Industrial History: 1874 Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, John Weeks III, John Marvig, HAER, Neil Gale's blog, 3D Satellite)

HAER MO,96-SALU,77--1
1. GENERAL VIEW OF BRIDGE - Eads Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River at Washington Street, Saint Louis, St. Louis (Independent City), MO

I noticed that Historic Bridges rated both the National and Local Historical Significance as 10. It looks like the river was rather high when the HAER photographer visited the bridge.

C Hanchey Flickr, License: Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

Historic Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. The bridge is a steel deck arch design with a roadway deck on top and railroad tracks below. When completed in 1874, the Eads Bridge was the longest arch bridge in the world. The bridge was built by the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company and the Keystone Bridge Company.

Eads Bridge was named a National Historic Landmark in 1964, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 (NRHP No. 66000946). It was also designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 1971.

Historic American Engineering Record (HAER Survey No. MO-12)

Steel Structures posted

The Eads Bridge: A Pioneering Feat of Engineering by James Buchanan Eads

The Eads Bridge, completed in St. Louis in 1874, holds a significant place in #architectural history as the world’s first steel arch bridge and the world’s first important #steelstructure of any type. The completion marked a new era in the field of construction, revolutionizing the way structures were built.

The bridge was designed and built by James Buchanan Eads, a civil engineer and inventor who had little formal education, but a keen interest in engineering and mechanics. Eads made a fortune from his salvage business, which involved recovering sunken steamboats and cargo from the Mississippi River. He also invented several devices to aid his work, such as a diving bell, a submarine, and a steam pump. He held more than 50 patents for his inventions.

Eads retired from his salvage business in 1857 and devoted himself to civil engineering projects. He designed and built ironclad warships for the Union Navy during the American Civil War, which helped secure the Mississippi River for the North. He also proposed a plan to improve the navigation and flood control of the Mississippi River, which was partially implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Eads’ most famous achievement was the design and construction of the Eads Bridge, the world’s first steel arch bridge and the first bridge to span the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The construction of the Eads Bridge was fraught with challenges, which led to many #innovations in the field of #engineering. The design and construction involved the use of pneumatic caissons, a technique that had never been used before. It was also the first time the #cantilevermethod was used in bridge construction, which allowed for the bridge to be built outwards from the piers without the need for falsework.

The bridge also incorporated rigorous steel testing, another first in the field of construction. These pioneering steps set the stage for the #advancements in building methods and materials we see today.

The Eads Bridge was not just innovative in its construction methods, but also impressive in its features and achievements. It spanned an impressive 1,600 feet and stood 88 feet above the water, a remarkable feat for its time. Furthermore, it was designed to withstand the elements - floods, ice, and even earthquakes, demonstrating the resilience and durability of steel as a building material. The bridge was also tested for safety by driving a herd of elephants across it.

The impact and legacy of the Eads Bridge cannot be overstated. It served as an inspiration for other steel bridges and structures around the world, proving that steel was a viable and superior material for large-scale construction. Today, it stands as a #landmark and a testament to the innovative spirit of the past. Furthermore, it continues to serve as a #transportationlink, connecting the city of St. Louis with the rest of the country, a testament to its enduring value and resilience.

Eads’ last project was the construction of a ship railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico, which was intended to transport ships from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. However, the project was never completed due to political and financial difficulties. Eads died in Nassau, Bahamas, in 1887, while seeking treatment for a chronic illness.

Dave Hall posted

Illinois Memories posted
The Eads Bridge in 1890 It is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.

Deron K. Edwards shared
Vintage St. Louis & Route 66
September 6, 1833 - Thirteen-year-old James Buchanan Eads and his family arrived in St. Louis on a steamboat. Fire swept the boat as it approached the landing, and eight people were killed. Eads, his mother and two sisters lost everything but the clothes on their backs. Eads sold apples and newspapers on the streets to help his family make ends meet.

