Eads Bridge
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The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
connecting the cities of
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
and
East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...
. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between
Laclede's Landing Laclede's Landing (), colloquially "the Landing", is a small urban historic district in St. Louis, Missouri. It marks the northern part of the original settlement founded by the Frenchman Pierre Laclède, whose landing on the riverside the placenam ...
, to the north, and the grounds of the
Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Some sources consider ...
, to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder,
James Buchanan Eads Captain James Buchanan Eads (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) was a world-renowned American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents. Eads' great Mississippi River Bridge at St. Louis was designated a National Historic Landmar ...
. Work on the bridge began in 1867, and it was completed in 1874. The Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive, which means that the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the river. In order to accommodate the massive size and strength of the Mississippi River, the Eads Bridge required a number of engineering feats. Perhaps most importantly, due to the use of steel by
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
’s
Keystone Bridge Company Keystone or key-stone or ''variation'', may refer to: * Keystone (architecture), a central stone or other piece at the apex of an arch or vault * Keystone (cask), a fitting used in ale casks Business * Keystone Law, a full-service law firm * D ...
, it was the first large-scale use of
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
as a structural material and initiated the shift from wrought-iron to steel as the default material for large structures. Its foundations were the deepest underwater constructions at the time, at more than 100 feet below water level. They were installed using pneumatic caissons, a pioneering application of caisson technology in the United States and, at the time, by far the largest caissons ever built. Its center arch was the longest rigid span ever built at the time, at 520 feet. The method of constructing the arches, in which they were suspended from temporary wooden towers, is sometimes cited as the first use of the " cantilever principle" for a large bridge. These engineering principles were used for later bridges, including the
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
, which began construction in 1870. The Eads Bridge became a famous image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the
Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Some sources consider ...
was completed. The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and now carries both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It connects Washington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri with Riverpark Drive and, eventually, East Broadway, both in East St. Louis, Illinois. The former railroad deck now carries the
St. Louis MetroLink MetroLink is the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan mass transit system serving Missouri and the Metro East area of Illinois. The system consists of two rail lines (Red Line and Blue Line) connecting St. Louis Lambert International Airport and ...
light rail system, providing service between St Louis and communities on the Illinois side of the river. The bridge is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. As of April 2014, it carries about 8,100 vehicles daily, down 3,000 since the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened in February 2014.


