The street is a six-lane, tree lined avenue that cuts through the middle of the city from far south Austin and goes over Lady Bird Lake leading to the Texas State Capitol in the heart of Downtown.

Early structures along Congress Avenue included government buildings, hotels, saloons, retail stores and restaurants.

This portion of Congress from Slaughter Lane north to the Williamson Creek bridge is maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation and carries the Loop 275 designation.

Congress Avenue passes over the US 290/SH 71 freeway (locally called Ben White Boulevard) as it travels to the northeast.

It continues for several more blocks before coming to an end at the University of Texas at Austin campus at Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard.

[3] The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge over Lady Bird Lake houses the world's largest urban bat population.