Old bridge shut down earlier than planned

The nightmare of crossing the old bridge between Cape Girardeau and Illinois was a vivid one in the mind of many area residents.

"I drive 18-wheelers, and I've had to go across that old bridge in them many times," said Bill Hayden of Cape Girardeau. "It was a tight squeeze, trying to stay over as close to the guardrails as possible."

But at around 2 p.m. Saturday, traffic opened on the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. Mobile police command units and Missouri Department of Transportation trucks and vans scrambled off the bridge, signaling the all-clear to police.

A ceremonial procession of antique autos, led by an antique Cape Girardeau police car, was the last to cross the old bridge, and soon the fear that characterized the crossing became just a memory, as locals zoomed over the new four-lane connector between Missouri and Illinois.

"You can actually see the scenery," said Carol Webb of Cape Girardeau, who was one of the first to cross the Emerson Bridge into Missouri from Illinois with her husband, Calvin. "You don't have to worry so much about wrecks now."

The Webbs were some of the last to go across the old bridge before traffic was stopped just before 2 p.m., an hour earlier than the originally planned cutoff time. They were also one of the first 20 vehicles to cross the new bridge when the flow of traffic was diverted.

"We're a part of history," Calvin Webb said. "This ranks up there at the top of local historic events."

While the Webbs were heading west into Missouri, others were trying out the bridge's eastbound lanes. Jane Stodghill was one of the first to cross into Illinois with her passengers, Michael Bievenue and Trish Woolk.

"It was just surreal," Stodghill said. "It was so cool."

Stodghill said that she and her passengers had originally come to walk across the bridge before it opened to traffic, but the early opening ruined those plans. "So instead we decided to just get in line," she said.

Police and MoDOT officials were pleased with the opening of traffic on the bridge.

"Opening the new bridge to traffic was actually the easiest part of the whole day," said Cape Girardeau police chief Stephen Strong.

Strong said the police decided to open the bridge early to avoid any escalation of bad weather that might occur.

Police had already issued their first ticket on the Emerson Bridge before it opened on Saturday, when someone tried to be the first to cross on Friday night by driving around the barricades.

Now the old bridge is blocked with barricades on both sides.

Police also will be patrolling the old bridge to make sure no one tries to hoof it across.