The First Hannibal Bridge was the first permanent rail crossing of the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

and helped establish the City of Kansas (renamed

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, in 1889) as a major city and rail center. In its early days, it was called the Kansas City Bridge. It increased area train traffic, which contributed to the building of Union Depot, the predecessor to the

Kansas City Union Station Kansas City Union Station (station code: KCY) is a union station that opened in 1914, serving Kansas City, Missouri, and the Kansas City metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area. It replaced a small Union Depot built in 1878. Union Stat ...

. It was severely damaged by a tornado and replaced in virtually the same location by the Second Hannibal Bridge.

History

Construction started in 1867, shortly after the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

,O. Chanute and George Morison, ''The Kansas City Bridge with an account of the Regimen of the Missouri River and a Description of the Methods used for Founding at the River'', D. Van Nostrand, NY, 1870, Michigan Historical Reprint Series, University of Michigan and was completed in 1869. The bridge was built for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad by the Keystone Bridge Company. The completion of the bridge came after a short battle between

Leavenworth, Kansas Leavenworth () is the county seat and largest city of Leavenworth County, Kansas, Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States. Part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Leavenworth is located on the west bank of the Missouri River, on the site o ...

, and the City of Kansas for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad bridge. Hannibal Bridge

The bridge was designed by

Octave Chanute Octave Chanute (February 18, 1832 – November 23, 1910) was a French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He advised and publicized many aviation enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers. At his death, he was hailed as the father of ...

, who also designed the Kansas City Stockyards and later became a pioneer in

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

. After hearing of the proposed bridge at the City of Kansas, Joseph Tomlinson contacted Chanute and they corresponded on how best to cross the Missouri River. In October 1867, Chanute hired Tomlinson as the superintendent of superstructure. George S. Morison, who later became a leading bridge designer in North America, apprenticed under the supervision of Tomlinson and Chanute during the construction of the bridge. It was a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...

that could open in under two minutes, and had an arched

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

design. Construction cost (equivalent to $ in ). In 1886, the bridge was severely damaged by a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

that collapsed a middle span. It was reconstructed and its truss structure was altered from an arch design to a traditional truss design. It was later replaced by the Second Hannibal Bridge upstream on the northern bank, but at the same location on the southern bank where it enters into the gooseneck cut into the bluff.

References

{{Reflist Bridges in Kansas City, Missouri Demolished bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1869 Octave Chanute Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Buildings and structures in Clay County, Missouri Railroad bridges in Missouri Former railway bridges in the United States 1869 establishments in Missouri

History

See also

References