The Impossible Bridge

Ysarex

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Went down to the Arch and riverfront for my walk this morning. Grabbed a couple snaps of the Eads Bridge. The bridge is finishing it's 150th year today. James Eads bridge was the second bridge to cross the Mississippi. The first was built in Rock Island Ill. Shortly after that bridge was completed a steamboat captain ran his boat into the bridge destroying the boat. They wanted grounds for a lawsuit. The bridge was fiercely resisted by the riverboat owners who knew that a railroad finally crossing the Mississippi would be the first nail in their coffin. James Eads bridge then was even more fiercely resisted.

The boat owners hired a team of engineers and put this question to them: What's the widest possible bridge span that could conceivably be constructed to carry a railroad across the river. The answer they got at that time was 250 feet. To be safe they doubled it and then had the municipality across the river in Illinois pass a law that, to ensure boat travel remained unobstructed, any bridge crossing the river had to leave 500 feet open between the bridge supports. The arches in the Eads bridge are 550 feet. Eads added the 50 feet to spite them.

Those engineers were right. What Eads did was impossible in 1870. The steel to hold up the bridge didn't exist. So Eads went to Pittsburgh and visited Andrew Carnegie. With Carnegie's help Eads invented the steel that had the tensile strength he needed and then oversaw it's manufacture. Eads was a self-taught engineer and had never built a bridge before. His bridge is an engineering marvel and ready for it's next 150 years. Fuji X-T2 w/18-55mm

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Cory Williams passing under the Eads Bridge
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That's quite the story and quite the bridge to be 150years old.
 
Great shots and interesting write up.
 
Nice shots and background story.
 
Went down to the Arch and riverfront for my walk this morning. Grabbed a couple snaps of the Eads Bridge. The bridge is finishing it's 150th year today. James Eads bridge was the second bridge to cross the Mississippi. The first was built in Rock Island Ill. Shortly after that bridge was completed a steamboat captain ran his boat into the bridge destroying the boat. They wanted grounds for a lawsuit. The bridge was fiercely resisted by the riverboat owners who knew that a railroad finally crossing the Mississippi would be the first nail in their coffin. James Eads bridge then was even more fiercely resisted.

The boat owners hired a team of engineers and put this question to them: What's the widest possible bridge span that could conceivably be constructed to carry a railroad across the river. The answer they got at that time was 250 feet. To be safe they doubled it and then had the municipality across the river in Illinois pass a law that, to ensure boat travel remained unobstructed, any bridge crossing the river had to leave 500 feet open between the bridge supports. The arches in the Eads bridge are 550 feet. Eads added the 50 feet to spite them.

Those engineers were right. What Eads did was impossible in 1870. The steel to hold up the bridge didn't exist. So Eads went to Pittsburgh and visited Andrew Carnegie. With Carnegie's help Eads invented the steel that had the tensile strength he needed and then oversaw it's manufacture. Eads was a self-taught engineer and had never built a bridge before. His bridge is an engineering marvel and ready for it's next 150 years. Fuji X-T2 w/18-55mm

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Cory Williams passing under the Eads Bridge
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Excellent example of Photo/Journalism!
 
Very nice images and a fascinating story to go with them. It's sad that "interests" will always oppose progress. The highspeed rail project connecting Dallas to Houston has faced similar strong headwinds.
 
Great set! Thanks for the backstory. In the 70's I took the Eads to work and you could see the river through the road grid in spots.
 
Great set! Thanks for the backstory. In the 70's I took the Eads to work and you could see the river through the road grid in spots.
It was originally built to carry the railroad across the river and the top deck was a pedestrian walkway, since converted for auto traffic. Eads is one of our nations unsung heroes -- doesn't get the credit or acclaim he deserves. He had another huge impact on the Mississippi down at Gulf. The mouth of the river where it meets the ocean was blocked by a sandbar. As the river slowed entering the Gulf it dropped sediment that built and maintained that sandbar and prevented ships from entering the river. Cargo ships had to anchor and go through a tedious and expensive process of loading and unloading cargo into smaller boats. Meanwhile the Army Corps of Engineers kept trying to dredge the sand and the river kept putting it back. Eads solved the problem and built jetties that channeled and sped up the water flow -- he used water pressure to clear the sandbar. Those jetties are maintained now by the Corps of Engineers and just like his bridge they're still there.
 

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