ST. LOUIS • The first teamster in line was Joseph Gartside, a coal hauler, who had decorated his four horses and wagon with flags and streamers. He paid the 50-cent toll and waited.
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'The scientific feat of the country': The day the Eads Bridge opened
A towboat makes its way down the Mississippi River under the Eads Bridge on Feb. 2, 2011, after a snowstorm passed through the area. Photo by J.B. Forbes jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Eads Bridge construction, view from second pier east. Men on shore and in the rowboat are observing the work. The stereograph is by Boehl and Koenig, 1873, from the Missouri History Museum.Â
The Eads Bridge under construction, with the ribs completed and the roadways begun. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
The Eads Bridge, then called just the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ Bridge, under construction over the Mississippi River downtown. James B. Eads built the steel-and-stone bridge, which opened on July 4, 1874. Missouri History Museum photo
A drawing of the busy ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ riverfront shortly after the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ Bridge, now known as the Eads Bridge, opened in 1874. The bridge, which allowed railroads to cross the Mississippi River, meant doom for the riverboat business. ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ Mercantile Library image
Historical photo of Eads Bridge from the east end, dating back to approximately 1874 when bridge opened.Â
The tornado ripped away part of the street level of the Eads Bridge at the East. ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ riverbank. In the foreground is a wrecked ferry. (Strauss/National Weather Service)
Charles Lindbergh in his Spirit of ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ plane performed for 27 minutes over the riverfront on Feb. 14, 1928. A crowd of 60,000 watched Lindbergh circle and dip. Newspaper accounts said Lindbergh flew low but that he did not fly under the Eads Bridge, something that many of the children insisted he did. Lindbergh flew here from Havana, Cuba. Post-Dispatch file photo
Construction work continues during a renovation of the Eads Bridge on Jan. 7, 2000. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
Hundreds of people crowd onto the Eads Bridge Friday morning, July 4, 2003, for the reopening dedication, in ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´. More than 11 years after it was closed for repairs, the 3,563-foot national landmark that once transfixed poet Walt Whitman turned 129 on Friday as America celebrated its own birthday.Â
Students and teachers from the Fulton School at St. Albans, take a walking tour of the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ riverfront on Tuesday morning, Oct. 29, 2013, despite the rain. They wanted to get an idea of what the riverfront looked like before it was developed and they decided to do their tour no matter what the weather was like. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com
The arches on the north side of the Eads Bridge over N. Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard frame the Gateway Arch on Friday, May 18, 2012. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com
The tugboat Luke Burton pushes a vacuum tower upstream on the Mississippi River under the Eads Bridge on Dec. 14, 2009. The tower was on its way to the WRB Wood River Refinery to be used in the overall expansion project at the refinery. J.B. Forbes | jforbes@post-dispatch.com
A construction worker makes his way up a support platform underneath the Eads Bridge as renovation work continues on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. The Metro transit agency is replacing the track supports, track and rail ties, patching masonry, and sandblasting and repainting the structural steel. The project is expected to cost $36.3 million. The MacArthur Bridge is seen in the background. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A MetroLink train travels across the Eads Bridge in this Oct. 7, 2009, file photo. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
