Emerson Bridge featured on new state road map

For the first time, Missouri's highway map features a photograph of a Cape Girardeau landmark on its cover.

The Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, pictured at dusk, graces the cover of the 2005-2006 state highway map.

Missouri Department of Transportation officials unveiled the new highway map at a ceremony Friday at the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Missouri has been publishing state highway maps since 1918, said MoDOT district engineer Scott Meyer.

Fittingly, Meyer began his last day on the job celebrating a bridge project that he helped oversee. Meyer is leaving to take a job as director of facilities management for Southeast Missouri State University.

The latest map features a photograph taken by MoDOT senior construction inspector Rick Lamb as the sun was setting one day last fall.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said the highway maps provide welcome publicity for Cape Girardeau. "It has put us on the map," he said with a smile.

The bridge photo will draw travelers' attention to the Mississippi River city, he said. "The first impression those people will get is of a Cape Girardeau landmark," the mayor said.