RiverWeb

Bridge Rivalry

During the 1860s rival companies formed to build a bridge spanning the Mississippi River, between East St. Louis and St. Louis. With one company formed on the Missouri side and the other in Illinois the rivalry dealt with more than the type of bridge to be built. State pride, the potential for local profit, and competing interests between ferry operators and rail transportation, fueled the competition.

Realizing that someone would probably build a bridge, the Wiggin's Ferry Company, the owner of much of the East St. Louis waterfront and the largest ferry-boat operator, backed the Illinois company and its plan for a bridge that would be high enough to allow ferries to pass beneath it. Also joining the Illinois company was the city of East St. Louis and the Northern Line Packet Company, a conglomerate of steamboat, railroad, and merchant interests. The river cities of Venice and Brooklyn, both near East St. Louis, also joined.

The construction rights would have to come from federal legislation. During a brief, but volatile period, the rival companies competed for the right to build the bridge. Eads advocated a plan in Washington that would build the bridge too low for ferries. However the Illinois company, supported by ferry operators, won the right to construct a bridge within a twenty-five year period. With this victory the company could charge St. Louis businesses tolls and limit the city's commerce, or they could charge the Wiggin's Ferry Company a high price for the rights to building a bridge, and the ferry operator could delay a bridge for twenty-five years. The St. Louis and Illinois Company was not finished fighting and they generated another public battle over building the bridge. The controversy went back to federal legislators. However, before any action was taken James Eads, the chief engineer for the St. Louis and Illinois Company, worked out a compromise and the two rival companies merged in 1867.

To read more about building railroad bridges, go to the RiverWeb Archives and view excerpts from J.L. Ringwalt's 1888 book, The Development of Transportation Systems in the United States.

previous | next