Trans Mountain Road In El Paso, Texas, And Its History

Trans Mountain Road in El Paso was once the biggest excavation in Texas' history and many say it still is. Either way it was a big deal then and it's still a beautiful drive today.

Trans Mountain Road, (officially renamed Woodrow Bean Trans Mountain Road in the mid 1980's after the man who spearheaded the project), officially opened in 1969. Its history goes back to the late 1950's though when the idea of going over the mountain, (instead of around it or through it), first came up.

Woodrow Bean was a local politician and distant cousin to the legendary "law west of the Pecos" Judge Roy Bean, who lobbied hard for a number of local public works projects including the one that made the Sun Bowl happen.

Birth Of Trans Mountain

The idea for Trans Mountain came up in the late 1950's but it wasn't until the mid 1960's that funding was arranged. Work officially began around 1967 and the first "traffic" across the mountain started in 1969. What was then, (and may still be), the largest excavation project in Texas history had done its job. Travel between west and northeast El Paso had become a short, peaceful and beautiful.

There were a few "turnouts" along the way where people could pull off and take in the view or watch an insanely beautiful sun rise or sunset.

Many years later, early 90's I think, the two main turnouts, (west and northeast), were paved and made into proper rest stops. Both were also eventually outfitted with covered picnic tables for folks to stop and chill at.

Trans Mountain runs through Franklin Mountains State Park, the largest municipal park in Texas and 8th largest in the world. It also crosses Castner Range, a former military firing range adjacent to the state park. that's now a national monument.