Historic Albuquerque

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Above: A panoramic photo of the
Barelas truss bridge across the Rio
Grande, c. 1902. Six men tend a huge
flock of sheep at river's edge.
Wholesale operations that handled
wool and hides had huge warehouses
in Albuquerque and Las Vegas where
the products could be shipped by rail
to eastern markets.
COURTESY OF ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM
PHOTOARCHIVE PA 1999.17.20.
Below: A view of the Santa Fe
Railway shops, c. 1900.
COURTESY OF ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM
PHOTOARCHIVE PA 1978.50.746.
to speak Spanish, marrying Hispanic women,
and giving their children Spanish first names. By
1870, there were eight Anglo-owned mercantile
establishments in the old plaza.
From its founding, Albuquerque has been
closely tied to the Rio Grande. In addition to
being the primary water source for irrigating
the nearby farm fields, the river was also
a barrier for travelers and the transportation
of goods between the town and neighboring
communities. Thus, a convenient and safe
means of crossing the Rio Grande has been of
utmost importance to generations of the town’s
residents. Tom Post, proprietor of the Exchange
Hotel, began a ferry service across the river
in 1874, and in 1876 constructed a pontoon
bridge on the site of the present-day
bridge found on Central Avenue. This
bridge was the first of its kind in the central Rio
Grande Valley.
Post charged a toll for crossing the bridge,
but his enterprise was short-lived when seasonal
floods washed it out. Still realizing the need for
such a structure, the Albuquerque Bridge
Company was incorporated in 1879, and they
built another toll bridge across the river. The
tollhouse was ingeniously placed in the middle
of the structure, which allowed traffic from both
directions to pay their fee without the owners
having the additional expense of building and
staffing two stations. Although the bridge was
necessary for year-round travel, the enterprise
was not entirely successful. During low water
levels, people simply forded the river and thus
avoided paying the toll. When the bridge was
needed the most, during the seasonal rainy
season or spring floods, heavy flows often
damaged the bridge causing it to close.
By the end of the 1870s, Albuquerque was
entering a new era. The once quiet village along
the east bank of the Rio Grande was on the verge
of becoming literally a “New Town”—not just
socially and economically, but physically as
well. All this was precipitated by an influx of
new civic leaders—not coming from Spain or
Mexico, but from other “foreign” places such as
Kansas and Arkansas—and, of course, by the
arrival of the railroad, perhaps the most
momentous event in Albuquerque’s long and
illustrious history.
30 ✦ HISTORIC ALBUQUERQUE