History

The Eads Bridge was built by the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, with the
Keystone Bridge Company Keystone or key-stone or ''variation'', may refer to: * Keystone (architecture), a central stone or other piece at the apex of an arch or vault * Keystone (cask), a fitting used in ale casks Business * Keystone Law, a full-service law firm * D ...
, founded in 1865 by
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
, serving as subcontractor for steel superstructure erection. Because of the increased reach of newly constructed railroads, river shipping trade had declined in importance compared to the antebellum years.
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
was fast gaining as the center of commerce in the West. The bridge was conceived as a solution for St. Louis to regain eminence by connecting railroad and vehicle transportation across the river. Although he had no prior experience in bridge building, James Eads was chosen as chief engineer for the bridge. In an attempt to secure their future,
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
interests successfully lobbied to place restrictions on bridge construction, requiring spans and heights previously unheard of. This was ostensibly to maintain sufficient operating room for steamboats beneath the bridge's base for the then foreseeable future. The unproclaimed purpose was to require a bridge so grand and lofty that it was impossible to erect according to conventional building techniques. The steamboat parties planned to prevent any structure from being built, in order to ensure continued dependence on river traffic to sustain commerce in the region. Such a bridge required a radical design solution. The Mississippi River's strong current was almost and the builders had to battle ice floes in the winter. The ribbed arch had been a known construction technique for centuries. The triple span, tubular metallic arch construction was supported by two shore abutments and two mid-river piers. Four pairs of arches per span (upper and lower) were set apart, supporting an upper deck for vehicular traffic and a lower deck for rail traffic. Construction involved varied and confusing design elements and pressures. State and federal charters precluded
suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspende ...
or
draw bridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...
s, or wood construction. There were constraints on span size and the height above the water line. The location required reconciling differences in heights - from the low Illinois floodplain of the east bank of the river to the high Missouri cliff on the west bank. The bedrock could only be reached by deep drilling, as it was below water level on the Illinois side and below on the Missouri side. These pressures resulted in a bridge noted as innovative for precision and accuracy of construction and quality control. This was the first use of structural alloy steel in a major building construction, through use of cast chromium steel components – even though as 1988 tests showed, the amount of chromium was too low to influence the strength, and the steel in general wouldn't be considered suitable for any structural application in modern times. The completed bridge also relied on significant—and unknown—amounts of wrought iron. Eads argued that the great compressive strength of steel was ideal for use in the upright arch design. His decision resulted from a curious combination of chance and necessity, due to the insufficient strength of alternative material choices. The particular physical difficulties of the site stimulated interesting solutions to construction problems. The deep caissons used for pier and abutment construction signaled a new chapter in
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
. Piers were sunk almost below the river's surface. Unable to construct
falsework Falsework consists of temporary structures used in construction to support a permanent structure until its construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself. For arches, this is specifically called centering. Falsework includes temporary s ...
to erect the arches, because they would obstruct river traffic, Eads's engineers devised a cantilevered rigging system to close the arches. Masonry piers were built to heights of almost , about the height of a ten-story building. About of that span was driven through the sandy riverbed until it hit bedrock. Eads implemented a building method that he had observed in Europe, whereby masonry was set atop a metal chamber filled with compressed air. Stone was added to the chamber, which caused the caisson to sink. Workers dove into the caisson to shovel sand into a pump that shot it out into the air so the masonry could be sunk into the riverbed. Numerous workers who operated in the Eads Bridge caissons, still among the deepest ever sunk, suffered from "
caisson disease Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...
" (also known as "the bends" or
decompression sickness Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...
). Fifteen workers died, two other workers were permanently disabled, and 77 were severely afflicted. The Eads Bridge was recognized as an innovative and exciting achievement. Eads secured 47 patents during his lifetime, many of which were taken out for parts of the bridge's structure and devices for its construction. President Ulysses S. Grant dedicated the bridge on July 4, 1874, and General William T. Sherman drove the gold spike completing construction. After completion, 14 locomotives crossed the bridge to prove its stability. On June 14, 1874, John Robinson led a "test
elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
" on a stroll across the new Eads Bridge to prove that it was safe. A big crowd cheered as the elephant from a traveling circus lumbered toward Illinois. Popular belief held that elephants had instincts that would make them avoid setting foot on unsafe structures. Two weeks later, Eads sent 14 locomotives back and forth across the bridge at one time. The opening day celebration on July 4, 1874, featured a parade that stretched for through the streets of St. Louis. The cost of building the bridge was nearly $10 million ($ million with inflation). The Eads Bridge was undercapitalized during construction and burdened with debt. Because of its historic focus on the Mississippi and river trade, St. Louis lacked adequate rail terminal facilities, and the bridge was poorly planned to coordinate rail access. Although an engineering and aesthetic success, the bridge operations became bankrupt within a year of opening. The railroads boycotted the bridge, resulting in a loss of tolls. The bridge was later sold at auction for 20 cents on the dollar. This sale caused the National Bank of the State of Missouri to fold, which was the largest bank failure in the United States at that time. Eads did not suffer financial consequences. Many involved with financing the bridge were indicted, but Eads was not. Granite for the bridge came from the
Iron County, Missouri Iron County is a county located in the Lead Belt region in the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,537. The largest city and county seat is Ironton. Iron County was officially organized on February 17, 1857, an ...
, quarry of
B. Gratz Brown Benjamin Gratz Brown (May 28, 1826December 13, 1885) was an American politician. He was a U.S. Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri, and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of ...
, Missouri Governor and U.S. Senator, who had helped secure federal financing for the bridge. In April 1875, after the failure of the Illinois and St Louis Bridge Company, the bridge was sold at public auction, for $2 million, to a newly incorporated St. Louis Bridge Company controlled by the old company's creditors. This group was bought-out two years later by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA). The TRRA owned the bridge until 1989, when the Terminal Railroad transferred the bridge to the Bi-State Regional Transportation Authority and the City of St. Louis, for incorporation into St Louis' MetroLink light rail system. In exchange for Eads Bridge, the TRRA acquired the MacArthur Bridge, previously owned by the City of St Louis. In 1949, the bridge's strength was tested with electromagnetic strain gauges. It was determined that Eads' original estimation of an allowable load of could be raised to . The Eads Bridge is still considered one of the greatest bridges ever built. The Eads Bridge had long hosted only passenger trains on its rail deck. In the late 20th century, however, passenger traffic had declined because of individual automobile use, and the railroad industry was restructuring. By the 1970s, the Terminal Railroad Association had abandoned its Eads trackage. The bridge had lost all remaining passenger rail traffic to the MacArthur Bridge during the early years of
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
; the dimensions of modern passenger diesels were incompatible with both the bridge and the adjoining tunnel linking the
Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
trackage with Eads. MetroLink service over the bridge began in 1993. The bridge was closed to automobile traffic between 1991 and 2003, when the city of St. Louis, Missouri, completed a project to restore the highway deck. In 1998, the
Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center NFESC, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (Formerly NCEL, Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory) in Port Hueneme, California, provides engineering services, technology testing, specialized facilities, and expertise in these facilities. ...
investigated the effects of the ramming of the bridge by the towboat ''Anne Holly'' on April 4 of that year. The ramming resulted in the near breakaway of the SS ''Admiral'', a
riverboat casino A riverboat casino is a type of casino on a riverboat found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. Several states authorized this type of casino in order to e ...
. Implementing several recommended changes reduced the odds of this happening in the future. In 2012, the Bi-State Development Agency/Metro (BSDA/Metro) started the Eads Bridge Rehabilitation project to extend the life of the bridge to at least the year 2091. The restorations included replacing 1.2 million pounds of struts, bracing, and other support steel dating to the 1880s; removing all paint and corrosion from the superstructure; re-painting the superstructure with a rust-inhibiting coating; repairing damaged structure; rebuilding concrete supports; restoring the brick archways; and upgrading the MetroLink's rails. The total cost was $48 million, with $27 million coming from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...
. While expected to start in 2009, work didn't begin until 2012 due to labor disputes and higher-than-expected cost estimates. Workers completed the project in 2016.