Missouri History Museum posted
Compare the actual Eads Bridge to early drawings of it, and you may notice something missing. Many depictions of the Eads Bridge included eight larger-than-life classical statues on top of the bridge’s piers, but they were never installed. Some sources claim the finished statues ended up on the roof of the Equitable Building, which stood at Sixth and Locust Streets from 1875 until 1955.
Deron Keith Edwards shared

Forgotten Railways, Roads, and Places posted
The Eads Bridge in St Louis, MO. Top photo taken in September 2012 under normal water levels, the bottom in 1993 at the height of the Mississippi River flooding during that year. Top photo: Wikipedia Commons, bottom photo: Larry Stiles #eadsbridge #bridge #stlouis #mississippiriver #flooding #history

Deron Keith Edwards shared

Missouri History Museum

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In material terms, building the Eads Bridge required 2,390 tons of steel, 3,156 tons of wrought iron, 806 tons of timber, and 218,000 tons of limestone block. The final cost was $12 million—equivalent to well over $250 million today.

: #GreatRiverCity by Andrew Wanko
[The water in the background is flooding of East St. Louis. That area has since been filled to keep it from flooding.]

William A. Shaffer posted
"The Eads Bridge at St. Louis, MO"
(Photo by Floyd Richards - Collection of William A. Shaffer)

History Images posted
Mississippi River frozen solid, February 1905. Source- Missouri History Museum, St. Louis.
Dustin Munger No one points out that in the pic the ice is not frozen solid... I'm from Minnesota where you freeze your 🥜🥜off 3months a year. That is warmer weather, she is standing in front of a spring ice break up, on the river. The ice might have pushed up on shore. Makes for a good pic.
Julia Frohnapple Adcock Dustin Munger good point. That's how the Rock and Mississippi Rivers get here in the Quad Cities. (Davenport, Moline etc)
[This removes my confusion about a river freezing solid. It didn't. There are some comments about the hat and women's fashion. And about the streetcars on the bridge.]

Deron K. Edwards shared
Deron K. Edwards shared
[This time I noticed the line of people across the river in the background.]

Bridges Now and Then posted
"Winter scene of the Eads Bridge shot from the Missouri riverfront. There are ice flows on the Mississippi River. You see trolleys on the top deck of the bridge and heavy smoke from factories on the Illinois side of the river, January, 1917." (Missouri History Museum)

Tommy Brill: Those are ice “floes”. You would think a history museum would know the correct spelling.

STL Brick House posted

During the early 1870s, the Eads Bridge was constructed over the Mississippi River, and the city established several large parks, including Forest Park.

Due to local political and economic disputes, the city separated from St. Louis County in 1876 and became an independent city.

Gary Moehring commented on the above post

Bridges Now and Then posted
"When it was dedicated in 1874, the Eads Bridge in St. Louis was the first to be constructed of true steel and was touted as being “tornado-proof.” For two decades, the bridge had resisted storms and floods, bolstering its indestructible reputation. On May 27, 1896, a fearsome tornado wreaked havoc across St. Louis that not even the mighty bridge could withstand." (NOAA Photo Library)

"Once the tornado made it to the Mississippi River, it decimated steamboats and other vessels in the harbor, breaking them into pieces and scattering them from the Missouri to the Illinois shore. While the sturdy Eads Bridge remained standing, nearly 300 feet of its eastern approach was torn away. Pieces of the bridge weighing several tons were even scattered 100 feet away.

After it battered the Eads Bridge, the tornado continued across the Mississippi into East St. Louis, Illinois, where it did the worst of its damage. Scarcely a house or building remained standing, with everything along the river completely swept away." ~NOAA

Dave Frieder: One of the FIRST Bridges in the USA to use Pneumatic Caissons.

