Eads Bridge
Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois, it is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south; the bridge is named for James Buchanan Eads. Opened in 1874, Eads Bridge was the first bridge erected across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri. None of the earlier bridges survive. At 520 feet between the piers, the center arch of Eads Bridge was the longest rigid span built at the time of its construction, it remained the longest rigid span until the completion of the 525 foot arch of Gustave Eiffel's Maria Pia Bridge, in Porto, Portugal, in 1877. Extending more than 100 ft below water level, the foundations for Eads Bridge were the deepest underwater constructions of their time, they were installed using pneumatic caissons, a pioneering application of caisson technology in the United States and, at the time, by far the largest cassions built.
The Eads Bridge caissons were the model for subsequent projects including the Brooklyn Bridge, constructed just a few years later. During construction, the partially-completed arches were suspended from above, on cables rigged to temporary wooden towers which were erected on top of the piers; this procedure avoided the need for temporary supports standing in the river and is sometimes cited as the first use of the "cantilever principle" for a large bridge. In addition to its age and size, Eads Bridge is noted for the material used in its construction. Much of the metal in the bridge is wrought iron but the primary load-carrying components of the arches were made from steel; this was the first large-scale application of steel as a structural material and initiated the shift from wrought-iron to steel as the default material for large structures. Eads Bridge became an iconic image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the Gateway Arch was completed, it is still in use.
The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and carries vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It connects Washington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri with Riverpark Drive and East Broadway, both in East St. Louis, Illinois; the former railroad deck now carries the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system, providing commuter train service between St Louis and communities on the Illinois side of the river; the bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. As of April 2014, it carries about 8,100 vehicles daily, down 3,000 since the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened in February 2014. Eads Bridge was built by the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company, with the Keystone Bridge Company serving as subcontractor for superstructure erection; because of the increased reach of newly constructed railroads, river shipping trade had declined in importance compared to the antebellum years. Chicago was fast gaining as the center of commerce in the West.
The bridge was conceived as a solution for St. Louis to regain eminence by connecting railroad and vehicle transportation across the river. Although he had no prior experience in bridge building, James Eads was chosen as chief engineer for the bridge. In an attempt to secure their future, steamboat interests lobbied to place restrictions on bridge construction, requiring spans and heights unheard of; this was ostensibly to maintain sufficient operating room for steamboats beneath the bridge's base for the foreseeable future. The unproclaimed purpose was to require a bridge so grand and lofty that it was impossible to erect according to conventional building techniques; the steamboat parties planned to prevent any structure from being built, in order to ensure continued dependence on river traffic to sustain commerce in the region. Such a bridge required a radical design solution; the Mississippi River's strong current was 12 1⁄2 feet per second and the builders had to battle ice floes in the winter.
The ribbed arch had been a known construction technique for centuries. The triple span, tubular metallic arch construction was supported by two shore abutments and two mid-river piers. Four pairs of arches per span were set eight feet apart, supporting an upper deck for vehicular traffic and a lower deck for rail traffic. Construction involved pressures. State and federal charters precluded suspension or draw bridges, or wood construction. There were the height above the water line; the location required reconciling differences in heights - from the low Illinois floodplain of the east bank of the river to the high Missouri cliff on the west bank. The bedrock could only be reached by deep drilling, as it was 38 m below water level on the Illinois side and 26 m below on the Missouri side; these pressures resulted in a bridge noted as innovative for precision and accuracy of construction and quality control. This was the first use of structural alloy steel in a major building construction, through use of cast chromium steel components.
The completed bridge relied on significant—and unknown—amounts of wrought iron. Eads argued that the great compressive strength of steel was ideal for use in the upright arch design, his decision resulted from a curious combination of chance and necessity, due to the insufficient strength of alternative material choices. The particular physical difficulties of the site stimulated interesting solutions to constructio
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II, he received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army, the only one conferred the rank of field marshal in the Philippine Army. Raised in a military family in the American Old West, MacArthur was valedictorian at the West Texas Military Academy, First Captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of the class of 1903. During the 1914 United States occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission, for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. In 1917, he became chief of staff of the 42nd Division. In the fighting on the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times.
From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where he attempted a series of reforms, his next assignment was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, he became the Army's youngest major general, he served on the court-martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and was president of the American Olympic Committee during the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In 1930, he became Chief of Staff of the United States Army; as such, he was involved in the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D. C. in 1932, the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He retired from the US Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air forces on 8 December 1941 and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.
MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island in PT boats and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. Upon his arrival, MacArthur gave a speech in which he famously promised "I shall return" to the Philippines. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled that promise. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor, he accepted the Surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay, he oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic and social changes, he led the United Nations Command in the Korean War with initial success. Following a series of major defeats, he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951, he became chairman of the board of Remington Rand.
