Missouri bicentennial: Eads Bridge in St. Louis an engineering feat

This is the 10th in a series of articles with Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation board chairman Frank Nickell, an emeritus faculty member of Southeast Missouri State University, commenting on Show Me State history on the 200th anniversary of Missouri being received as America's 24th state in 1821.

Bridges tend to make powerful architectural statements about a community.

Cape Girardeau's Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, named for a late congressman and opened just before Christmas 2003, is featured in virtually every promotional brochure about the city.

There is another Missouri bridge, more than 100 miles to the north, also crossing the mighty Mississippi River and literally made world history.

Before the Gateway Arch was completed in 1965, the Eads Bridge was St. Louis' great city landmark, dedicated on Independence Day 1874.

James Buchanan Eads, the designer and builder of the eponymous span, was born in Indiana and grew up in St. Louis, and became a world-renowned civil engineer and inventor.

"James Eads had never built a bridge before," historian Nickell said, noting Eads' innovative genius in building a span to accommodate the massive size and strength of the Mississippi.

Features

It is the oldest bridge across the Mississippi River still in operation and was the first to carry railroad tracks, according to the State Historical Society of Missouri.

"It was the world's first steel-truss bridge, with all the steel provided by the legendary industrialist Andrew Carnegie," Nickell said.

Nickell said the underwater piers for Eads Bridge were the deepest ever sunk at the time.

"The (piers) went over 100 feet below the water level," he said, noting during construction, 77 workmen got the bends, otherwise known as decompression sickness.

"The bridge, which took seven years to build, cost $10 million, an unheard-of expense at the time," Nickell said.

$10 million translates to nearly $230 million in 2021 dollars.

Tests

Three weeks before its formal opening, an elephant was sent across the bridge to prove it was safe to traverse.

"That was Carnegie's idea, by the way," said Nickell, who added a large crowd cheered as the huge mammal from a traveling circus lumbered across the span toward the Illinois side.

The elephant was not merely a gimmick, reports missouri2021.org.

Popular belief had it elephants were extraordinarily sensitive animals with instincts making them avoid setting foot on unsafe structures.

Later, in another demonstration, 14 locomotives were sent across the span to prove the bridge's stability.

Dedication day

President Ulysses Grant was present for the formal unveiling of the Eads Bridge on July 4, 1874, as was Gen. William T. Sherman, who drove a gold spike in a ceremony marking the conclusion of the project.

Legacy

Nickell said the bridge met a pressing need in the years following the Civil War.

"St. Louis was getting left behind by Chicago," the historian said, explaining the Windy City was fast gaining as a center of commerce.

The legendary span was proposed as a solution for St. Louis to regain its former eminence by connecting railroad and vehicle transportation across the river.

"The Eads Bridge is one of the great achievements of the 19th century," Nickell said, "(and) a superb accomplishment for America."