Bridges Now and Then posted
St. Louis' Eads Bridge, seen after the Cyclone of 1896. (No Credit Found)

William Shaffer posted
St. Louis Riverfront .(Circa 1970s)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
Barry Allan Buttz: I see the Admiral…
Dennis DeBruler shared

Bill Edrington posted five photos to a Big Four Railroad Group with the comment:

Eads Bridge was the first bridge to span the Mississippi River at St. Louis, in 1874. I&StL and Big Four passenger trains used it; however in 1889 the Merchants Bridge was built farther north in an attempt to break the monopoly of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. (TRRA eventually got control of it too.) Most Big Four/NYC through trains used Merchants Bridge for many years, bypassing East St. Louis, but some local trains continued to use Eads Bridge. In these shots taken this morning you can see the Casino Queen across the river in East St. Louis, which stands on the location of the old Big Four freight house. The railroad's Lower Yard was on the riverfront there. Also, a westbound MetroLink light-rail train can be seen crossing Eads Bridge. In the last two shots a BNSF coal train heads south on the TRRA elevated line, which connected Merchants Bridge to Union Station, running beneath the west approach to Eads Bridge. If you had ridden the Knickerbocker, Southwestern Limited or Missourian to or from St. Louis, you would have gone this way.

Art Wallis Two additional pieces of information to add to Bill's excellent post. The Bridge, and its various subsidiary enterprises like the Wiggins Ferry, came under the control of Jay Gould. From that point, the charges levied against participating railroads became onerous, and remained that way, even after TRRA was owned by a consortium of connecting railroads.

Also, a major reason Eads fell out of favor with using railroads was the connecting tunnel which carried the bridge line under parts of downtown St. Louis on its way to Union Station. Built, I believe, at roughly the same time as the bridge, it was tightly constricting and curved, which eventually caused clearance difficulties. You can see these tunnels, sort of, when you ride the rapid transit line to and from the riverfront or Illinois, because they were reused for this purpose.

There are more comments in the posting that contain photos of the MetroLink that now uses the lower (rail) deck.

Eads & MLK bridges from Gateway Arch

Gene Smania, 6-89

License: Released into public domain

I remember reading a book on Eads and this bridge in the 1970s. There is so much that could be said that I have been reluctant to tackle this topic. But Bill's photos have motivated me to try.

Fortunately, HAER, page 3, has done some of the writing:

This National Historic Landmark is significant as the first bridge and one of the first structures of any kind to make extensive use of steel. The Eads Bridge was one of the first bridges in the United States employing pneumatic caissons, among the deepest submarine construction work ever, employing the largest caissons then accomplished anywhere. It was the first bridge to be built entirely using cantilever construction methods, avoiding the need for falsework; and it was the first bridge to use hollow tubular chord members. Eads Bridge was also the first bridge designed so that any part could be easily removed for repair or replacement. With three spans over 500 feet long, some 200 feet longer than any built previously, its construction was a significant engineering feat. The National Historic Landmark boundary extends between the two roadway touchdown points.

Eads developed a fortune and an appreciation for the power of the Mississippi River by salvaging sunken steamboats. During the Civil War, he signed a contract with the government for seven ironclad gunboats, organized a work force of 4000 workers, and launched all seven within 100 days. "Eads' first gunboat, the St. Louis, was the first ironclad boat in America and the first such boat to engage in a naval battle anywhere, on February 6, 1862 at Fort Henry. Eads invented a steam-actuated rotating gun turret for his ironclad gunboats, which played a significant role in multiple Civil War battles." [HAER]

After the Civil War, he turned his attention to the problem of building the first bridge over the Mississippi river that was downstream of the confluence with the Missouri River. In 1866, Congress issued a charter to the St. Louis and Illinois Bridge Co. to build a bridge at St. Louis. But the opposition added restrictions to the charter with the intent of making the bridge impossible to build. The opposition to this bridge not only included the usual bridge opponents such as steamboat and ferry companies, it included investors in railroads that used Chicago as a gateway. In addition to the usual restrictions of a wide (>500') and high navigation channel, they added that it could not be a suspension bridge and that it could not use falsework (i.e. obstruct shipping during construction). (All previous proposals to span the river at St. Louis used the suspension bridge design.)