A military brat, Douglas MacArthur was born 26 January 1880, at Little Rock Barracks, Little Rock, Arkansas, to Arthur MacArthur, Jr. a U. S. Army captain, his wife, Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur. Arthur, Jr. was the son of Scottish-born jurist and politician Arthur MacArthur, Sr. Arthur would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions with the Union Army in the Battle of Missionary Ridge during the American Civil War, be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. Pinkney came from a prominent Norfolk, family. Two of her brothers had fought for the South in the Civil War, refused to attend her wedding. Arthur and Pinky had three sons, of whom Douglas was the youngest, following Arthur III, born on 1 August 1876, Malcolm, born on 17 October 1878; the family lived on a succession of Army posts in the American Old West. Conditions were primitive, Malcolm died of measles in 1883. In his memoir, MacArthur wrote "I learned to ride and shoot before I could read or write—indeed before I could walk and talk."
MacArthur's time on the frontier ended in July 1889 when the family moved to Washington, D. C. where he attended the Force Public School. His father was posted to San Antonio, Texas, in September 1893. While there MacArthur attended the West Texas Military Academy, where he was awarded the gold medal for "scholarship and deportment", he participated on the school tennis team, played quarterback on the school football team and shortstop on its baseball team. He was named valedictorian, with a final year average of 97.33 out of 100. MacArthur's father and grandfather unsuccessfully sought to secure Douglas a presidential appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, first from President Grover Cleveland and from President William McKinley. After these two rejections, he was given coaching and private tutoring by Milwaukee high school teacher Gertrude Hull, he passed the examination for an appointment from Congressman Theobald Otjen, scoring 93.3 on the test. He wrote: "It was a lesson I never forgot.
Preparedness is the key to success and victory."MacArthur entered West Point on 13 June 1899, his mother moved there, to a suite at Craney's Hotel, which overlooked the grounds of the Academy. Hazing was widespread at West Point at this time, MacArthur and his classmate Ulysses S. Gr
BNSF Railway
The BNSF Railway Company is the largest freight railroad network in North America. One of eight North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 44,000 employees, 32,500 miles of track in 28 states, more than 8,000 locomotives, it has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad; the BNSF and Union Pacific have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western U. S. and share trackage rights over thousands of miles of track. The BNSF Railway Company is the principal operating subsidiary of parent company Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. Headquartered in Fort Worth, the railroad's parent company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America, it hauls bulk cargo, including enough coal to generate around ten per cent of the electricity produced in the United States.
The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company on September 22, 1995. This new holding company purchased the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad, formally merged the railways into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996. On January 24, 2005, the railroad's name was changed to BNSF Railway Company using the initials of its original name. On November 3, 2009, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced it would acquire the remaining 77.4 percent of BNSF it did not own for $100 per share in cash and stock — a deal valued at $44 billion. The company is acquiring $10 billion in debt. On February 12, 2010, shareholders of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation voted in favor of the acquisition. BNSF's history dates back to 1849, when the Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed; the Aurora Branch grew into the Chicago and Quincy Railroad, a major component of successor Burlington Northern.
A portion of the Pacific Railroad became the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway; the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway was chartered in 1859. It built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California; the Interstate Commerce Commission denied a proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in the 1980s. The Burlington Northern Railroad was created in 1970 through the consolidation of the Chicago and Quincy Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, the Northern Pacific Railway and the Spokane and Seattle Railway, it absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1980, its main lines included Chicago-Seattle with branches to Texas and Montgomery and access to the low-sulfur coal of Wyoming's Powder River Basin. On June 30, 1994, BN and ATSF announced plans to merge. S. Class I railroads; the long-rumored announcement was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation, a gold mining subsidiary that ATSF agreed to sell to stockholders.
This announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the "Super Seven" were merged down to four in the next five years. The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway, two of the five "small" Class Is, announced on July 19 that the former would buy the latter, but this plan was called off on October 25; the Union Pacific Railroad, another major Western system, started a bidding war with BN for control of the SF on October 5. The UP gave up on January 1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger. Subsequently, the UP acquired the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1996, Eastern systems CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway split Conrail in 1999. On February 7, 1995, BN and ATSF heads Gerald Grinstein and Robert D. Krebs both announced shareholders had approved the plan, which would save overhead costs and combine BN's coal and ATSF's intermodal strengths. Although the two systems complemented each other with little overlap, in contrast to the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger, which failed because it would have eliminated competition in many areas of the Southwest, BN and ATSF came to agreements with most other Class Is to keep them from opposing the merger.
