(
Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges;
John A. Weeks III; no John Marvig;
Satellite)
"Opened Aug. 23, 1942 as a toll bridge. Main span destroyed by severe thunderstorm July 29, 1944; reopened Aug. 24, 1946. Tolls removed Jan. 1, 1989." [Bridge Hunter]
I wonder what the strategic importance of this bridge was that they were allowed to use steel for it during World War II.
The Chester Bridge was constructed by the City of Chester to connect Illinois and Missouri. In the late 1930s City governmental and business leaders formed a committee to oversee the effort, which would construct a toll bridge to connect to the developing highway systems in Illinois and Missouri. They worked under the slogan, “It shall be built.”
The City of Chester contracted with Sverdrup & Parcel, Consulting Engineers, of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1939 to design the bridge. Bonds were sold to finance the construction and the first contract for construction was awarded in July 1939. The Massman Construction Company of Kansas City, Missouri was awarded the contract to build the bridge. The steelwork was done by the American Bridge Company of East St. Louis, Illinois. The bridge was completed in May 1942, and work on highway approaches was completed over the summer of 1942. The bridge was dedicated on August 23, 1942.
During the evening of July 29, 1944 a strong windstorm, possibly a tornado, struck the bridge and the two main spans were destroyed. Reconstruction and repair of the bridge took two years to complete and the bridge was reopened on August 24, 1946.
The bridge operated as a toll bridge until December 31, 1988. The Departments of Transportation in Missouri and Illinois jointly own and maintain the bridge.
The bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under criteria C for local significance in engineering. The bridge is an excellent example of large scale bridge engineering required for major river crossings.
MoDOT’s Historic Preservation Section is now accepting proposals for the relocation and reuse of the bridge or its components until December 31, 2018. A proposal checklist is available MoDOT’s Free Bridges website (http://www.modot.org/freebridges/). Preservation covenants may accompany the bridge.
[MoDOT]
Several people have contributed detailed shots of the bridge in Bridge Hunter because MoDOT wants to get rid of this truss as well. "The bridge - the only Mississippi River crossing for car traffic between Cape Girardeau and south St. Louis - is also a tourist attraction as much as it is a transportation asset." [
RandolfCountyHeraldTribune-2016]
To be fair to the DOTs, sand blasting and painting the insides of all those built-up, V-laced truss members has to be time consuming. See below for the results of the study that was going to start in 2016.
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| Photo uploaded by William Pamley to Bridge Hunter |
Lisa Ruble
posted four photos with the comment:
Chester Bridge
Dedicated on August 23, 1942
The main span of the Chester Bridge was blown off its piers on July 29, 1944, by tornadic forced winds. The collapse occurred around 9:45 pm and was marked by a resounding roar that could be heard for several miles.
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W. A. Smith, a brakeman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, who lived on a bluff downstream related the following story:
"My family and I were out in the front yard watching the storm. The sky was full of lightning flashes, so we could see pretty well. The wind was so strong some of the children were hanging onto to trees to keep on their feet. We noticed a roaring like a freight train makes, only louder. Looking upstream we could see a mass of white clouds rolling over and over on a horizontal axis and approaching the bridge. Then we saw another mass of clouds spinning on a vertical axis and angling toward the bridge from upstream on the Illinois shore. They seemed to meet directly above the bridge. The red warning light went out. The bridge seemed to lift a little then fall over downstream. Sparks flew from electric wires leading to the light. The cloud mass moved toward the Missouri shore."
Smith said immediately after the high steel span fell into the water he could see the lights of an automobile approaching the gap at high speed from the Missouri side. The driver seen, however, what had happened just in time and was able to bring his automobile to a stop a few feet from the end of the pavement. Another truck loaded with furniture from Missouri had just cleared the Illinois side of the bridge when the collapse occurred. There was a report of a bolt of lightning hitting the bridge but upon examination the superstructure failed to reveal any marks.
There were no injuries or fatalities. The damage to the bridge was estimated at $650,000. The bridge, which had opened in 1942, was built for $1,385,000. - St Louis Post-Dispatch July 1944.
Reconstruction took two years and on August 24, 1946, the bridge was reopened to traffic.
The Chester Bridge can be seen in the 1967 film In The Heat Of The Night, although in the film a highway sign for the (non-existent) "Arkansas 49" highway appears on the east (Illinois) side of the bridge.
Second photo is of the original Chester Bridge in 1942. The third photo was taken after the collapse. The last photo is of the bridge in 1947.
Randolph County Illinois and Perry County Missouri
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Savanah Nauman
[The river is running high. The date on the photo is Mar 2018. The grain truck emphasizes how tall the truss is.] |
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Lisa Ruble posted
CHESTER BRIDGE The Chester Bridge is a continuous truss bridge connecting Missouri's Route 51 with Illinois Route 150 across the Mississippi River between Chester, Illinois and Perryville, Missouri. The bridge was dedicated on August 23, 1942. Mississippi River I took this photo of the Chester Bridge in July 2022. |
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Street View
[This July 2018 capture shows the river is still high.] |
This photo during the Flood of 2019 is what motivated this post.
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Tim Larson posted
High water at the Chester Bridge |
In Tim's photo, the water is almost to the base of the columns. Below, John caught the bridge with a low river level allowing us to see how much of the piers is covered in Tim's photo.
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John Canady posted
[His initial comment said Hannibal, MO. But a later comment indicated this photo is of the Chester bridge.] |
The above photo was cropped from this one.
I couldn't find the boat launch from which the photo was taken. Then I noticed that Water Street literally had water on it!
