TOOL-FREE DAY: MISSISSIPPI BRIDGE 'FREED'

Cape Girardeau citizens celebrated the "freeing" of the Mississippi River Bridge on June 29, 1957, ending a system of toll charges that had been in place since the opening of the span in 1928.

The "Big Bridge Freeing Celebration" included a parade, crowning of a queen and a contest in which contestants guessed the number of cars that crossed the two-lane span during a 12-hour period.

The winner was George Bockhorst Jr., a seventh grader who on one of his 100 ballots correctly picked the right number: 4,370. He won a weeklong, all-expense paid trip for two to New York City.

Rain, however, forced some events to be moved back a day, including a huge fireworks display.

A crowd of about 20,000 watched the hour-long fireworks display at the Cape Girardeau riverfront on the evening of June 30. The next day, workmen began razing the toll house.

"Everybody rejoiced in not paying any more tolls," recalled George Penzel, who served as bridge manager from September 1946 to June 29, 1957.

For 29 years, motorists had paid to cross the span linking Missouri and Illinois. Over its last 11 years as a toll bridge operated by the Cape Girardeau Special Road District, motorists crossing the span paid nearly $4 million in charges.

In May 1957, one month before the bridge was "freed," 71,932 vehicles crossed the bridge, or an average of 2,320 a day.

In an editorial on the day the bridge was freed, the Southeast Missourian said: "There is good cause for Cape Girardeau to celebrate, even at this late date. It was long in coming but the bridge is free at last."

The newspaper said: "For the bridge and its eventual free status Cape Girardeau can thank a lot of its own people. Those who pioneered in the early days for the river crossing. Those who gave long hours in the financial campaign. Those 1,124 citizens who invested and lost their money in it. And the leaders of the special road district who stepped in at a critical time to save the bridge for the community and who for 11 years have operated it for the good of all concerned. Freeing of the traffic bridge marks another important milestone in Cape Girardeau history. The community has a right to celebrate."