The Municipal Bridge

MUNICIPAL BRIDGE, 10^th and Piggott. (Toll: 10 cents for private cars, 15 cents for commercial cars.)

Although not so picturesque as the neighboring Eads Bridge, the hugh steel framework of the Municipal Bridge bears approximately seventy per-cent of the traffic traveling between St. Louis and East St. Louis. Throughout the day and well into the night, an apparently endless queue of trucks and automobliles rumbles across its asphalt-covered decks. The bridge is the largest spanning the Mississippi and "one of the largest double-deck, steel, span bridges in the world"

The economic causes which resulted in the construction of the Municipal Bridge were an outgrowth of the commercial combats which, historically, had been waged for control of the transportational facilities which linked St. Louis with the east. Pitched battles had been fought in each era for control of ferries, railroads, and more recently, the bridges. By 1905 a group of fourteen railroads known as the Terminal Railroad Association dominated the field with ownership of the two bridges entering St. Louis: the Merchants Bridge and the Eads Bridge. On the Illinois side of the river lay rich coal beds which were essential to the industrial production of St. Louis. But on each ton of coal entering St. Louis by the Merchants or the Eads Bridge, the Terminal Railroad Association levied a toll of twenty cents.

To avoid the toll, incoming manufacturers spurned locations in St. Louis and choose sites on the Illinois side of the river. Indeed, several of the smaller towns near East St. Louis can ascribe their development to the toll on coal. It soon became evident to the city of St. Louis that its economic growth would be stunted unless passage across the river could be wrested from the hands of private owners.

The simplest way to break the grip of the Terminal Railroad Association was to erect another bridge. Thus, on June 25, 1906 a bill providing for the construction of a Municipal Bridge at St. Louis was passed by Congress. A year later work on the western approach of the proposed structure began, and the final plans, approved by the War Department, were submitted on May 20, 1909.

When it became certain that a municipal bridge was to be erected, the Terminal Railroad Association offered to lease the highway deck of the Eads Bridge to St. Louis. The city refused to compromise, however, and construction work, save for delays caused by financial problems, steadily progressed. Whereupon, in complete rout, the Terminal Railroad Association adjusted rates so that freight originating more than one hundred miles away could enter St. Louis without paying an additional charge.

On June 20, 1917, the highway deck of the new bridge was opened to the public. As part of the ceremonies, a truck drove across the bridge, carrying the first ton of coal to enter St. Louis toll free in twenty-five years. Despite its official name, Municipal Bridge, the structure was instantly renamed "the Free Bridge" by local residents.

The bridge, almost two miles long and constructed of 61,000 tons of steel, cost the city of St. Louis slightly more than six million dollars. The main span is 668 feet long and 219 feet above the low-water mark of the Mississippi.

In comparing the Eads and the Municipal Bridge it will be seen that use value and aesthetic value are pleasantly counter-balanced in the one, while in the other use value outweighs secondary considerations. The Eads is a graceful membrane; the Municipal is a grim skeleton. The Eads soars lightly across from shore to shore, while the Municipal plods and lumbers on the water. In fairness to the engineers, it should be noted that the Municipal Bridge was built to conform with a physical environment far more complex than that which existed when the Eads Bridge was constructed. The Eads Bridge linked the east and the west; the Municipal Bridge linked Illinois and Missouri.

Reference: St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 20, 1917.