Red River Bridge War

Date	1931
Location	Texas–Oklahoma border
Result	Oklahoman Victory

Belligerents

Texas

Oklahoma

Commanders and leaders

Strength

Texas Military Forces

Oklahoma National Guard

Casualties and losses

None

Texas Military Forces

Oklahoma National Guard

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 $860,199 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.

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