Fountain Street makes bright, new entrance

The newest entrance into Cape Girardeau is hands down the most beautiful.

The Fountain Street extension -- the new downtown route from the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge -- already is a sight to behold, and it isn't even finished.

Drivers will turn from Highway 74 onto interlocking red bricks. And where normally there would be ordinary street lights, Fountain Street will have old-fashioned decorative lampposts.

In the distance is the soaring new bridge. And just to Fountain's east sits the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus which, even without all the work it will take to turn it into a visual and performing arts campus, already boasts a serene beauty.

The university is overseeing the $1.18 million street project, which mostly is being funded by federal grants. The city is going to maintain it.

Motorists can look forward to enjoying the aesthetically pleasing stretch when the new bridge over the Mississippi River opens.