Jack wrote:

update:  just before the end of the year, the bridge has a temporary fix installed.  Two railroad cars fitted into the gap for a one-lane bridge.  Probably would be slippery with dew on it, but it's a good fix for now.

update to update:  bridge is down again--looks like a new bridge is being built.

Update part III:  the new bridge recently has been completed and that route to San Marcos is clear again.

update:  just before the end of the year, the bridge has a temporary fix installed.  Two railroad cars fitted into the gap for a one-lane bridge.  Probably would be slippery with dew on it, but it's a good fix for now.

update to update:  bridge is down again--looks like a new bridge is being built.

Ahem:  http://bicycleaustin.info/getaround/rou … tonio.html

Ahem, indeed.  I had worked out that route to San Marcos myself just after I moved south years ago and started riding out of town south instead of north only to find later that Adventure Cycling had published it years before that.  It's a nice route and I have sent that very link to a few since, but the advent of Google Maps . . . . 

I just now noticed from the link "From S. 1st at the river, head south on S. 1st. (OR take Congress Ave. instead.)    S. 1st is rather busy. Many cyclists prefer S. Congress instead, which is a few blocks west of S. 1st and parallel to it."

I tend to prefer S. 1st to S. Congress -- when riding south of Ben White especially (either north- or south-bound).  But S. 1st is west of S. Congress, of course.