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Mississippi River Bridges
From the Clark Bridge at Alton, to the Jefferson Barracks bridges in south County, a total of ten bridges cross the Mississippi River in the St. Louis metro area (12 if you want to be persnickety and count the two twin spans as two bridges each.) They range in age from the venerable Eads, built in the post-Civil War era, to the thoroughly modern Clark, opened in 1994.

The five profiled here, however, were the first ones built. Apart from the early-arriving Eads Bridge, they came at the height of St. Louis's industrial glories, between 1889 and 1930. They are massive and brawny, all truss bridges resting on massive piers of stone or concrete.

Click on any photo to explore that bridge.

Chain of Rocks Bridge 1929. Chain of Rocks Bridge is famous for the bend near its mid-point.
Merchants Bridge 1889-90. A rail-only bridge, still heavily used today.
McKinley Bridge 1910. Originally combined rail and road traffic; recently reopened to auto and bike/pedestrian traffic.
MacArthur Bridge 1912. Another road/rail bridge. The car deck is long closed, but the rail traffic is nearly constant today.
Eads Bridge 1874. The original Mississippi River bridge, carrying both rail and road traffic.