The Eads Bridge competes with the ferries

Before the Eads Bridge the Wiggin's Ferry Company treated passengers poorly.  Travelers were of secondary importance to the Company whose stock and trade was transporting freight, rail cars, and wagons.  The completion of the bridge allowed people to walk across without the inconvenience they faced on a ferry.  To counter the competition Wiggin's Ferry made passengers a new priority.  They purchased a 54 ton passenger ferry, the D.W. Hewitt, capable of carrying one hundred passengers.

Laclede's Landing - On the Eads bridge between 1st and 2nd streets.

The Company dropped their passenger rate from a dime per person to a nickel.  Covered waiting accommodations sprang up on Wiggin's landings and the Company advertised heavily to attract patrons.  The bridge company met the challenge by offering ice water and music concerts along the bridge.

Pedestrian traffic was not the major point of competition.  Rather, it was the freight business.  The ferry companies maintained their hold for fifteen years after the bridge opened because the bridge company had to build transfer and terminal facilities for railroad traffic.  In 1874 the Union Railway Company of Illinois was incorporated to provide locomotives for train transportation across the bridge and to operate the terminals.