A mighty bridge for Little Egypt

In late January 1902, crews of men showed up in the little town of Thebes, Illinois, 9 miles south of Cape Girardeau on the east bank of the Mississippi River to begin building a bridge that would have an enormous impact on the region. Thebes, first known as Sparhawk Landing, briefly served as the county seat for Alexander County and by the late 19th century, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois (C&EI) railroad had located a major terminal at Thebes. Across the river at Grays Point, Missouri, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Company, the St. Louis, Memphis and Southeastern Railroad (later purchased by the Frisco), the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Co., St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) Railroad Co. and Missouri Pacific (MoPac) Railway Co. had also located a terminal, and railroad cars were ferried between Gray's Point and Thebes.

By the 1900s, due to increased railroad traffic, discussion of a railroad bridge in the area began to circulate. On March 2, 1900, Southern Missouri and Illinois Railroad and Bridge Co. was organized for the purpose of building a bridge at Gray's Point. In April 1900, Missouri Rep. Willard D. Vandiver, credited with the originating the phrase that led to the state's nickname, "The Show Me State," and former president of Missouri State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, submitted a bill for the building of a bridge. His counterpart in the Senate, Francis M. Cockrell, introduced a similar bill. Congress went on break before a vote could be taken on the bills. In December, when the second session of Congress opened, a new company -- Southern Illinois and Missouri Bridge (SIMB) Co. -- applied to Congress for building a railroad bridge near Gray's Point. C&EI, Illinois Central, St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Co., Cotton Belt and MoPac each held one-fifth in the company. Today, Union Pacific is the sole holder in the company. The bill for a bridge went through Congress quickly. Vandiver voiced an objection, but could not produce the letter of complaint from the Mississippi River Pilot's Association. On Jan. 22, 1901, the bill was passed by Congress, and President McKinley signed the bill just nine days later authorizing the construction of a bridge. In just two months a bridge company was formed, a bill passed by Congress and the President signed it into law.

In November 1901, Ralph Modjeski, a Polish Immigrant and civil engineer, was hired to design the bridge. The bill passed by Congress gave the SIMB three years to complete construction. Modjeski had immigrated to this country at age 16 with his mother in 1876 and later returned to Europe to complete a civil engineering degree at the well-known engineering School of Bridges and Roads in Paris in 1885. When he returned to the United States, he began working with the famous railroad bridge engineer George S. Morrison. While Modjeski was supervising the construction of the Memphis Bridge (1889-1893) for Morrison, he met Alfred Noble and Walter Angier. Noble was appointed to the Isthmian Canal Commission by President McKinley in 1899 and later in 1905 became consulting engineer for the Panama Canal Project. Noble was hired to design the substructure part of the bridge (piers and approaches), and Angier was hired to be the resident engineer. By December 1901, Modjeski submitted a bridge design to SIMB. On Jan. 7, 1902, the War Department approved the bridge plans. After surveying the area, Modjeski and Noble decide the bridge should be built just south of the town of Thebes where limestone bluffs on both the Illinois and Missouri sides provided natural abutments for the approaches to the bridge.

The construction of the bridge ran into several problems. The first was the design. Modjeski had designed a symmetrical, two-track, cantilever, steel bridge that had its central span over the channel. After surveying the location, it was decided that the pier supporting the east part of the central span needed to be moved 150 feet eastward. This would increase the number of arches on the Missouri side to seven and reduce the arches on the Illinois side to five. Building a bridge in the early 20th century was a dangerous job. Setting the piers created two problems; one was the removal of the blue shale on the river bottom and the other was the bends. James Eads, while building his bridge in St. Louis in the 1870s, knew if the shale was not removed, the piers could shift causing a bridge to collapse. Eads had also discovered a way to prevent the bends, which workers could get if they ascended too quickly from the river bottom. Eads' solution for setting the piers used pneumatic caissons with weighted roofs and coffer dams to be stacked on the caissons as they sank to the river bottom. While the workers removed the mud, the caissons sank until reaching the shale. Charges would be set and blown while the workers hid behind a wall. The men then removed the shale by hand. As the men returned to the surface, they took breaks to adjust to the pressure and prevent the bends. Angier noted in his daily journal that if the men could make 6 inches per day, they were doing good. There are six piers supporting the super structure numbered from the Illinois side to the Missouri side.

