A reader was kind enough to give me several photos of her family’s trip on the Huck Finn back in the late 1960’s. It’s fascinating to see that the riverfront was already by that time largely cleared of buildings, just as it is today. The traces of St. Louis once being a great river town…
Tag: The Levee
The Riverfront, Desolation
With the recent removal and dismantlement of the Admiral, the riverfront has lost one of the last (if not particularly healthy) beacons of activity on what was once a bustling wharf. When I first moved to St. Louis, there were at least three more riverboats on the levee: the Robert E. Lee, the McDonalds, and…
I-55 Under Construction
I wish I could go back in time and tell the mayor of St. Louis that he was making the biggest mistake of his life by building the interstates through the heart of the city. Sixty years later, our nation is addicted to a product that can only be procured through great expense or…
Riverfront
Update: The Riverfront was completely renovated and now has a different appearance. The parking garage seen below has been demolished. I never get tired of the view of downtown St. Louis from the river; maybe most people live out in the red brick neighborhoods out of sight of downtown, but looking at these glass and…
The Admiral Has Left the Levee
Above is an old photograph of the conversion of the Albatross to the Admiral, long an institution providing cruises up and down the Mississippi River. I never saw the Admiral in its glory days; by the time I visited the boat it was permanently moored on the riverfront. My family and I went to the…
Corrosion, Gateway Arch
Much ado recently has been made of the corrosion of the Gateway Arch, now coming up on its 50th Anniversary. I don’t know why I had never noticed it before, but blemishes are clearly visible on the legs of the Arch. While Modernist structures are often regarded as “new,” it bears reminding that many of…
The Eads Bridge
Updated in September 2018 with rearranged photos and additional commentary. The Eads Bridge is my favorite bridge across the Mississippi River in downtown, though the MacArthur is a close second. The oldest bridge across the river at St. Louis, it utilized structural steel on a massive scale for the first time. Interestingly, though, there is…
Riverfront Vistas
Update: The smokestacks have now been demolished. I love the massive, hulking strength of early 20th Century architecture. Overengineered to last forever, their remnants stand proudly, often in better shape than their younger counterparts. Whether it’s the massive approaches to the MacArthur Bridge, or the long dormant Cahokia Power Station, these behemoths, blackened with soot…
They Don’t Build Them Like They Used To #3: The Poplar Street Bridge
Update: I wrote an article about the Poplar Street Bridge at St. Louis Magazine years later. The proposed RV park under the bridge was mercifully never built. The bridge is still under construction. The Poplar Street Bridge was the last of the four great bridges over the Mississippi in downtown St. Louis, and the sixth…