Eads knew that iron was not strong enough to support an arch over 500'. But that steel would be. Fortuitously, the Kelly/Bessemer process made steel an economically feasible construction material in the late 1860s. For example, the first steel rails were rolled in 1885. So a steel arch design is how Eads worked around the no-suspension-bridge restriction.

Since the trusses of an arch must be supported before they are joined, Eads pioneered the cantilever technique of building both arches from a pier at the same rate and tieing them together so that the weight of each truss would hold up the other truss. That is how he got around the no-falsework restriction.

Historical Photo from Historic Bridges

Amy Couch posted

**Circa 1874: Eads Bridge Under Construction, St. Louis, Missouri**

This circa 1874 photograph captures the impressive construction of the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. The Eads Bridge was a groundbreaking engineering feat of its time and remains a significant landmark in American infrastructure history.

**Historical Context**: The Eads Bridge, named after its chief engineer James B. Eads, was a pivotal project in the late 19th century. Construction began in 1867 and was completed in 1874. It was one of the first major bridges to be constructed using steel, a revolutionary material that allowed for longer spans and greater durability compared to traditional iron.

**Engineering Innovation**: The bridge's design featured three steel arches, each spanning 500 feet across the Mississippi River. This innovative use of steel and arch construction set new standards in bridge engineering and influenced future projects. The Eads Bridge was a testament to Eads' vision and the advancements in engineering technology of the time.

**Construction Challenges**: Building the Eads Bridge presented numerous challenges, including the massive scale of the project and the difficulties of working in the river's challenging conditions. The construction process involved complex techniques and machinery, and the project was a significant achievement in overcoming these obstacles.

**Cultural Significance**: The photograph of the Eads Bridge under construction offers a glimpse into a transformative period in American engineering and urban development. The bridge played a crucial role in facilitating transportation and commerce between the eastern and western United States, contributing to the economic growth of St. Louis and the nation.

**Preservation and Legacy**: The Eads Bridge continues to stand as a symbol of engineering excellence and innovation. It remains a vital part of St. Louis' infrastructure and a testament to the skill and determination of its builders. The bridge has been recognized as a historic landmark and is celebrated for its contribution to the history of civil engineering.

A key requirement of Eads' design was that the piers would go down to bedrock. The deep water and sands of the riverbed required some piers to be almost 100' below the water surface to reach bedrock. This was probably a more severe restriction than any invented by the writers of the charter. I remember from reading that book so many years ago that he was a pioneer of using the pneumatic caisson in America because he effectively "invented" the bends. (He learned of the pneumatic caisson technique from a tour of engineering projects in Europe.) The term "bend" is derived from the workers bending over from agonizing pain after they came back to the surface after working in the pressurized air compartment at the bottom of the caisson. "Of the 352 men in the east pier air chamber, 80 would be affected, 12 would die, and two would become paralyzed." [John Marvig]

I also remember from reading a book about the Brooklyn Bridge many years ago that Roebling's project also had problems with the bends. I believe they were the ones that figured out that the workers need to enter a decompression chamber after their work shift and gradually return to atmospheric pressure. (The air pressure at the bottom of the caisson is high enough to offset the weight of the water column they are working under. The deeper they dig, the higher the pressure of the air that they are breathing.)

"Per Eads standards, all parts were to be tested and be of the highest grade of metal. This was quite unusual, and set a new precedent in bridge construction." [John Marvig] Since this bridge was the first major application of structural steel, quantities of quality steel were needed at an unprecedented scale. I learned from a PBS show about Andrew Carnegie that he built a steel plant to supply the needed steel. In fact, this is how he got his start in the steel business.

On the day when the final piece was to be installed in the first (west) arch, the temperature was 100 degrees. Because of the expansion of the steel by the hot day, the space between the two trusses was not big enough for the final piece! John Marvig says "it was cut and a plug inserted." I remember from the book that Eads used hoses to pour water over all of the arch members to cool them down so that they contracted enough to make room for the final piece.

