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Red River
The Red River begins in eastern New
Mexico, traveling east along the southern parts of
Oklahoma and the northern areas of Texas before it heads
southwest through Arkansas. From Arkansas, the Red turns
south and runs between Shreveport and Bossier City, as
well as their respective parishes of Caddo and Bossier.
From there the river serves as a border for Red River,
Winn, Natchitoches, Grant, Rapides Avoyelles, Catahoula,
Concordia, and Pointe Coupee Parishes before it links up
with the Old River and finally flows into the
Mississippi River itself. As the river worms its way
through the land, it picks up alluvial soil, which
contains iron oxide, the material responsible for the
reddish color of the water as well as its name.1
The Red River is known for its occasional
changes in course. Leaving its old riverbed and forming
new channels, the Red created Bayou Pierre and Twelve
Mile Bayou among others. 2 The river was also blocked by
the Great Raft, which was finally removed in the 1870’s.
 The river flows between Shreveport and
Bossier City for about two miles, and was heavily
trafficked during the
steamboat days of the early and
mid-1800’s. Men established their businesses on the
banks of the river, which served as a port and was
essential for importing and exporting goods. Commerce
Street was also known as “the levee” because of its
location, and the 500 and 600 blocks housed most of the
commercial buildings.3
By
1881 twenty steamers ran between Shreveport and New
Orleans with cargoes of beeswax, wool, grain, cottonseed
oil, tallow, hay, cotton, livestock, and hides. In 1886
steamers made 108 trips between Shreveport and New
Orleans and carried about $2,500,000 worth of materials
on the river.4
The Vicksburg, Shreveport,
and Pacific Railroad built the first permanent bridge
across the Red River for $300,000. Trains, as well as
vehicles and pedestrians, used this bridge. On July 23,
1890 a VS&P passenger train and the steamer E. G.
Wheelock signaled for the bridge simultaneously. The
draw was opened in order for the steamboat to pass, but
the train’s engineer was unable to stop the train.
Within seconds the locomotive fell into the Red with the
tender. The train proper remained on the track. In 1916
the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad removed the bridge
and built a new one of steel. The span on this bridge
could move to allow for river traffic to pass.5
The Traffic Street Bridge,
the first bridge built for vehicles, connected Lake
Street in Shreveport to Barksdale Boulevard in Bossier
City. Confederate war veterans were hired as toll
collectors. Pedestrians were charged five cents, and
automobiles or buggies were charged twenty-five cents.
In the 1920s the tolls ended and streetcar lines were
installed. In 1934 the Long-Allen Bridge, named for
Governors Huey P. Long and O. K. Allen, was built with
Public Works Administration funding at the foot of Texas
Street for $788,000. In 1955 only pedestrians were
allowed to cross the Traffic Street Bridge, and in June
of 1968 it was demolished. The Long-Allen Bridge, also
known as the Texas Street Bridge, remains.6
The Jimmie Davis Bridge, also known as the
Seventieth Street Bridge, connects Shreveport and
Bossier City. The supporting piers were built in the
late days of Davis’s term, but the bridge was not
completed until 1970. 7
References
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