The Eads Bridge (continued)

Although engineers claimed a bridge joining East St. Louis and St. Louis was possible in the 1830s, no one launched a serious effort until after the Civil War. A skeptical public and an economy weakened by war contributed to reluctance to invest in such an expensive venture. However, in 1865 an Illinois company was formed to raise the capital for a bridge but was blocked by the powerful Wiggin's Ferry Company. Wiggin's Ferry owned most of the East St. Louis waterfront on Bloody Island, the former sand bar that became the waterfront when the canal between it and East St. Louis was filled. Along this property the ferry company launched numerous daily trips across the river in large steam powered ferry-boats. The proposed bridge would be direct competition to the ferry service and the Wiggin's Ferry Company would try to block any such effort.

The Wiggin's Ferry Company blocked efforts to build a bridge on the Illinois side, but they could not stop the formation of the St. Louis and Illinois Bridge Company on the Missouri side in 1867. The company hired James B. Eads, a former Union Navy officer and builder of iron-clad gunboats. Soon after the St. Louis and Illinois Bridge Company formed an Illinois company formed and retained Chicago bridge contractor L.B. Boomer. The Illinois company proposed a different design than the arch design James Eads planned.

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