Day Trips

by Gerald E. McLeod
The ferries at Port Aransas may be the best free ride in the state. The three-minute ride across the Corpus Christi Ship Channel gives landlubbers their first welcome and their last goodbye to the island town.

For more than 50 years the car ferries have been a lifeline for the fishing community. After World War II the ferry boats brought carloads of recreational fishermen and tourists.

At first, visitors and residents to Port Aransas got to the ferry by crossing from Aransas Pass on a rickety, wooden, one-lane causeway with turnarounds for cars to pass. The ferry was privately owned until it was taken over by the Nueces County Road District. The fare was $1 per vehicle.

The causeway was built on trestles by an oil company. The wooden road, a foot or so above the water, was maintained until the late Fifties when it was replaced. The pilings from the trestle bridge can still be seen sticking out of the bay along FM36 from Aransas Pass. It is still cheaper to run a ferry across the ship channel rather than build a bridge.

Gilbert Gibbs, who has lived at Port Aransas for more than 50 years, remembers the old trestle causeway and the early ferries. "The first ferry was the Estell," Gibbs says. The trip took two or three times longer than the current three-minute trip, he says.

"One of the favorite tricks for us kids to do was to run up to the pilot's house on the ferries," Gibbs says. "We knew all of the captains and some of them would let us steer."

On January 1, 1968 the operation of the ferries was taken over by Texas Highway Department. There are no more rides in the pilot's house, but now the ferries are free and run 24 hours per day. Over the years the nine-car ferries have been replaced by four 20-car ferries. "There used to be four of the smaller ferries," Gibbs says. The last one left is the Janey Briscoe, named for the former governor's wife. The bigger boats are named for former heads of the state transportation department. Two of the retired ferry boats are now used for sightseeing tours out of Port Aransas, he said.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) also runs a free ferry system between Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula. This trip is much longer than the Port Aransas ride.

The privately operated ferry at Los Ebanos across the Rio Grande between Mission and Rio Grande City is one of only two human-powered ferries still operating in the U.S. The ferry carries three cars at a time and operates 8am-4pm.

TxDOT's 10 ferry boats carried approximately 4.1 million cars in 1997.

This year TxDOT celebrates its 80th anniversary. The highway system began in 1917 with 8,865 miles of roadway and now has 76,843 miles. The longest highway in Texas is US83, an 899-mile stretch which runs from Oklahoma near Perryton to the Mexico border at Brownsville.

There are 48,140 bridges in the state highway inventory. The tallest bridge is the Rainbow Bridge (TX87) near Port Arthur. It has 177 feet of clearance between the water and the bridge to allow passage of the US Navy's dirigible tender.

Interstate Highway 35 through Texas is one of the busiest stretches of the national highway system and runs from Duluth, Minnesota to the Rio Grande. Of the 45,000 miles in the interstate system, 3,233 miles of it are in Texas. The first Interstate contract in Texas was for a portion of what was to become I-45 in Navarro County near Corsicana. In 1956, Texas had the distinction of receiving the second interstate contract in the country.

The first definite route of travel in Texas was made in 1715 from San Juan Bautista (near present Eagle Pass) through San Antonio and on to Nacogdoches and eastward. Known as El Camino Real, it was also referred to as the Old San Antonio Road and follows TX21 from San Marcos to Louisiana. A stretch of the highway north of Bryan is the only highway in Texas designated by letters OSR.

Highway routes with odd numbers run north and south; even numbered routes run east and west. Only one road is officially designated a Ranch Road -- Ranch Road 1 on the LBJ Ranch.

The "Adopt-A-Highway" program began in May 1985 when the Tyler Civitan Club adopted a two-mile section of US69. Since then 4,307 volunteers have picked up litter along 9,043 miles of roadway. The department plants 60,000 pounds of wildflower seeds along Texas highways, making it the largest gardener in the world.

Coming up this weekend...

Food & Wine Fest in Fredericksburg combines Hill Country cuisine with Texas wine and music, Oct. 25 noon-7pm. 830/997-8515.

Hogeye Festival in Elgin is the only place to play Cow Patty Bingo for a chance to win $1,500 while sampling other games, music, and famous Elgin sausage, Oct. 25. 512/285-5721.

Scarecrows Festival paints the store windows in downtown Georgetown and invites vendors to setup on the courthouse lawn, Oct. 25. 512/863-6101.

Bull Creek Greenbelt Cleanup sponsored by REI will be working on Oct. 25. Pre-registration is requested. 343-5550.

Coming up...

Tolbert/Fowler Memorial Championship Chili Cookoff takes over Terlingua, Oct. 31-

Nov. 1. 903/874-5601.

Texas State Railroad makes special weekend runs to see the autumn color in the hills between Rusk and Palestine on Saturdays in November. 800/442-8951.

The Belle, La Salle's 311-year-old ship that was found in the bay off of Palacios, now has its own newsletter available on the Internet, http://www.thc.state.tx.us/journeys or http://www.thc.state.tx.us/belle/index.html