Labor and the river itself created constant problems throughout the construction. Angier noted in his daily report in 1903, "when work started in caisson 1, the men struck for more pay and quit." The workers on both sides of the river lived in camps comprised of tents. On the Illinois side, some apartments were provided. On the Illinois side, a note was posted warning all the black workers to leave, and most left the next day. In January 1904 and again in February 1905, ice floes in the river ripped out the false work underneath the bridge.

Caison for Pier III of the Thebes Bridge was prepared to be launched, Dec. 17, 1902. (Submitted photo)

Another problem SIMB dealt with was the acquiring of land on the Missouri side. In the spring of 1902, Louis Houck convinced the Stone family to refuse to sell a portion of their land that had a family cemetery on the north end of the land SIMB needed. A lower court ruled in favor of the Stone family, but upon appeal the ruling was overturned by Missouri Supreme Court and sent back to the lower court in Kennett. A commission ruled in favor of SIMB, and they paid the Stone heirs $8,120 in 1903. By January 1904, less than half the bridge was completed, and Congress granted an extension to SIMB to complete the bridge by Jan. 26, 1907.

Between January 1904 and April 1905, the Missouri approach, piers I, II, III, IV, V, VI and the entire steel superstructure were completed in time for the May 25, 1905, dedication of the bridge. It took another two years to complete the painting of the bridge. A small depot on the Illinois side was completed after the dedication.

Coverage of the bridge's dedication varied widely. The Daily Republican and Daily News in Cape Girardeau made little mention of the opening of the bridge on the second page the day after the dedication. The Scott County Kicker, a socialist paper located in Benton, Missouri, apologized to its readers June 3, 1905, because they had announced May 26 as the dedication date. Approximately 500 people showed up a day late. The Cairo Bulletin estimated between 3,000 and 4,000 people attended the dedication. Governors from both states were to attend, but the governor of Illinois had to attend to labor strikes in Chicago. Special excursion trains brought people from St. Louis and Chicago for the dedication. The ceremony started at 2 p.m. and came to an end at 5 p.m., when 28 of the largest engines (14 on each track) from the railroads comprising the SIMB arrived from the yards at Illmo on the Missouri side. The engines made their way to the center of the bridge, stopped, blew their whistles and proceeded to the Illinois side coming to a stop. The full weight of the engines on the bridge was 4,000 tons.

During the first four months of operation, 2,856 trains crossed the bridge. Trains could now travel between Chicago and St. Louis to Dallas. Later, they would be able to make it to California via a southern route. The completion of the Thebes Bridge gave rise to four railroad towns in Missouri. Illmo, where the depot was located, had approximately 30 tracks. Edna at the west end of the yards housed the roundhouse. Fornfelt and Ancell rounded out the towns. Over time and a couple of mergers, the four original towns would form presentday Scott City. Gray's Point slid into a rapid decline. The Point has become home to the Southeast Missouri Port Authority just north of the original town site. The Cairo Bulletin commended the town of Thebes in a May 26, 1905, article for having paved streets, seven saloons, two churches, approximately 20 stores, a bank and a newspaper and with preparations underway for a municipal waterworks and electric light plant, part of which can still be seen today. Thebes is still an important town in Southern Illinois known for its historic Thebes Courthouse.

The company Modjeski founded is still in business today as Modjeski and Masters and is still known for its construction of some of the world's strongest bridges, the latest being the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge in St. Louis. The Thebes Bridge when completed set a world record for its design and strength. The total cost of the bridge at completion was $2.8 million dollars. The total length of the project was approximately 4.64 miles long. The maximum workforce of 394 men was recorded on Aug. 2, 1903. Between February 1902 and May 1905, 23 lives were lost, 14 from falls. One man fell off the concrete approach on the Missouri side and survived with no broken bones. It was reported the mud broke his fall.

In 1922, when the Southern Pacific had to move 20 new engines to the west coast, the only bridge to handle the weight of the Prosperity Special was the Thebes Bridge. When the engines crossed the bridge, the weight exceeded the test engines used in 1905 by one million pounds. Because the Thebes Bridge still plays a major role in moving goods from Chicago to the west coast, guards are placed on the bridge during a national emergency. The first was World War I and the most recent was Sept. 11, 2001.

For a brief moment in bridge history, the Thebes Bridge held a world record and, despite its rusted look, the Thebes Bridge continues to serve the commerce of the nation.