Fred Lynch retired in 2018 after capturing images for the Southeast Missourian since 1975, in that time moving from black-and-white to color, from film to digital and to video. The blog title is a nod to an earlier era of news photography and the 4x5 Speed Graphic: It's more important to be there for the shot than to worry about technical details.

River bridge construction 1927

Posted Wednesday, April 8, 2015, at 12:00 AM

Here are some early views of the Mississippi River bridge under construction at Cape Girardeau in 1927.

Dedicated on Sept. 3, 1928, the Cape Girardeau Traffic Bridge across the Mississippi River was constructed at the cost of $1,600,000. [With inflation, about $22 million in 2015.] A short history of the bridge is presented in this blog:

Cape Girardeau Traffic Bridge

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Looks a little ancient in the photos, but the sucker held up for 60 years or so. Good job.

-- Posted by JungleJim on Thu, Apr 9, 2015, at 11:20 PM
wow! Never saw these pictures. I grew up a block from the bridge on Lorimer 3rd house from Morgan Oak. My grandmother lived in McClure, so we took the bridge almost every Sunday. Always terrified me because it was so narrow. I've heard family stories about my great grandmother investing or buying bridge bonds and loosing her investment.

-- Posted by Astowick on Tue, Feb 23, 2016, at 7:01 PM
It's a shame that more of the west approach to the first support bent was not saved when the bridge was removed and a better river overlook created that would have provided an excellent vantage point for views up and down river.

-- Posted by Keith Robinson on Fri, May 5, 2023, at 12:44 PM

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