Monday, March 24, 2014

Merchants Bridge, St Louis, Missouri, circa 1910


This 4,340 feet (1,320 metre) three-span rail bridge crossing the Mississippi River from St Louis to Venice, Illinois, owned by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis was opened in May 1889 and crossed the river 3 miles (5 km) north of the Eads Bridge. It has two tracks but only one train is allowed to cross the bridge at a time, due to its age. The bridge was originally built by the St. Louis Merchants Exchange after it lost control of the Eads Bridge it had built to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange feared a Terminal Railroad monopoly on the bridges but it would eventually lose control of the Merchants Bridge also. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded Missouri $13.5 million “to advance the design of a new bridge over the Mississippi.”

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