The bridge opened to pedestrians on 5-24-1874 and 15,000 people walked across it. The upper-deck road opened on 6-3-1874, and six days later a train crossed using the lower deck. A grand opening spectacle witnessed by nearly 500,000 people was held July 4, 1874 after a fully loaded test train had crossed the bridge a few days earlier. Today the lower deck carries the light-rail MetroLink and the upper deck was completely refurbished by 2003 to be a 4-lane highway. (Street View)

William A. Shaffer posted
From the Camera of Floyd Richards: (Circa 1930s)
Eads Bridge at St. Louis, MO
(Photo by Floyd Richards - Collection of William A. Shaffer)

1880 Photographer unknown, Library of Congress, WTTW video and article

Bob Freitag shared
Eads Bridge from the Illinois side, completed. July 1874. Photograph by Robert Benecke, ca. 1874. Missouri Historical Society Photographs and Prints Collections. By 1875, St. Louis was a major railroad hub, connected in every direction through a spider web of tracks. The recently finished Eads Bridge was the longest arch bridge in the world and the first major crossing of the Mississippi River in the country.
Peter MetrinkoPeter and 705 others joined RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! Eads and Washington Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge) quarreled over caisson designs. There's a short discussion here of the two bridges, and a long discussion of the disagreement, which led to a lawsuit by Eads for patent infringement. However, there is a middle section of the article that discusses how caissons work which I found interesting. I have taken pictures of both bridges, but nothing worth showing.
http://www.gandhieng.com/.../St.%20Louis%20Bridge,%20the...Thomas Finger It's still there - roadway on the top and the MetroLink light rail line using the rail deck below (along with the tunnel under downtown). Just a few years ago the metal work was completely refurbished, repairs and replacements made as needed and then repainted in shiny black paint. The bridge looks wonderful today.

John Fulmer posted (source)

Elephant ...stress/weight testing the strength of newly completed Eads Bridge.

Might have been a publicity stunt. LOL.

The elephant thing was an old wives tale that an elephant wouldn’t cross an unstable bridge - that they have some kind of sixth sense about shaky bridges.
Al Smith It was the first steel bridge, previous bridges (much smaller) having been made of much weaker iron, so the populace had misgivings about its strength. The elephant myth was deliberately circulated and created curiosity. Will the elephant cross or not? It crossed, greatly increasing people’s trust in the strength of the bridge. It was a Barnum and Bailey world.
Matthew Minton the bridge started construction in 1867 and opened in 1874.
Ronald Elliott Capt. J.B. Eads was as much a self-taught genius in his fields as was Ho, Abraham Lincoln. I ONLY regret the fact that I grew up fully aware of the bridge, while utterly clueless about the massive service he did for the Federal Union by his invention and partial design and total construction of the seven (7) "City Class" riverine ironclad gunboats; three of them at Carondelet MO, and four down at Mound Bayou, IL. Flag Offficer David G. Farragut and Brig. Gen U.S. Grant scored early and vital victories with them, many months before U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia battled at Hampton Roads. Capt. Eads was a genius and a patriot who did MUCH to help the Union win the war of Rebellion.

Deron K. Edwards shared
Mike Seelig Isn't that the old Admiral on the left?Myron Sievers Mike Seelig yep, before the shiny aluminum skin got old and buckled from age.Thomas Finger The large boat in the background was the steamboat Admiral, built on the railroad carferry "Albatross". It is now scrapped. The smaller "swaybacked" boat in the center is the Goldenrod Showboat - the last remaining showboat on the river. Tragically it has also been scrapped. Fortunately, the Delta Queen has been given freedom once again by Congress and will hopefully be sailing the rivers again soon. A sight that will never be repeated.Alan Ardanowski I estimate the date of the pic at 1957 based on the cars.

