The Pennybacker Legacy

The Pennybacker Legacy

Written by Karen R. Thompson Thursday, 24 April 2008

The Capital of Texas Highway Pennybacker Bridge opened for traffic over Lake Austin on Dec. 4, 1982 to the acclaim of the city, especially Mayor Carole McClellan. This arch-design bridge connects the north and south sides of Loop 360, a road that is widely considered one of the most scenic drives in Central Texas.

In 1984, the bridge won first place in the Federal Highway Administration’s Excellence in Highway Design competition. It has also been honored by the Consulting Engineers Council of Texas as the most innovative example of Austin architecture. All of this was due to the work done by Percy Pennybacker.

The bridge was designed to develop a rust color to make it blend in with the surrounding Hill Country. After the final finish was put on the bridge, it was sandblasted to ensure the final rust color would be uniform. Another notable quality of the bridge is that it has no support columns in the water. This was an important design feature due to Lake Austin’s popularity for boating as a water recreation.

The bridge was named in honor of Percy V. Pennybacker, Jr. (1895-1963) a Texas civil engineer who pioneered the technology of welded structures, particularly for bridges. He was a graduate of the University of Texas in 1907, where his mother, Anna J. Hardwicke Pennybacker had been responsible for obtaining the first woman’s dormitory on campus. Percy was married to Mary Alice (1893-1984) and they, along with his parents, are buried at Oakwood Cemetery.

Percy served in World War I as a captain in the Army Air Corp. and in 1919 joined the Bridge Division of the Texas Highway Department. In 1921 he went to work for a bridge firm in Kansas City. Several years later he returned to work for the Texas Highway Department where he received the 1953 L.I. Hewes Award for outstanding contribution in the use of welding for the repair and construction of highway bridges.

He was also honored as Outstanding Engineer by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, and brought the American Welding Society to Austin.

Percy’s mother, Anna, was a social debutante from the wealthy John B. and Martha Dewes Hardwicke family of Virginia. After college graduation she studied in Europe. In 1884 in Palestine, Texas, she married Percy V. Pennybacker (1856-1899) also an educator. They had three children, including Percy Jr.

In Austin in 1888, Anna wrote and published A History of Texas: For Schools, a textbook that was a staple of Texas classrooms for 40 years. It was one of the first Texas history books officially adopted by the Texas Legislature.

Active in women’s clubs since 1894, Anna went on to serve as president of the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs. She had a focus of establishing permanent libraries. More importantly, she served two terms as national president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (1912-1916).

As a strong Democrat, Anna became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt in a 14-year friendship based on mutual interest in social reform. She made frequent trips to the White House in Washington, DC. She was a special correspondent to the League of Nations in 1925 thru 1927, 1929 and 1931.

Pennybacker stats

• Bridge: Built by the Texas Department of Transportation; opened December 1982 for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles.
• Total length: 1,150 feet, longest span 600 feet
• Clearance below: 100 feet
• Steel: 600,000,000 pounds of steel from Japan
• Structures: Fabricated in Ulsan, Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries
• Erected by: Bristol Steele of Bristol, Virginia
• Concrete: 3,400 tons
• Cost: 10 million dollars