the city's 1928 master plan for urban development and beautification. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
Loop 360, pedestrians, and bicycles