David Cantrell posted
East St. Louis 1907

Joan Hirlinger Treis shared
1896 Tornado.
Kerry Touchette My great great grandmother Josephine Wolfer was walking up the stairs when the tornado pulled the 3 story exterior wall off the house and almost sucked her into the tornado.Many of the surrounding houses were reduced to piles of rubble.
[It looks like the top deck got blown off, but the main arches of the approach survived. They have already used wood to build a temporary upper deck. The comments are inconsistent about the view: MO looking South or IL looking North. Both sides had five arches in the approach back then. Below are street views of each side, but I still can't decide the photo's view. St. Louis got hit worse, but East St. Louis was also hit.]

Street View, MO side looking South

Street View, IL side looking North

This is the comment that argues the IL side.

J Charles Binder commented on Joan's share
This is Eads under DESTRUCTION. As a matter of fact, I would suggest the description be changed to "The 1896 Tornado in EAST St. Louis, Illinois." because the post's photo is of the Illinois side of the river with the bridge under repair.

Bob Gill commented on Joan's share
This was actually one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history. 255 people died, and over a thousand were injured. More than 5000 people were homeless and lost all of their possessions.

It also affected East St. Louis, as well and much of the downtown area and the train depots on Bloody Island were completely destroyed.

The 1896 tornado season has the distinction of being one of the deadliest in United States history. There were at least 40 killer tornadoes spanning from April 11 to November 26; including this one, the only one to kill more than 100 people in two separate cities

Mary Beth Paynter Engler commented on Joan's share

Deron K. Edwards shared
More construction of the Eads Bridge
Title: The St. Louis Bridge: Erection of west arch, showing cables to joints 6, 9, and 12
Date Created/Published: 1881.
Medium: 1 print.

Deron K. Edwards shared
Eads Bridge in St. Louis, August 1873

Old American Photos posted
Construction of the Eads Bridge that connects St. Louis, Missouri with East St. Louis, Illinois. c. 1873. The Eads Bridge is the oldest major surviving bridge on the Mississippi River.
Greg Beat

Eads Bridge was built by the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, with the Keystone Bridge Company, founded in 1865 by Andrew Carnegie, serving as subcontractor for steel superstructure erection.

Eads Bridge underwent a major refurbishment in 2012 to extend its operational life to 2091. Today, it carries the MetroLink light rail system.

Brian Mueller: The piers on the Missouri side go 100ft below the surface of the water. A major undertaking in its day!
Alan Van Dyke: They don't make them like they used to. The Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1875 and hasn't gone anywhere.
[And both builders had to learn that decompression was the answer to the Caisson disease or the bends.]

Darrell Cornelius Summers posted a B&W exposure of this photograph.

Mike Nance: Another interesting footnote about this bridge is the narrowing of the river there, which made it possible. In earlier decades a young officer with the US Army, Corps of Engineers, oversaw the building of levees on the east bank. These levees forced the connection of "Bloody Island," to the Illinois shore. It was a 'no-man's land' often used for feuds and various non-legal activities. The river often threatened to change it's main channel to the east side of the island, which would leave the thriving city of St. Louis cut off from it's lifeblood river. Affixing that island to Illinois eliminated that threat, and made the distance between the shores more plausible when considering a bridge. (On the flip side, it also constricted the river and made the current at St. Louis flow much faster than nearly anywhere else along it's length. This made tying up steamboats a greater challenge there.) The young Army officer who oversaw that levee construction was a Lt. Robert E. Lee.

Deron Keith Edwards shared a Missouri History Museum photo
Constructed between 1867 and 1874, the Eads Bridge became the first crossing of the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The bridge bound across the Mississippi on just two piers, with three arches stretching more than 500 feet between them. Heralded by poets and architects as a symbol of the city—long before the Apotheosis of St. Louis statue or the Gateway Arch—the Eads Bridge was St. Louis’s most iconic structure.