Tunnel

City fathers wanted a wagon bridge to the heart of town to highlight the best features of St. Louis. Economics required that it be a railroad bridge, but there was no space for railroads in the heart of downtown. Hence, a tunnel was authorized to connect the bridge to the
Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...
to the south (and later to the new
Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
). Eads worked out the specifications for the tunnel. It was to be a “cut and cover” tunnel 4000 ft long, 30 ft below street level. They advertised for bids in the
Missouri Republican The ''Missouri Republican'' was a newspaper founded in 1808 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its predecessor was the ''Morning Gazette''. It later changed its name to ''St. Louis Republic''. After supporting the Whig Party, the paper bec ...
on August 31, 1872. The contract was awarded to William Skrainka and Company. Construction began in October. A series of problems arose including quicksand and springs on the planned route. Also several workers were injured; at least one was killed. On November 29, the city council passed an ordinance changing the tunnel route to Eight Street and transferring the right to build to the newly formed St. Louis Tunnel Railroad Company. In April, Skrainka and Co. decided the project was too difficult. They agreed to complete construction south of Market St. The work north of Market was assigned to James Andrews, the stonemason overseeing construction of the bridge piers. The Eads Bridge was ready to be opened after seven years of construction on July 4, 1874. The celebration included a fifteen-car train filled with 500 dignitaries pulled by three locomotives that departed from the St. Louis, Vandalia, and Terre Haute Railroad station in
East St. Louis East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
. Locomotives were provided by the
Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...
and the Vandalia line (a
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
subsidiary). The route crossed the Eads Bridge and traveled through the tunnel to
Mill Creek Valley Mill Creek Valley was a historic neighborhood located in the central corridor between 20th Street and Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. European settlement began in the 18th century with mills established along ''La Petite Rivière'', ...
and then returned. Locomotive smoke is a concern in tunnels, especially passenger tunnels. Specially designed coke-burning “smoke-consuming engines” from the Baldwin Locomotive Works had yet to be ordered. News reports tell of passengers coughing and gasping for breath. Construction of the tunnel was not yet complete. Only one of the two tracks was available and ventilation was not yet arranged. A photograph of the St. Louis Bridge Company's coke-burning engine appears on page 38 of Brown's Baldwin Locomotive Works. The St. Louis Bridge Company almost certainly had a transfer station in
East St. Louis East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
to switch trains entering St. Louis from Illinois between steam locomotives and the coke-burning engine used in this tunnel, as the Eads Bridge's railroad deck connects directly to the tunnel. This would have been analogous to the later (1910–1937), well-known
Manhattan Transfer station Manhattan Transfer was a passenger transfer station in Harrison, New Jersey, east of Newark, west of New York Penn Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) main line, now Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. It operated from 1910 to 1937 and consist ...
in
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, except there rail passengers switched between the electric trains used in the
New York Tunnel Extension The New York Tunnel Extension (also New York Improvement and Tunnel Extension) is a combination of railroad tunnels and approaches from New Jersey and Long Island to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan. It was built by Pennsylvania Railr ...
tunnels under the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
(
North River Tunnels The North River Tunnels are a pair of rail tunnels that carry Amtrak and New Jersey Transit passenger lines under the Hudson River between Weehawken, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Built between 1904 ...
) and thru
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
( historic Penn Station and
East River Tunnels The East River Tunnels are four single-track railroad passenger service tunnels that extend from the eastern end of Pennsylvania Station under 32nd and 33rd Streets in Manhattan and cross the East River to Long Island City in Queens. The tracks ...
) and the steam trains then used on the
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
main line (now part of
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
’s electrified Northeast Corridor along with the tunnels and present-day Penn Station), instead of switching engines on the train itself as was apparently the case in St. Louis. In 1875, the bridge and tunnel companies declared bankruptcy. In 1881,
Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him ...
got control of the bridge and tunnel companies by threatening to build a competing bridge four miles north of St. Louis. In 1889, Gould was instrumental in the creation of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. He died in 1892, but this led to the construction of
Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
in 1894. The Eads Bridge and its tunnel are now used by Metrolink, the St. Louis light rail system.


