Merchants Bridge

Merchants Bridge
Coordinates 38°40′29″N 90°11′10″W / 38.67472°N 90.18611°W / 38.67472; -90.18611
Carries Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis
Crosses Mississippi River
Locale St. Louis, Missouri
Official name Merchants Memorial Mississippi Rail Bridge
Characteristics
Design Steel truss bridge
Total length 4,340 feet (1,320 m)
Longest span 518 feet (158 m)
Clearance above 83 feet (25 m)
History
Opened 1889
Closed 1920-1926
Statistics
Daily traffic 100 trains per week.

The Merchants Bridge, officially the Merchants Memorial Mississippi Rail Bridge, is a rail bridge crossing the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri owned by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. It opened in May 1889 and crossed the river three miles (5 km) north of the Eads Bridge.[1]

The bridge was originally built by the St. Louis Merchants Exchange after it lost control of the Eads Bridge it had built to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange feared a Terminal Railroad monopoly on the bridges but it would eventually lose control of the Merchants Bridge also.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Primm, James Neal (1981). Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri, 1764-1980. Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing Company. p. 311. ISBN 978-1-883982-25-6.


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