Bridges Now and Then posted
St. Louis' Eads Bridge, seen during construction, c. 1873. (Missouri History Museum)

Lori Jeffress posted
Deron K. Edwards shared
Bridges Now and Then posted a different exposure
The Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis is seen during construction, early 1870s. The bridge opened in 1874. (Public Domain)
Dave Frieder: One of the FIRST bridges in the USA to use a Pneumatic Caisson for the setting of the Towers.
Gary Schmidt: Dave Frieder Roebling, the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge conferred with Eads concerning caissons.
Rusty Ball shared
Roger Gaston: Wish it had been built over a body of water that wasn’t navigable!! JS
Albert Casper: Gotta hit it just right or say goodbye to your barges covertops...

Deron K. Edwards commented on his share

St. Louis Paranormal Research Society posted
Scott Bevil 2 lanes each direction and a sidewalk on top and Metrolink on the lower level.

Deron K. Edwards shared
Jim Bullock I believe this was first bridge made of steel, not iron?
Thomas Finger Yes, but only portions of the bridge were steel, specifically the tubes used in the arches - the primary load carrying parts (and possibly other parts also). Much of the bracing and metalwork supporting the deck above the arches was wrought iron. Recently the bridge underwent a major overhaul with some of the metalwork being replaced.

At some of these photos are new to these notes.
Vintage St. Louis & Route 66 posted five photos wtih the comment: "Happy Birthday to the Eads Bridge. [July 4, 2020]"
Bob Rolf If I remember correctly, this was constructed around the time of the Brooklyn Bridge. Lots of workers suffered from the bends while digging inside the caissons under pressure to keep the river out.
Mark T Pillow Bob Rolf in fact Eads led the way in research to fix it. They hired a dr to have an office on a barge moored to the casson and he discovered the nitrogen bubbles and many of his exact recommendations still used today.
Bob Suess Alloy steel from Carneige, opened in 1876. Architects and construction engineers from around the world still come to STL to study the structure.

Deron K. Edwards shared

Kevin Nodine How old is the Eads Bridge?
Deron K. Edwards 146 years

Vintage St. Louis & Route 66 posted four photos with the comment: "Happy Birthday Eads Bridge! Trivia: Can you name the highways that crossed the Eads?"
Vintage St. Louis & Route 66 Trick Question: It never carried any highway. The bridge was owned by the Terminal Railway Association.

2
Deron Keith Edwards shared

STL From Above posted
Happy 314 Day! How about a photo of the first iconic St. Louis structure looming over the current iconic structure? Of course I'm talking about the Eads Bridge and Gateway Arch. I've always wanted to get a little up close and personal with the Eads Bridge, which was opened in 1874 and was the first all steel bridge in the world. The bridge carried both cars and trains. It's been in operation since it's opening, except between 1991 and 2003 when the highway deck was closed. Thankfully it has been restored and now handles cars and pedestrian traffic. The Eads Bridge was the iconic image of St.
Louis until the Gateway Arch was completed in 1965.
Tag #STL_from_above or DM for suggestions. Follow for more!
John Christensen It also carries the Metrolink.
[Gallery I believe just the arch tresses were made of steel. Iron was used for the rest. In 1874 it would have been buggies and wagons instead of cars. It is hard to imagine how old this bridge is.]
Deron K. Edwards shared

STL From Above posted two photos with the comment:

The Eads Bridge is quite the architectural masterpiece. It's hard to see the black wrought iron and steel structure from the bank of the Mississippi, but the sunrise reflecting off its surface highlights the intricate design that has allowed the bridge to remain strong for almost 150 years!!
**UPDATE** I've had a few requests for print orders. I have this photo and my "314 Day" photo added to my website. In these uncertain and crazy times, I truly appreciate your support!! https://stlfromabove.pixieset.com/stlfromabovegallery/Tag #STL_from_above or DM for suggestions. Follow for more!