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Satellite
[The copyright for this image capture is 2019. So this image is from the Flood of 2019. It is unusual for a satellite image to be so recent.] |
Tall trusses have a lot of lateral torque during heavy winds. ("tornadic wind force" [RandolfCountyHeraldTribune-2016])
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Photo via Bridge Hunter
St.Louis Post-Dispatch: July 31 1944
[The paper had to get a photo from the US Coast Guard of what it looked like before it was blown down.] |
Some comments on this post confirm the storm was a tornado. Traffic had been stopped before the spans collapsed.
Tommy Burgdorf
posted four images with the comment: "1944 Collapse from Storm."
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| 1, at Facebook resolution |
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As promised, the results of the study.
The study includes a couple of nice photos of the existing bridge. Or as nice as you can get with a blue bridge against a blue sky. Again, notice how the 18-wheelers appear to be so small.
This photo is a reminder that this bridge is downstream from St. Louis so there are no locks to worry about. Thus the tows can get really big.
The U-1 plan, "which has a $191 million cost, features two 12-foot lanes and 8 to 12 foot shoulders. The bridge project would include the Horse Island Chute." If they go wtih 12' shoulders, will pedestrians be accommodated? Funding has not been identified. The current bridge, with proper maintenance, should have at least 10 more years of life. This article says the expected lifespan of the new bridge is 75 years. Somewhere else I read 100 years. [
RandolphCountyHeraldTribune-2018]
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Eric Gossman posted
I absolutely love this bridge (Chester, IL)
Calvin Keli Lunny: Struck the bridge on a stormy night in July, 1944 when a windstorm of tornadic force caused two 670-foot spans to collapse into the river. Reconstruction took two years and on August 24, 1946, the bridge was reopened to traffic. This became Chester's second toll bridge for many years.
Calvin Keli Lunny |
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Terry aud posted
Chester bridge over the mighty Mississippi! |
I noticed the soggy green channel west of the bridge. So I zoomed out some. Sure enough, that used to be were the river went. Note where the state line runs. Remember that this satellite image was captured when the river was high.
To see what the river normally looks like, I fired up Global Earth. Most of the images have the white sandbar. In this image, there is no water on the east side and in the old river bed. I include both the time control slider at the top and the image capture date at the bottom to record that they disagree. I'm going to have to pay more attention to the image date in the future when I use this tool.
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| Google Earth |
When I noticed the name Kaskaskia on the satellite map, I zoomed in to see what is there. Not much. This is the first time I have seen so many houses removed from a town grid that they now till the blocks.
Once again, John Weeks III talks about more things than just the bridge.
Chester is the home town of Elzie Crisler Segar, the cartoonist who created ‘Popeye The Sailor Man’. There is a small park on the Illinois side of the crossing to remember Segar, which includes a life-sized statue of Popeye. The city celebrates Segar in the annual Popeye Festival held each labor day weekend.
The village of Kaskaskia is located on the west side of the Mississippi River just upriver of Chester. Kaskaskia was a commercial and transportation hub in the 1800s. In fact, it was the first capital of Illinois until 1820. The Mississippi River shifted course to the east side of Kaskaskia in the middle and late 1800s. As a result, the village is now located on the west side of the Mississippi River. But since the state line follows the historic path of the Mississippi River, Kaskaskia remains a part of the state of Illinois. The fortunes of Kaskaskia started to wane following the shifting of the river. Its population steadily declined throughout the 1900s with only 9 people remaining in 2000.
It looks like if I want to get some photos of this truss bridge, then I better plan a road trip.
Jan 26, 2024. In addition to the crane in the foreground, there is a concrete pump boom floding in the right background.
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| Neal Adams posted 5:58 video |
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| Same video |
Randall Perkinson Photography
posted three photos with the comment:
A few views of the Chester Bridge over the Mississippi River connecting Missouri Route 51 to Chester, Illinois. This is the only bridge connecting Missouri and Illinois between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau.
The existing truss bridge from the 1940s has two 640' center spans.
Behind it you see a new 3 tower cable-stayed bridge under construction to replace the old bridge.
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Doug Morrell
posted three photos with the comment: "The new bridge being constructed at Chester, Illinois also crossing the Mississippi to Missouri. This bridge will replace a very narrow legacy bridge which is clearly visible and notable for its very narrow lanes and high volume of trucks."
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Ruby Belle delivers two more loads of concrete. And it will soo removed the barge with the empties. The crane hook is waiting above the empty barge.
After it hooks on a bucket, up it goes. Note that the barge with the empties is already gone.
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| @ 2:19 |
As it goes up, we get a good view of the old bridge and a crawler crane in the background.
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At the top we see both of the tower cranes and the boom of the crawler crane.
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This is a timelapse view of a pour and is more interesting.
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Dec 4, 2025:
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John Albert posted
The new Mississippi River Bridge at Chester Illinois is coming along pretty good. |
Jan 2026: It is interesting how they use some barges upstream to protect the main barge crane from the ice flow.
This view allowed me to determine that the crane was an
MLC300. Note that they have two pushboats on the downstream side of the barges. The little one is pushing hard to help the spuds resist the river's current. I can't tell if the larger one is also running.
Gary Adams Artwork
posted two photos with the comment: "The Mighty Mississippi at Chester, Illinois looking over at Perry County, Missouri . Looks like one more piece to connect Missouri to Illinois! Quite a difference between the older architecture & the new. "
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I crossed this bridge in 1969 or 70. It had wood boards for the car tires. Scarey.
ReplyDeleteKasualBob must have misidentified the bridge he crossed. The Chester bridge had not wood on it. See pictures above.
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