I received a tip from a friend that further, and perhaps final pieces of the MacArthur Bridge’s infamous road deck were being removed from the western Chouteau’s Landing portion of the span.

I’m sure there are many readers out there who can tell me much more than I can about the dangers of the old road deck, and its hairpin turns as it sought to wend its way over the dominance of the railroad deck below.

Closed in the early 1980s, and connecting St. Louis to a part of East St. Louis that is not heavily populated, it probably just made perfect sense to the Terminal Railroad Association, which swapped ownership with the city for the Eads Bridge.

It was built as a railroad bridge originally, but apparently some pieces of the road deck are now integral to the underlying rail deck, it seems.

And perhaps some of the girders will have to be welded off at their base, flush with the railroad.

I’ve always enjoyed the contrasting negative and positive space the bridge creates against the sky.

Also, the way the bridge interacts with its surroundings, and how close it comes to other buildings would be illegal today.

Just look at these massive buildings, and how they worked in tandem with the bridge.

Can you imagine a trestle passing over a building like this today? Talk about liability!