UP was satisfied with a single segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas to Superior, which BN and ATSF had both served. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha, East St. Louis, Memphis, in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans. SP requesting far-reaching trackage rights throughout the West, soon agreed on a reduced plan, whereby SP acquired trackage rights on ATSF for intermodal and automotive traffic to Chicago, other trackage rights on ATSF in Kansas, south to Texas, between Colorado and Texas. In exchange, SP assigned BNSF trackage rights over the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad between El Paso and Topeka and haulage rights to the Mexican border at Eagle Pass, Texas. Regional Toledo and Western Railway obtained trackage rights over BN from Peoria to Galesburg, Illinois, a BN hub where it could interchange with SP; the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the BNSF merger on July 20, 1995, less than a month before UP announced on August
Jefferson Barracks Bridge
The Jefferson Barracks Bridge the Jefferson Barracks Memorial Arch Bridge, is a bridge that spans the Mississippi River on the south side of St. Louis, it is a pair of 909-foot long arch bridges. The first bridge was built in 1983, the south bridge opened in 1992. A delay occurred during the construction of the second bridge when a crane dropped a section of it into the river and it had to be rebuilt, they replaced the former steel truss toll bridge built in 1941 that carried U. S. Route 50, it carries traffic for Interstate 255 and U. S. Route 50. Prior to the construction of the first bridge, river crossings in this area were made via the Davis Street Ferry in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis; the names comes from the nearby Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, itself part of the large Jefferson Barracks military complex, established in 1826 and decommissioned in 1946. List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River
New Chain of Rocks Bridge
This article is about the bridge built in 1966 which carries I-270 traffic. For the older bridge which now carries pedestrian traffic, see Chain of Rocks Bridge; the New Chain of Rocks Bridge is a pair of bridges across the Mississippi River on the north edge of St. Louis, Missouri, it was constructed in 1966 to bypass the Chain of Rocks Bridge to the south. It carried traffic for Bypass US 66 and carries traffic for Interstate 270; the bridge opened to traffic on September 2, 1966. The original Chain of Rocks Bridge was a narrow bridge with a 22 degree bend midway over the river. Two tractor-trailers could not pass each other on that bridge; the Illinois Department of Transportation marks Historic Route 66 over the New Chain of Rocks Bridge, but it is only considered a way to make the route continuous. In 1959, proposals first surfaced of a new bridge just to the north of the existing bridge at Chain of Rocks. One of the major opponents to the proposal was Madison mayor Stephen Maeras, as his city owned the existing Chain of Rocks Bridge, a toll bridge.
The proposed 21 feet above the 1844 high-water mark brought opponents asking the Corps of Engineers to reject the application. The construction was riddled by political problems. A death threat to kill a construction supervisor surfaced in July 1965, by November 1965 the contractor stopped work on the bridge due to the "many troubles". Meanwhile, as the rest of I-270 was open by the City of Madison continued to collect toll revenue from the old bridge, averaging $50,000 to $60,000 per month; the state of Missouri, overseeing the construction project, would soon start an investigation as the project was several months behind schedule. The state decided on legal action against the City of Madison in regards to tolls on the old bridge by July 1966, Madison suspended the tolls on August 2, 1966. On September 2, 1966 at 1:45 PM, the bridge was opened to traffic; this moment marked the completion of I-270 in St. Louis, was the first of three interstate highway bridges opened in the St. Louis area; this opening could not come at a better time for the people in the nearby Alton area, as they were dealing a narrow bridge of their own at the time that had numerous problems and was facing another major closure due to repairs.
As a result, any construction work or major accident on either bridge always made the Alton Telegraph. In 1975, the Clark Bridge closed for major repairs for a six-month period, traffic was detoured onto this bridge. Many locals refer to it as the I-270 Bridge, to differentiate it from the original Chain of Rocks Bridge, which still stands but is closed to vehicle traffic; as the truck traffic from the I-70 corridor increased, the Alton area used the 1975 detour as a rallying point in getting the Clark Bridge replaced. Although planning work was being done, there was no funding for that replacement. Meanwhile, the truck traffic was taking a toll on the Chain of Rocks Bridge over both the Mississippi River and Chain of Rocks Canal. Lane restrictions for expansion joint and pavement repairs on both structures was common during the 1980s and 1990s; the river bridge would soon be rated structurally deficient by 1991. In 1993, the Mississippi River experienced major flooding during the Great Flood of 1993.
North of St. Louis, all bridges from the McKinley Bridge up to the Keokuk Bridge were shut down due to flooding at one point or another; the I-270 bridge, despite having lower than normal clearance over the Mississippi River, remained open. The majority of the other bridges that were closed had flooded approaches, all of the approaches on I-270 were built on high ground and remained above water; this led to some of the worst traffic delays on the bridge during this time during peak periods at the height of the floods. On January 4, 1994, the Clark Bridge opened to traffic, giving the Chain of Rocks Bridge much needed relief. During the night of August 10, 1994, two pins supporting an expansion joint failed and caused a section on the Illinois end of the bridge to sink nearly 4 inches, causing 3 of the 4 lanes to close for emergency repairs. For the remainder of that month, various lanes would close due to emergency repairs and inspections and news regarding the emergency repairs made headlines in the Alton Telegraph.