Daniel Niewöhner The reddish or pink granite has been quarried in this area since 1869, and two abandoned granite quarries are within the park. These and others nearby have provided red architectural granite for buildings in states from Massachusetts to California, but most particularly in St. Louis, including stone for St. Louis City Hall and the piers of the Eads Bridge.
Daniel Niewöhner https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Rocks_State_Park

1
Gallery

Noah Haggerty posted two photos with the comment: "Eads Bridge, the oldest surviving bridge over the Mississippi River, seen from a Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis NMRA excursion in 1970. The bridge was built for roads and rails underneath. Around this time, the bridge saw declining use due to a lack of passenger services. John & Roger Kujawa Photo, Thomas Dyrek Collection."

Deron K. Edwards shared
Current [6/14/2019] flooding around Eads Bridge in St. Louis.
John Diehl amazing, the bridge piers are completely submerged. Really high water.
[See flood for river level information.]

Christopher Taber posted

The underside of the Eads Bridge arching 525 feet to the next pier over the Mississippi River under a starry sky at St. Louis on November 17th, 2020.

With the river levels being so low, the first pier of the west bank of the bridge is above the shoreline allowing access to a rare view of this awe inspiring historical structure.

Deron Keith Edwards shared

I checked out a satellite image to see a normal water level around the west pier. Then it struck me, is this normal. So near the bottom of these notes I extracted some Global Earth images to show some of the fluctuation of the river.

3D Satellite

Spencer Whitman posted
A lite engine set cruises along beneath Eads Bridge in St. Louis. I unfortunately wasn't able to get a locomotive facing cab out but at least I managed catch something after my 3 hour wait. #urban

William A. Shaffer posted
The American Freedom Train is parked on display at the St. Louis Riverfront during April, 1976
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
William A. Shaffer posted
The American Freedom Train on display at the Riverfront in St. Louis, MO. (April, 1976). I hiked up this steep embankment with my Mamiya RB-67 and Marconi Tilt-All Professional Tripod to get this shot. It was a tough climb but glad I made the effort.
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
[Some comments confirm that this area was under water during the 1993 flood.]

RED ALERT: This is not the Eads Bridge. I include it as an example of how bad the internet has become since AI started happening. So did a human or a computer make this bad mistake?

Age of Exploration posted

The Eads Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, was an engineering marvel of its time. Its construction began in 1867 and was completed in 1874. Designed by James B. Eads, the bridge was the first to use steel as a primary structural material, marking a significant departure from traditional iron and stone construction methods.

The bridge features a series of impressive steel arches, each spanning 500 feet, which was … See more [The plagiarism was so bad that they didn't expand the "See more" before they/it copied the description.]

History's Canvas posted

The bridge features a series of impressive steel arches, each spanning 500 feet, which was a record at the time. Its construction was a monumental task, involving innovative techniques and overcoming numerous challenges. The piers were built in the riverbed using a method called "caisson sinking," where large, airtight boxes were sunk into the riverbed to create a foundation, despite the swift currents and variable river levels.

The Eads Bridge was not just a vital transportation link; it symbolized the industrial progress of the era. It facilitated commerce and travel across the Mississippi, contributing to the growth and development of St. Louis as a major economic hub. The bridge's successful completion demonstrated the feasibility of steel arch bridges and paved the way for future advancements in bridge engineering.

Today, the Eads Bridge remains a historic landmark and a testament to 19th-century engineering ingenuity. Its enduring presence continues to bridge the Mississippi River, serving as a reminder of the era's ambitious engineering projects.

[I wonder if this is the source of the wrong bridge photo. At least it has the complete description.]

Michael Nash: Also they fail to mention Carnegie steel (Andrew) was what built it.

Rob Van Meter: Michael Nash They also did not mention 15 men died during construction of the bridge, dying from depressurization, after exiting the caissons they had worked in for hours.

Dennis DeBruler commented on the "Age of Exploration" post
This is what the Eads looks like. HAER MO,96-SALU,77--1,
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mo0361.photos.099443p/

A sampling of Google Earth images to see how the river level varies. It goes in and out more frequently than this, but this gives me a feel for the river levels. Google Earth did not catch the 2019 flood.