McKinley Bridge, Revisited

Steamboats Passing Under McKinley Bridge, Photograph by W.C. Persons, c. 1919-1938, Missouri History Museum, P0116-00056

I really like the McKinley Bridge, and I realized I had never really photographed it very well. There are some nice historic photographs of it, as well.

McKinley Bridge, St. Louis, MO, c. 1910-1950, Missouri History Museum, P0363-00037

I-70 came crashing through in the 1950s and there was a fair amount of new infrastructure built to connect the bridge to the interstate. You can see Mallinckrodt over on the right.

Approach to McKinley Bridge Seen from 9th and Bremen, Arthur Proetz, May 1955, Missouri History Museum, N46333
Construction of Interstate 70 Overpass to McKinley Bridge, Salisbury and N. 11th Streets, Dorrill Studio, October 14, 1959, Missouri History Museum, P0243-12585-01-4a

I parked on the east side, and walked across last summer, during the Great Flood of 2019, which seems so inconsequential now for most people.

The ridiculous outer lanes once held automobile traffic lanes, and the one time I drove across the bridge before it was closed I drove down the middle lanes. Apparently back in the day trains went down the middle, as well.

The bridge is named after the president of the railroad, not the president.

The Merchants’ Bridge, which in fact will be replaced with a new span that will reuse the original piers encased in concrete, lies to the north.

How exactly does such refuse end up cast into the gutter on a bridge sidewalk?

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