Texas has changed a lot since the first European settlers arrived. Instead of bare prairies and unfordable creeks, there are now bridges, highways, buildings, and people who use them. Life became easier because engineers thought of unusual and innovative ways to bridge rivers, provide water, and light up the Lone Star skies at night. Building the Lone Star is the first published book to look at the historical structures, from windmills and lighthouses to dams and bridges, that were responsible for making Texas the habitable place it is today. Some of yesterday's engineering works may seem quaint now, but they show the continuum of human achievement. Each project pictured in this book is accompanied by the fascinating tales of how and why the project came to be and of the events that played a role in its history. Thanks to more than a decade of research and travel by the author, the details of Texas' transformation from a wild frontier to a civilized, productive state are presented here. More than a hundred historic engineering sites in Texas are pictured and described, each description accompanied by directions to the site and suggestions for further reading. A map of the state gives the general locations of the sites described, and an appendix provides brief descriptions of hundreds more engineering works in Texas. Historical as well as modern photographs and some measured drawings are included, and old newspaper accounts provide a view of the times, as in an eyewitness account of a dam break on the Colorado River at Austin.