From June 1996 through December 1998, IDOT conducted a major bridge resurfacing project on both the river and canal bridges, with various expansion joints being replaced during this time. IDOT put an 8-6 width and legal weight restriction on the bridge, which forced the majority of trucks to take alternate routes during this time. Traffic would clog during Friday afternoons while the construction went on; the weight and width restrictions would be lifted. As traffic demands continue to increase, the lack of shoulders on both the canal and river bridges is starting to prove a safety hazard; the canal bridge would receive a functionally obsolete rating. In addition, with the bridge still being at 4 lanes of traffic, any issue that occurs can cause big problems. On December 8, 2010, a major tractor-trailer accident would close the bridge for 10 hours and paralyze traffic in the Metro-East during the morning peak periods; until 1994, locals used this crossing due to the constant problems of the Old Clark Bridge.
On August 10, 1994, a broken beam caused the closure of 3 of the 4 lanes on the bridge for a few days. The lanes were reopen
Chain of Rocks Bridge
The old Chain of Rocks Bridge spans the Mississippi River on the north edge of St. Louis, Missouri; the eastern end of the bridge is on Chouteau Island, while the western end is on the Missouri shoreline. Its most notable feature is a 22-degree bend occurring at the middle of the crossing. A motor route, the bridge was for a time the route used by U. S. Route 66 to cross over the Mississippi, but the bridge now carries only walking and biking trails over the river - and the New Chain of Rocks Bridge carries vehicular traffic to the north; the old route ends near Roman Road. Parking is available at the start of the now pedestrian route; the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The bridge's name comes from a large shoal, or rocky rapids, called the Chain of Rocks, which made that stretch of the Mississippi dangerous to navigate; because of a low-water dam built by the Corps of Engineers in the 1960s, little of the Chain of Rocks is visible today except during extreme low water conditions.
After 1940, only a single impediment prevented the maintenance of a safe and reliable 9-foot navigation channel on the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota, to New Orleans; this impediment, known as the Chain of Rocks Reach, was a 17-mile series of rock ledges that began just north of St. Louis and was difficult and dangerous to navigate. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers built a 8.4-mile-long canal to bypass this treacherous reach. To ensure adequate depths in the pool below the old Lock and Dam 26, a non-movable, low water dam was constructed just downstream of the old bridge and a lock was installed at the south end of the canal. Known as Dam No. 27 called Chain of Rocks Dam, Locks No. 27, or Chain of Rocks Lock. The area was chosen as a site for the St. Louis waterworks in 1865, with construction beginning in 1887, the water plant opened in 1894. A filter plant was added in 1915, which at the time of its construction was the largest filter plant in the world.
The Chain of Rocks Bridge was built as a toll bridge in 1929 at a cost of $3 million and turned over to the city of Madison, the current owner of the bridge. Though engineers predicted ten fatalities during the creation of the bridge, only one worker was killed. In the late 1930s, Bypass US 66 was designated over this bridge and around the northern and western parts of St. Louis to avoid the downtown area. On August 2, 1966, the tolls were suspended by the City of Madison, which marked an end of the struggle with the state of Missouri over tolls. In 1966, the New Chain of Rocks Bridge was built to the bridge's north in order to carry I-270. For nearly three decades the fate of the bridge was uncertain, though demolition seemed its most end; the high cost of demolition, indefinitely delayed that outcome until a new use was found. During this time, the bridge developed a reputation for crime and violence, including the April 1991 murder of sisters Julie and Robin Kerry, it was used as a filming site for Escape from New York in 1981, with the bridge being used as the "69th Street Bridge".
In 1998, the bridge was leased to a local trails group, to operate. Four-and-a-half million dollars have been spent on renovating the bridge for pedestrian and cycling use. From the Illinois side of the bridge, signs marked "HISTORIC ROUTE 66 SPUR" take travelers to the Illinois side of the bridge and a "HISTORIC ROUTE 66" sign marks the Missouri side of the bridge; the Gateway Arch is visible downriver, downstream from the bridge, two water intakes for the St. Louis Waterworks are visible. One is vaguely Gothic Revival in style; as of February 2011, the east entrance to the bridge has been repainted green. It is not known; the bridge is made of concrete. List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River Chain of Rocks Lock Chain of Rocks Amusement Park Marlin Gray Trailnet High resolution panoramic image taken from the bridge deck
Lewis Bridge (Missouri River)
The Lewis Bridge is a bridge carrying U. S. Route 67 across the Missouri River between St. Charles County, Missouri, it replaced an earlier narrow, 2-lane through truss bridge of the same name that ran adjacent to the Bellefontaine Bridge. List of crossings of the Missouri River Clark Bridge
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