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Life Magazine's picture of the "Red River Bridge War,"
showing the
Durant-Denison "free bridge,"
Bridge 0702 0000 WX, closed by a Texas Ranger.
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Red River
Bridge War
The
Bridge War, also called the Red River Bridge War or the Toll Bridge War, was a
1931 bloodless boundary conflict between the U.S. states of Oklahoma and Texas
over an existing toll bridge and a new free bridge crossing the Red
River.
The Red River Bridge Company, a private firm owned by Benjamin
Colbert, had been operating a toll bridge between Durant, Oklahoma and Denison,
Texas, carrying U.S. Route 69 and U.S. Route 75. Texas and Oklahoma had jointly
built a new, free span northwest of the existing toll bridge.
On July 10,
1931, the Red River Bridge Company obtained an injunction against the Texas
Highway Commission (now Texas Department of Transportation), keeping them from
opening the new bridge. The company said that the highway commission had
promised in July 1930 to buy the old toll bridge for $60,000, equal to $824,582
today. In reaction to the injunction, the Governor of Texas, Ross S. Sterling,
ordered that the new free bridge be barricaded from the Texas end.
On
July 16, Oklahoma governor "Alfalfa Bill" Murray ordered the new bridge open, by
executive order. Murray issued this order on the grounds that the land on both
sides of the river belonged to Oklahoma, per the Louisiana Purchase treaty of
1803. Murray sent highway crews across the new bridge to destroy the
barricades.
Governor Sterling sent Adjutant General William Warren
Sterling and three Texas Rangers to the new bridge to defend the Texas Highway
Commission workers enforcing the injunction and rebuild the barricade that
night. The next day, Oklahoma crews under Governor Murray's order demolished the
Oklahoma approach to the toll bridge, rendering that bridge
impassable.
The Texas state legislature called a special session on July
23 to pass a bill allowing the Red River Bridge Company to sue the state over
the issue, partially in response to meetings in Sherman and Denison, Texas,
demanding the free bridge be opened. The next day, Governor Murray declared
martial law at the site, enforced by Oklahoma National Guardsmen, and appeared
at the site armed with a revolver, hours before a Muskogee, Oklahoma court
issued an injunction prohibiting him from blocking the northern toll bridge
approach. Murray directed the guardsmen to allow anyone to cross either
bridge.
Murray discovered on July 27 that the free bridge was in danger
of being closed permanently. He expanded the martial-law zone across the river,
stationing guardsmen on both free bridge approaches. The injunction against the
bridge opening was dissolved and the martial law order rescinded on August
6.
News of the dispute made national and international headlines. Adolf
Hitler may have believed that the events was evidence of in-fighting between the
American states, weakening the union.
The free bridge that was the cause
of the dispute was opened on Labor Day, September 7, 1931. It was replaced in
1995, though a portion of the bridge was saved as a historical attraction
and relocated to a park in Colbert, Oklahoma.
Source/citation: Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Thank you, Terry from FL, for the super cool link.