Recognition

In 1898 the bridge was featured on the $2
Trans-Mississippi Issue The Trans-Mississippi Issue is a set of nine commemorative postage stamps issued by the United States to mark the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska. The finely engraved stamps depict various scenes of the West and are pres ...
of
postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
s. One hundred years later the design was reprinted in a commemorative
souvenir sheet A souvenir sheet or miniature sheet is a postage stamp or a small group of postage stamps still attached to the Paper, sheet on which they were printed. They may be either regular issues that just happen to be printed in small groups (typical of m ...
. The bridge was designated as a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1964, in recognition of its innovations in design, materials, construction methods, and importance in the history of large-scale engineering projects. During the bridge's construction, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called it "The World's Eighth Wonder". On its 100th anniversary, the Times' architectural critic, Ada Louise Huxtable, described it as "among the most beautiful works of man."


See also

*
Chain of Rocks Bridge The old Chain of Rocks Bridge spans the Mississippi River on the north edge of St. Louis, Missouri. The eastern end of the bridge is on Chouteau Island (part of Madison, Illinois), while the western end is on the Missouri shoreline. Its most ...
* Martin Luther King Bridge *
McKinley Bridge The McKinley Bridge is a steel truss bridge across the Mississippi River. It connects northern portions of the city of St. Louis, Missouri with Venice, Illinois. It opened in 1910 and was taken out of service on October 30, 2001. The bridge was r ...
* Merchants Bridge *
Poplar Street Bridge The Congressman William L. Clay Sr. Bridge, formerly known as the Bernard F. Dickmann Bridge and popularly as the Poplar Street Bridge or PSB, completed in 1967, is a deck girder bridge across the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, ...
* Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge *
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Illinois This is a list of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in the U.S. state of Illinois. Bridges Notes References {{HAER list, structure=bridge *List *List Illinois Bridges Bridges A bridge is a structure b ...
*
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Missouri __NOTOC__ This is a list of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in the U.S. state of Missouri. Bridges Notes References {{HAER list, structure=bridge *List *List Missouri Bridges, HAER Bridges, HAER Bridges ...
*
List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River This is a list of all current and notable former bridges or other crossings of the Upper Mississippi River which begins at the Mississippi River's source and extends to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. Crossings Minnesot ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Missouri The National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) in the U.S. state of Missouri represent Missouri's history from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, through the American Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Age. There are 37 National Historic La ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Illinois There are 88 National Historic Landmarks in Illinois, including Eads Bridge, which spans into Missouri and which the National Park Service credits to Missouri's National Historic Landmark list. Also included are two sites that were once National ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in St. Clair County, Illinois * National Register of Historic Places listings in Downtown and Downtown West St. Louis * List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois * List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri


References


Further reading

* * * * * Jackson, Robert W. ''Rails across the Mississippi''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001. *
The Men Who Built America ''The Men Who Built America'' (also known as ''The Innovators: The Men Who Built America'' in some international markets) is an eight-hour, four-part miniseries docudrama which was originally broadcast on the History Channel in autumn 2012, and o ...
- Film Documentary that covers the importance of the bridge and development of the steel industry that made its construction possible.


External links


National Historic Landmark Designation - Statement of SignificanceEads Bridge
- the History and Heritage of Civil Engineering webpage (American Society of Civil Engineers) *
Eads Bridge at corellcreekBridge Pros: Eads BridgeBridge info
at Historic Bridges of the United States.
maps.google.com
zoomed in, hybrid mode
High resolution panoramic image of an Eads Bridge spanPicture, circa 1980
* * *
Engineering Illustrated London : Office for Advertisements and Publication, July 14, 1871
{{Authority control Andrew Carnegie Open-spandrel deck arch bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1874 Railroad bridges in Illinois Railroad bridges in Missouri Road-rail bridges in the United States Bridges in St. Louis Bridges over the Mississippi River East St. Louis, Illinois National Historic Landmarks in Missouri National Historic Landmarks in Illinois MetroLink (St. Louis) MetroLink (St. Louis) infrastructure Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in St. Clair County, Illinois Landmarks of St. Louis Bridges in St. Clair County, Illinois Historic American Buildings Survey in Missouri Historic American Engineering Record in Missouri Railroad bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Railroad-related National Historic Landmarks Former toll bridges in Illinois Former toll bridges in Missouri Light rail bridges Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Railroad bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Steel bridges in the United States Downtown St. Louis Interstate vehicle bridges in the United States Buildings and structures in St. Louis 1874 establishments in Missouri