The Waco Suspension Bridge originally functioned as a privately chartered toll bridge carrying wagon, foot, and livestock traffic across the Brazos River at a point long used as a Chisholm Trail cattle crossing. Before its 1870 completion, the river had no fixed crossing for roughly eight hundred miles through Central Texas, forcing travelers and cattle drovers to rely on fords that became impassable during high water; the Texas legislature chartered the Waco Bridge Company in 1866 to solve the problem. Engineer Thomas M. Griffith designed the span using steel cables supplied by the Roebling company of Trenton, New Jersey, later famous for the Brooklyn Bridge, and at completion it was the longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River, a significant engineering achievement for its era. As a toll crossing it proved highly profitable, generating enough revenue in its first year to pay off its construction debt, and its role in funneling Chisholm Trail cattle traffic and wagon commerce through Waco helped establish the city as a regional trade hub. Public opposition to the tolls eventually led McLennan County to purchase the bridge and transfer it to the City of Waco for a nominal sum on condition that tolls be removed. The bridge underwent structural modernization in 1913 and later renovations, but it was closed to vehicle traffic in 1971. Today it functions solely as a pedestrian bridge and civic landmark within Waco's Indian Spring Park area, connecting downtown to the Brazos riverfront and serving as a symbol of the city's founding-era history.